JOHN HILLCOAT

It's the murkiness of humanity that I find endlessly fascinating.

I like the realism of anti-heroes. It's a healthy thing. I think heroes can be very unhealthy at times because it doesn't connect you to reality.

I have very mixed feelings about big corporations. Oftentimes, they're more troublesome than not.

Certain films, when shot digitally, the detail is like CG: you can't feel the sweat. I feel like digital is alienating. There's something superficial to digital compared to the richness of film.

I like to keep a calm set.

I'm actually a humanist, believe it or not, and I believe even when people are corrupted, even when they've gone to the dark side, they are still human beings.

I think what actors have to do, what performers have to do to emotionally get to that place and have a camera and have your face 20 feet high on a screen, is such an incredible thing.

It's great to make strong, powerful films, but in terms of people wanting to finance them, it's also very difficult.

It's not awards per se that bother me; it's entirely to do with the impetus they give for marketing a film.

I don't really play games and don't know much about them, but my son certainly does.

Basically, I frittered away the Nineties making pop videos and being pretty self-indulgent.

I have always thought of films as stories for the world.

What I like is finding new angles on genres.

Bands are actively seeking more film involvement - because the days of recording albums and MTV and even touring, to some extent, are gone.

I love the sci-fi movies where it's from the point of view of humans in that situation... When it becomes too clever in its ideas, the cyber-punk, high-tech thing, it becomes more about something else.

I like to do commercials that are more than just flogging a product. It needs to have something to say. It's always an opportunity for a director to say something substantial and interesting.

My own personal aesthetic is all to do with real actors and real locations and a kind of almost hyper reality and actuality to things. But the digital world, I explore that through other mediums, with music videos and commercials. Even 'The Road' was a real learning curve for me with digital effects.

Even on a large ensemble where their parts are relatively small - because having ten main characters obviously affects their screen time - the thing that attracts great actors is when there is that challenge to get some reality into something.

I consider myself a humanist. Even if I do very dark worlds, I try to make those characters real humans as opposed to just cartoons.

There is a capacity for violence we all harbour, and under certain circumstances, it comes out.

I've realized I've become a bit reactive to each film I do. After 'The Road,' I was desperate to do something that had color and warmth to it and a stronger sense of community.

I love 'Alien' and 'Blade Runner' and '2001.'

Everyone has a family, even if they're at war or fallen apart. It's the closest initial bond, and there's a sort of primal element to that. Your primary relationships are formed out of family.

Radiohead showed a real affinity to being bold with visual imagery, so it came as no surprise when Jonny Greenwood did 'There Will Be Blood.'

I think it's human nature that if we don't have our own family, we will create a family, because it's human nature, and it's that element of trust and dependency and love and all of those sort of things.