Trivia

After graduating from Regis High School, an all-male Jesuit school in Manhattan, he studied philosophy at Columbia University.

First film-related job was working for a year in the publicity department at Avco Embassy.

Directed 5 different performers in Oscar-nominated performances: Lynn Redgrave, Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson. Hudson won for Dreamgirls (2006).

Directed two films where Ian McKellen played with two actresses he had previously co-starred in different stage productions of August Strindberg's "Dance of Death", both of them directed by Sean Mathias: Mr. Holmes (2015) with Frances de la Tour and The Good Liar (2019) with Helen Mirren.

His mother attended high school with Susan Hayward.