How did you became involved with "Monster's Ball"?
The producer Lee Daniels and the two writers Milo Addica and Will Rokos saw my previous movie, "Everything Put Together". They thought I would be right for the material, and they sent the script to me, which I really liked because of its fable-like quality. At the time, the only actor who was attached was Wes Bentley, but he dropped out two weeks before shooting and Heath Ledger replaced him.
Given that you grew up in Switzerland, how familiar were you with the American Deep South, which is the setting for "Monster's Ball"?
My notion of the South came from writers like William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams, so I travelled down there once I'd decided to make the movie and did some research by spending time in the prisons and the countryside. Cities like Georgia are very advanced, but once you get outside the city, it feels like 100 years ago. Our producer is black, and we were standing in this room and somebody actually said, in front of him, "Can you tell the coloured man to wait outside?" It's shocking.
What did Billy Bob Thornton bring to the part of Hank Grotowski?
He's a very sensitive and intuitive actor who has an incredible memory. He can communicate a lot without words. If you're a director, you have to say very little to him - he just seems to know what you want. Before the film I was a little nervous in that he himself is a director, a writer, and an Oscar-winning actor. He said to me at the beginning, "This is your vision, and your movie. I support your vision. If you have a problem with the studio or whoever, just come to me."
Since the film's Oscar success, how are you coping with being thrust into the limelight?
I try to keep myself in the background and not do very much press - I leave that to the actors. I don't go to celebrity parties and I don't read the articles written about me. What I'm passionate about is telling stories which mean something to me.
