Biography

[on Weekend (2011)] The root of the film for me is two characters trying to work out who they are and what they want from life, how they're going to fit that into the world around them and show the world that they are these people. These issues aren't just about being gay. They're about how you define yourself in public and in private.

A lot of gay films are just about being gay - nightclubs, coming out when you were a kid. I wanted to focus on the everyday aspects of being gay.

[on setting films in a specific time frame] I can't deal with stories unless there's some time constraint on it. That constraint allows you to understand something bigger and deeper. It just makes sense for me to drop into someone's life, look at it for a time, understand their life, and leave again. [2015]

[on 45 Years (2015), acting and first assembly cuts] We cast the female character, Kate, first because she's so central to the story. It's all from her point of view, and luckily Charlotte [Charlotte Rampling] said yes very quickly. That casting decision was so difficult, because if our leads didn't work together, we were done. For me, acting is the most important thing that makes a film work - if that doesn't work, the film doesn't. So that, and also watching the first assembly, are the most stressful things on a film. (...) You just want to cry and hide. I wish more directors would talk about how hideous the assemblies are. I've talked to other directors and it's all the same; they're in tears by the end of it. It's not a fault of the editors or anything; it's just that the film's in the rawest form, it's always so, so long, and all it takes is for a few scenes that don't work for the whole thing to fall apart. You're just like, "I've ruined it. No one's going to see this film." [2015]

[on first working as an assistant editor and editing in general] Well, as an assistant editor you're not doing any actual "editing;" you're just syncing up dailies and such. But you still see the process, and especially on the smaller films, you learn an enormous amount. I worked on Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely (2007), and that was actually an incredible experience, because you're sitting in the editing room with the editor and Harmony watching the decisions they make. That's when you really get to seeing the heart of making a decision. (...) He [Korine] just works from a very gut level that's really interesting. He doesn't think about too much about the audience. He just thinks, "What am I interested in? What makes sense to me?" And that's why his films always feel incredibly fascinating. But then, working on those bigger films, I saw that the emotion is all created within the edit, and I just felt like there's a lack of truthfulness in that. When I started trying to make my own things, I really thought, "Okay, how do I try and make a moment feel genuinely truthful?" With deciding not to edit as much, that was because, one, you have to do it in the moment within the take and on the day; and two, it means the actors have a lot more freedom to help that moment. (...) Even when I watch a film now, Weekend (2011) or 45 Years (2015), they're still clips on an editing timeline. I can feel them, and I notice when I should've cut or let it go for longer. I think it's the hardest things for a lot of directors, and it's certainly hard for editors to take the clips away from that Avid and make it feel like an actual film. Judging the approach, though, I want to see the relationship unfold in front of my eyes. I want the weird, subtle emotional changes to happen within the same frame and shot, rather than the emotion being created by a reaction cutaway. When you cut too much, everything loses its importance; it's a real fine line to tread. Although if you concentrate too much on having it all in one shot, the audience can become very aware of the camera. I don't want that to happen either, so it's trying to keep it feeling natural and organic without forcing the issue. [2015]