00:00Were you welcomed by Warner Brothers when you made Wonder Woman?
00:07You're entering the studio system, you've done independent films.
00:10I was. I mean, my story to get in there was a long story because I had first talked to them
00:18about it in like 2005, and then there were like so many different chapters of why they were and
00:23when they weren't going to make it. I feel like it's more like dating than it is like,
00:27hey, buy my pitch. It's serious. It's a serious commitment. You are seriously signing on to the
00:34same thing. So I had almost done other big movies and had seen that very little disagreements can
00:41mean, wow, I'm not the right director for what you want to do after all. And so when I was meeting
00:45with them at that point, I was really cautious. And at first, when I first was meeting with them,
00:51they wanted to do something different. And I was like, ah, it's a shame, but I don't think we are
00:55the right match. You have to do what you have to do. And that's not quite right. By the time that
00:59they came back and they had realized they wanted to do something, which was very similar to what
01:04I'd been saying I wanted to do for a long time. It was a much different conversation because then
01:08they were like, we really want to do that now. And I was like, you really want to do this because
01:12we only have X amount of time. And that's exactly what I would want to do. Yes. So I was extremely
01:17welcome. You know, like I was extremely welcome. I was very supported because all of that was behind us.
01:24It's the biggest advice I ever give young filmmakers is like, pick the right projects.
01:54And take it seriously because you don't want to end up in a bad marriage. You don't want to be
01:59like idealistic and say, I could change their minds. Maybe you can't, you know, and if you can't,
02:05then you're on that ride. So, um, so it was a wonderful experience. I don't think it's always that
02:09way, but because of the fact that there was such clarity about what we were doing going in and then
02:15it was kind of, you know, then I just did it.
02:23Sometimes people have to do unpleasant things to get a performance. Is that acceptable?
02:27It depends what kind, because I have, there are very clear lines to push an actor to do work that
02:33they're capable of. Yes. To inflict trauma. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. And I've had this
02:39argument with other people before where it's like, I, I am not here to bring trauma into people's
02:44life. So my job as a director is to conjure the best out of other people within, within what they
02:51have already to work with. And maybe new scenarios like cold or, you know, like, yeah, maybe I am
02:56pushing them in towards cold and things like that. But, um, but I've always thought that that was not
03:01for me. I've heard about those things about lying to people or really tricking people or messing with
03:06them. And I'm like, that's not cool for me. There's a line in the sand of where I'm willing
03:10to go, uh, to bring beautiful things into the world because how beautiful can they be?
03:16Are you willing, however, to inflict the harm upon yourself? Yes.
03:20Oh, great question.
03:27There was a period of time, not long, right before I made Wonder Woman, that the bottom had fallen out of
03:33the indie film market completely. So the films that I had ready to go, nobody wanted to make,
03:37they didn't even want to read them. And it was only IPs and I was meeting on IPs. And then I was,
03:43and there was a period of time there that I was like, oh, I just want to leave Hollywood. Like,
03:47I don't know that I'm going to, this is, it's ironic that I turned around and then made Wonder
03:50Woman. But at the moment I was like, I mean, this might not be for me. Maybe I need to move to
03:55Europe or something because I don't know how to fit myself into this. And I can't, they don't want to
04:00see my film. And like, they don't even want to read, you know? And so, yeah, I've definitely had
04:04a pretty dark moment right before I made Wonder Woman where I was like, I'm having a, where,
04:09why, I can't find the fit that works.
04:11If you left film, what would you do?
04:13You know, I'd be a psychologist.
04:14Oh.
04:15I love people.
04:17It's my, because that, it's, it's my interest in art and film is, is greatly fueled on the other
04:23side by my curiosity about people, which is why I'm interested in telling their stories,
04:27whether it be about why you would become that serial killer or why, what it would feel like
04:32to have tremendous power.
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