MICHAEL GRACEY

The biggest thing is to overcommunicate your vision. It's so important to have real clarity as to what is inside your head, and sometimes that's really terrifying for people.

Like 'Lost in Translation,' I worked on an advertisement where a Hollywood star was doing a commercial just for Japan. The star was Hugh Jackman. Since I'm Australian, they just assumed I knew him, and I didn't correct them.

I kind of feel like with a musical, there's so few original musicals that people just don't know what to expect.

It's really strange, this thing where people are like, 'I'm not into musicals' but so many people who have said that to me, I've taken to shows and watched their faces radiate.

Whether a film is breaking into song and dance or if it's something like 'Whiplash,' I find it incredibly rewarding, and I'm drawn to those stories with a musical component.

I was introduced to Zendaya by one of the executives at Fox, and like every single person who's met her, you completely fall in love with her talent and her maturity.

If you look at the things I'm drawn to, it's always stuff that's got a lot of imagination and heart.

So many Hollywood adaptations of really popular manga series just don't get it right, and for me what was really important was that if I was gonna do 'Naruto,' I wanted to actually work with Kishimoto and get a script to a stage where he would look at it and be excited about realizing it.

At the end of the day, we all look in the mirror and tend to see our own self-perceived flaws.

In 'The Greatest Showman,' I'm back doing VFX myself, allowing me to craft exactly how something looks, one frame at a time.

The power of music is undeniable.

There is something about musical narrative and Australians. If you want to do something, you kind of have to do it at a level - because we're so far away from everywhere else - that exceeds what is just normal if you want to convince people that some guy from Australia is worth backing for an original musical.

I'd be very surprised if 'The Greatest Showman' didn't end up on Broadway at some point.

I'd love if between 'La La Land' and 'The Greatest Showman' we generate a new wave of movie musicals because, as an art form, musical narrative is so engaging and has produced some of the most iconic moments in cinema history.

I'm a big believer in bringing in other creative minds; I do it in my commercial work.

The Greatest Showman' would be an amazing Broadway hit.

Usually on a film set it's making sure that everyone is there for their scene, and the moment their scene is over they disappear.

To get 'The Greatest Showman' greenlit, we had to get everyone into New York City to hear a read through, where we'd read through the script and sing it.

Everyone knows and loves Elton John's music, but the true story of his life is so incredible that it can only be described as a fantasy.

I really believe in the power of cinema, and with it comes a responsibility to impart some sort of message for the better.

To me I grew up watching 'All That Jazz' and 'Cabaret,' and when I was younger 'Mary Poppins',' The Sound Of Music,' and 'Singin' In The Rain.'

The rehearsal process is the biggest gift you can give to the director and to yourself as an actor because it allows you to shape the character and the scenes.

People forget that even the biggest hit shows, like 'Hamilton,' started off-Broadway.

There's something really special when you take an audience and instead of just being passive and watching, you invite them to participate.

Classically, it's the child who looks up at their parents who says, 'This is how the future is going to be,' and it's the parents who don't understand because they're set in their ways. For me, it was the exact opposite.