Maggie Gyllenhaal

I would say, yes, I feel very strongly that I'm trying not to push actors into doing something that I imagined when I was all by myself.

And I don't do that.

because it's just not my taste.

It's just not what I like from them, you know, which means that they surprise me all the time.

That said, I think it's my job, if we're trying to walk a tightrope across the two hours of this movie, it's my job to both allow them sometimes, okay, look, we did a take where the whole second half of that you were

falling off the tightrope.

I mean, I'm not going to say that to them, but I'm not going to use it, you know?

Sure.

And yet, like, what it did was it got us to the next take where there was a laser beam focus or whatever, you know?

I mean, I think it's my job to then assess it and take care of it and really protect the things that are really special and beautiful.

I mean, I think you can watch a movie...

Let me say this.

I think there's lots of really good actors.

And I think there's a handful of really brilliant ones.

And like you guys said, a lot of them are in my movie.

And so how do you make space for those really brilliant actors to not act like they're learning something or changing on film?

but actually learn something or make a change on film.

That's the most exciting thing for me to watch.

Because in the other gear, there aren't any wrong answers.

100%.