Sam Mendes

I’ve made movies that cost less than one car chase.

The movies that influenced me were movies that told their stories through pictures more than words.

I think movies are a director’s medium in the end. Theater is the actor’s medium. Theater is fast, and enjoyable, and truly rewarding. I believe in great live performance.

You just never know when movies are going to take off or not. The lucky thing about this was that it didn’t cost a lot of money, and therefore there wasn’t loads of pressure on me.

I wanted to keep exploring… I’m not about to choose a series of movies in which I can use the same bag of tricks and style that I used in the first film.

The perceived wisdom is that people do not go in large numbers to black-and-white movies anymore – which is a great shame, but I’d love to make a black-and-white movie one day.

I don’t think of it as a competition – which might surprise you, given the way movies are reported constantly.

I want to try and work in different genres with different types of actors, on small movies and big movies.