There is no shortage of talent in this film. What can you tell us about the cast and what they brought to the table to bring the whole thing to life?
That is a big question! I was totally thrilled with the cast that we got and each of them brought something very special. With Mia [Wasikowska], in addition to being a great actress has a wonderful face of that time and world of a secluded religious community of the South — there is a real innocence there. Shia LaBeouf was the first one aboard. He was so brimming and enthusiastic. Much like the character, he wanted everything at once and couldn’t sit still! There was that quality in the character of Jack that I think translated really well. Jessica [Chastain] and Tom [Hardy] have this beautiful complicated relationship, like they are two damaged souls coming together. They are so brilliant at exploring their vulnerable sides. Jason Clarke has a real physicality to everything he does, whereas Tom had a very distilled manner. There were points where he wouldn’t say and do anything for so long. We all looked at each other and realized that he brought this incredible distillation into the process. He also brought the idea of the matriarch and ran with in an audacious way. It was brilliant, the idea of this mother hen protecting the coop. Dane Dehaan had such a superb, youthful innocence and vulnerability that was quite heartbreaking. Gary [Oldman] and Guy [Pearce] had the courage to really let loose with this and do things they had never done before. Guy works from the outside in, so the outrageous choices of dress and hair started to come forward from Guy very early on. Of course, Gary is the ultimate chameleon. Together, they personified the outrageousness of Chicago in that era, the larger than life Jimmy Cagney types. We had a terrific cast and I could go on and on. All of these people were quite impressive. They are from all around the world and came together to form a very close-knit, small community for the film. That was quite an impressive feat.