Australia, to the rest of the world, is just far away, and Australia in the Thirties was the faraway of the faraway.
There’s a whole system in Hollywood where the director never speaks to the studio, but I like to engage them in a discussion. I listen.
Accept certain inalienable truths.
One of my great all-time loves in cinema, and I’ve seen it three times, is Bondarchuk’s ‘War and Peace.’ Not a lot of people may have seen that film. It was made during the Soviet era.
Sydney in general is eclectic. You can be on that brilliant blue ocean walk in the morning and then within 20 minutes you can be in a completely vast suburban sprawl or an Italian or Asian suburb, and it’s that mix of people, it’s that melting pot of people that give it its vital personality.
In the ’60s not everybody was wearing flowers in their hair and flowing caftans.
One of the great things about Sydney is that it has a great acceptance of everyone and everything. It’s an incredibly tolerant city, a city with a huge multicultural basis.
My wife is the fact-checker, I’m in the story telling business.
Look, I had a passion for comic books growing up.
My father made sure that I had lots of levels of education – from ballroom-dancing to painting, commando training, theatre and magic.
Some of the greatest relationship films of all time, the two stars have hated each other, but mostly you see that chemistry.
You really think that on my films people tell me what to do? I don’t think so. On my films I decide.
In the ’80s, everyone wanted to be in opera. It was groovy.
Opera was the cinema of its time, so to bring back that popular appeal, you just need to unleash its visceral immediacy and excitement. Most productions don’t manage that – but when an opera does do it, you never forget it.
When I was growing up you would see big American films that really mythologised their landscape, that really showed the vastness and the drama of their country.
I understand that anything actors are doing, good or bad, is motivated by fear.
I think dance in any culture, in any form, is a true leveler.
So, what is creative freedom? We can make what we want, how we want. The only constraint is: not for any budget.
Why live life from dream to dream? And dread the day when dreaming ends.
Trust yourself that you can do it and get it.