I was always obsessed with finding truly researched images to add authenticity, out of that came something totally contemporary and modern. Research is very key to my process because over and over again, reality provides more interesting images than you could have invented.
I think we all have blocks between us and the best version of ourselves, whether it's shyness, insecurity, anxiety, whether it's a physical block, and the story of a person overcoming that block to their best self. It's truly inspiring because I think all of us are engaged in that every day.
The thing that fascinates me is that the way I came to film and television is extinct. Then there were gatekeepers, it was prohibitively expensive to make a film, to be a director you had to be an entrepreneur to raise money.
Great acting is all about being in the moment, being in the present tense.
In "The King's Speech," patriotism is utterly contained within a historical moment, the third of September, 1939, where the aggressor is clear, the fight is clear, it hasn't become complicated over time.
I think directors can become overly infatuated by gilt and gold, and the word "lavish" and everything being magnificent.
I feel connected to the Second World War because my father lost his father in that war. So, through my dad and the effect it had on him of losing his father young, I always felt connected to the war. It goes back years, but it still feels to me as if we're completely living in it.
Trans stories have now entered the mainstream in this fantastic way, but the most important thing is what follows from that is hopefully a shift in the experience of trans people - so that there's more acceptance in the culture to the issues they face and more support.
I mean, we've all had those dreams where, you know, we try to cry out and our voice won't come.
I think the thumb print on the throat of many people is childhood trauma that goes unprocessed and unrecognized.
Well, I'm half Australian, half English and I live in London. That is the only reason I came upon this story. My Australian mother, Meredith Hooper, was invited in late 2007 by some Australian friends to make up a token Australian audience in a tiny fringe theater play reading of an unproduced, unrehearsed play called 'The King's Speech.
Nowadays filmmakers tend to recycle the same cliches over and over again.
I think English film is very embarrassed by patriotism, generally.
I decided to be a filmmaker when I was 12. I had utter clarity that this would be my life.
A lot of dramas get a bad name commercially because they are unremittingly bleak.
The irony of a director going to film festivals is you never get to see any of the films.
There's something about being cerebral, intellectual, and yet emotionally repressed [in being villain]. If you think someone's doing this [bad] stuff and they're in complete control, that's more scary than if they're out of control.
I began to think that if you're a stutterer, it's about inhabiting silence, emptiness, and nothingness.
Some of my most special shooting experiences have been at weekends.
A British villain never loses their sense of humour.
American cinema tends to express a patriotic relationship to national identity on a regular basis.
Actors enjoy being treated as ordinary people.
I think I would say 'The King's Speech' is surprisingly funny, in fact the audiences in London, Toronto, LA, New York commented there's more laughter in this film than in most comedies, while it is also a moving tear-jerker with an uplifting ending.
I appear to be drawn to iconic characters and what they reflect back to our cultures.
American movies are often very good at mining those great underlying myths that make films robustly travel across class, age, gender, culture.
