My mum, Olwen, was a bright and talkative woman who loved a gossip and a story and was given slightly to malapropisms. And she was Welsh, so, of course, she sang.
My team and I used the actual footage to create a three-act story of the life of Ayrton Senna. There are no talking heads and no voiceover. Senna narrates his own epic, dramatic, thrilling journey.
I think with 'Tangerine' we were taking that gamble - it was a risk - that we could tell the story in a comedic fashion to attract an audience and shed light on an issue.
'Taxi Driver' is one of those films that is groundbreaking in how much you're inside this character's head. It uses voice-over in a revolutionary way where the audience is invited as a co-conspirator to the whole story line.
I'm just a story teller.
The story of undocumented immigrants in this country is not just about undocumented immigrants. It's about the country as a whole, and it's about us being able to tell the truth about where we are with this issue because we haven't been telling the truth about where we are with this issue.
The biggest problem I see with early-stage entrepreneurs is they get the idea in their head, and they leave it in their head. And they begin embellishing it in their head, making it more ornate. They add on the second story to their dream house - then add the tennis court and the turrets and the gargoyles.
Then a friend of Jim's suggested we make a theme song to explain the story, and this is where the Mads came from. Josh and I wrote it into the theme song.
Once a novel gets going and I know it is viable, I don't then worry about plot or themes. These things will come in almost automatically because the characters are now pulling the story.
I don't really set out to explore grand themes. I set out to tell a story. And one I have to be able to imagine right through.
A skillful playwright might have a good time with the story of the assassination of President William McKinley, and especially with the three most flamboyant political figures involved: Mark Hanna, Theodore Roosevelt, and Emma Goldman.
Theodore Roosevelt, when he was out of office, he would do things to draw attention. But when you are president, you don't need to shout. When you are in office, you are the story.
Among the best of Hitchcock's own psychological thrillers is 'Spellbound,' whose story unusually wrapped the subject of psychoanalysis around a murder mystery.
The 'Tickle Monster' story literally flew out of my mouth.
My research process doesn't vary much. I do a little reading to establish a timeline and decide how I'm going to approach the story.
The songs I love to sing are story songs, from Yiddish songs to Tom Waits.
I'm very drawn to the story of Carla Bruni. Why is everyone talking about her? Specifically because everyone sees the first lady, but they know she was somewhere, topless, and had some Hollywood lover. There is some contrast in this person. I have these contrasts.
On a personal level, I don't exactly thrive on the idea of being known as the guy who goes topless - because I also took my shirt off on 'American Horror Story: Coven' - but I think in 'The Last Kingdom,' it's mainly done in the right way.
It's a tough job to tell a story when the audience already knows the ending, and the ending is bleak.
The really tough thing would have been to decide to take Woodward and Bernstein off the story. They were carrying the coal for us - in that their stories were right.
