Jean-Marc Vallee

I couldn't stand still at a desk for another year. I wanted to go out there and make films.

Trust the acting.

I love those films where I feel the director's confidence - where he doesn't need to overdo it with the shots and the cuts.

Recently, I was in Bernalda, my dad's ancestral home town in Italy. He has just refurbished a palazzo and turned it into a hotel, so we had my sister's wedding there. It was beautiful.

Australians and the British are very similar: If you try and stand out in any way, and you try to reach for success, someone is gonna be there to cut you down.

Shaft was a pop culture figure along t he lines of, I guess, Dirty Harry - except that he wasn't as much of a racist. So yeah, I was always a fan.