Hollywood has the idea that movies have to be dumb. But especially movies for or about teenagers have to be really dumb!

The thing about the UK is we don't really make that many great movies.

I loved old black and white movies especially the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals. I loved everything about them - the songs the music the romance and the spectacle. They were real class and I knew that I wanted to be in that world.

When we shoot 24 there are so many things I have to worry about from the script to technical things to my performance that I don't have a second to be bored or take anything for granted. We produce 24 hours of film a season which is like making 12 movies.

I actually think I have an audience member's sensibility about going to the movies.

I care about the connection with the audience. Film is such a powerful medium. Movies can change the way people think.

Sundance is weird. The movies are weird - you actually have to think about them when you watch them.

Movies about space raise those questions of what we're doing here and that inevitably introduces a spiritual dimension.

I like action movies even though I think action movies are kind of derided now. But there is something extraordinary about action movies which is absolutely linked to the invention of cinema and what cinema is and why we love it.

Well I think one of the main things that you have to think about when acting in the movies is to try not to make the acting show.

When we talk about Oscars it's almost as a symbol of excellence and the American public and the worldwide public accept that symbol. So a movie like 'The Artist' that costs $14 million has to go out and compete with movies that cost $140 million. How does David deal with Goliath?

I think I took my eye off the ball. From about 2005 2006 2007 I was out of it. I thought I could oversee movies and have it done for me so to speak.

Well Toronto I consider to be the birthplace of my films. I've made three films and this is the third one to premiere here in the same theater on the same day at the same time - they are my audience. They're the people that I think about while I'm writing directing and editing. I specifically make movies for them.

I think romance is a tool comedy is a tool and drama is a tool. I really just want to tell stories that challenge the viewer move people make you laugh perhaps push an idea about being open-minded but never settle on a genre or an opinion. I hate genre. I like movies that are original in their approach.

I'm trying to figure myself out through my movies. Whether it's big stuff like what we're doing here or little stuff like 'Why aren't I happier?' With every film I feel like I'm apologising for something. I feel I'm most successful when I'm looking for something that embarrasses me about my character that I'd like to expose.

The best movies have one sentence that they're exploring a thesis something that people can argue about over dinner afterward.

I don't get it when you get so much openness about the way movies are made and the special effects and the behind-the-scenes stuff and all of that. I can't help but feel like this reduces it a little bit.

I used to be prettier than I am but I think I look better now. I was a pretty boy. Particularly in my early movies. I don't like looking at them so much. There's a sort of pretty thing about me.

Now if you are like me - if you are like practically anybody in America - then you probably hold some negative opinions about the French based upon movies rumors recent headlines unfortunate run-ins with Parisian waiters or... you know... all that unpleasantness surrounding the Vichy regime.

People talk about mumblecore but I prefer bumblecore hyper-realistic bee movies about how bees really are.

It seems to me that one thing people do over and over again is try to figure out how to get married stay married fall in love how to rekindle all this stuff. It seems to me to be a pretty eternal theme so I don't know if you can get typecast from making movies about men relating to women. It seems to be what is going on on the planet a lot.

I love these movies where it's just about the film. You don't have my face on the poster. It's all about the movie. I like that.

My movies just kind of sneak up on you. I don't have to worry too much about what everybody is going to say. Anyway I really don't pay attention to what the world says about my movies. I just care about what my buddies think.

I'm not mad about movies there are too many people involved in the making of them and they lack a definitive creative focus.