Q&A with Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer

The people you speak with are so engaging, and so sincere. How well did you know them before you started shooting?
Clive Oppenheimer: I only knew Simon Schaffer, who is a historian of science in Cambridge.

Q&A with Ruben Östlund

How did the idea of the script develop from the art piece of the square?
Ruben Östlund: The whole idea of the script developed in 2008. I don’t like to talk about it as an art piece but instead of as a humanistic traffic sign, actually.

Q&A with Richard Shepard and Jude Law

Mr. Law, when you play a character like this, what does that do to you over the duration of the production?
Well, you pick up a lot of unhealthy habits! I was very ready to let him go, when we wrapped.

Q&A with Parker Posey and Jamie Blackley

How did missing certain parts of the script before shooting influence you?
Parker Posey: I came on set thinking the film was one way — kind of light fare — and I sort of had water thrown on me by Woody: He immediately told me that she’s a suffering, lonely woman; she’s very unhappy.

Q&A with Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, and Al Pacino

This film has a different editorial pace and perspective than you usually portray in your films. Would you be able to talk about your approach with these older men in the film?
Martin Scorsese: This is not a film we could have created or made as effectively if we had tried to make it ten years ago.

Q&A with JR and Agnès Varda

Ms. Varda, you say very early in your film that “chance” is your assistant. JR, would you say that you agree with that philosophy?
JR: Yes, definitely and that’s why we got along well.

Q&A with Fran Kranz, Reed Birney, Ann Dowd, and Jason Isaacs

You did almost all of the work on this film— what was that experience like?
Jessica Kingdon: I did have a close cinematographer, Nathan Truesdell, and we shot it together. But, yeah, it was very much a film that was coming out of my own mind.

Q&A with Baz Luhrmann, Austin Butler, Olivia DeJonge, and Yola

Baz, I read that you were not setting out to make a biopic. Tell us a bit about that approach and how that informed the film we saw today?
I love a good biopic as much as anyone, but they tend to be formulaic… someone is born, then this happens, then that happens

Q&A with Andy Serkis

Can you talk about the evolution of Caesar’s character from Rise of the Planet of the Apes to this film?
The approach to the role for me has always been to think of Caesar as having a human mind within an ape’s body.