Stephen Daldry

Overview

Born
May 2, 1960 · Dorset, England, UK
Birth name
Stephen David Daldry
Height
6′ 1″ (1.86 m)

Biography

Family

Spouse

Trademarks

Films generally focus on female characters, including interpretations honored with an Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role by Nicole Kidman in The Hours (2002) and Kate Winslet in The Reader (2008).
Frequently collaborates with screenwriter David Hare.
Films generally feature two or more main characters from different generations such as Thomas Horn and Max von Sydow in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011), Kate Winslet and David Kross in The Reader (2008) and the three primary female leads in The Hours (2002).
His films often contain a character who tries to seek some form of redemption, often with the help of another character

Trivia

Unofficially adopted aspiring actor Jamie Bell whilst shooting Billy Elliot (2000).
Received an Oscar-nomination as Best Director for his first three movies: Billy Elliot (2000), The Hours (2002) and The Reader (2008). He is the first person ever to accomplish this.
Has directed 6 actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Julie Walters, Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris, Julianne Moore, Kate Winslet, and Max von Sydow. Kidman and Winslet both won Oscars for performances in one of his movies.
Was in a relationship with Ian MacNeil for 13 years. They met in 1988 at an outdoor production of Alice in Wonderland directed by their mutual friend Ian Forest.
Father of a daughter with wife Lucy Sexton. Their daughter Annabel Clare was born in May 2003.

Quotes

"What's so funny is when people say, 'Oh, does that mean you're not gay anymore?' And you go, 'Oh, give me a break. What do you mean?' We wanted to have kids! We thought we'd get married and have kids. We're allowed to do everything. I refuse to be boxed in to the idea that 'Oh, no, I can't have kids 'cause I'm gay.' I can have kids if I'm gay. And I can also get married and have a fantastic life...To all questions [having to do] with my marriage, the answer to everything is yes. Do I have sex with my wife? Yes. Is it a real marriage? Yes. Am I gay? Yes." (quoted in The Advocate after the birth of his daughter Annabel Clare)
One of the great things about directors is how collegial we feel with each other. We share huge amounts - I get other directors in to see my work all the time and they do the same with me. It's a very warm and generous group of people.
When I made Billy Elliot, people asked me, "Oh, did you want to be a dancer when you were young, then?" I didn't even like dance before I made the film. "Do you come from the north-east?" No, Somerset. "Is it based on someone?" No. We made it up. We just made it up. The act of making something up seems to be very difficult these days.
I get frustrated about it because they say, "How can a man talk about women? I say, "Steven Spielberg didn't need to be an alien to talk about ET. You don't need to be a dog to direct Lassie. It seems to be a denial of the process of imagination, which is a posh word for "guesswork" [on The Hours (2002)]
They never met. We shot Meryl first, then Julianne, then Nicole. The first time they got together was on the Oprah Winfrey show and talked about cornflakes. [on The Hours (2002)]