Q&A with Ted Braun

What was your original artistic challenge when you were approached with this project? A profile of one person is quite different than your previous work.

Ted Braun: The previous films I’ve done, feature documentaries I’ve done (Betting on Zero, which looked at allegations of global economic criminality, and Darfur Now, which looked at allegations of massive, systemic violent crimes in Sudan) were, in different ways, ensemble stories about people trying to expose wrongdoing.

Q&A with Taika Waititi and Thomasin McKenzie

The author of the book had a great line about your films: “Laughs are never free. There are always strings attached.” Can you speak about the humor in this film and its fine calibration, especially in its opening sequences?
Taika Waititi: I always thought that humor and comedy are very powerful tools and effective weapons against bullies and bigotry.

Q&A with Steve Coogan, Sophie Kennedy Clark, and Philomena Lee

How did you come across the book and what compelled you to champion this project?
Coogan: I was in New York making a film. And because my career’s been in comedy—I’ve written a lot of television comedy— I wanted to find something more substantial, that had more substance.

Q&A with Steve Carell and Adam McKay

What drew you to this story?
Adam McKay: We had done a movie with Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg called The Other Guys, and the goal of that movie was to do a comedic parable of the collapse.

Q&A with Stephen Chbosky, Ben Platt, Julianne Moore, Amy Adams, and Amandla Stenberg

Stephen, you’re no stranger to bringing musicals to the big screen, and you’re no stranger to stories about teenage longing and discontent. How did you get involved in the project?
Stephen Chbosky: I saw the show about three years ago, on Broadway. And I loved it. I didn’t know anything about it when I saw it. And I loved the show.

Q&A with Stephen Basilone

How did your filmmaking process begin?
Stephen Basilone: When I started my career, I had a writing partner for a very long time and we started off writing features.

Q&A with Stefan Forbes

The following questions and answers are excerpted from a conversation that followed the NBR screening of Hold Your Fire. The film took place in my old neighborhood—I lived a block and a half from where those events took place, right on the J line. It’s a major intersection, a very busy hub.  To me, this is […]

Q&A With Spike Lee

Can you talk about working with your cast?
You have to have great actors. You have to cast great people to get great performances.

Q&A with Simon Rex

What were your first thoughts, after reading the script?
Simon Rex: I was just like… whoa. Whoa. WHOA!

Q&A with Simon Pegg and Karl Urban

For a summer blockbuster, this film has some really nice, quiet character moments.
I don’t think you can watch a film that is full of explosions and care about it if you don’t have some care about the people that it is happening to.

Q&A with Sienna Miller and James Gray

Can you discuss the process of adapting the book for the screen?
James Gray: The book is a meticulously researched thing. Immediately you realize that you’re in for it if you change something factually and of course I had to, because it’s a movie.