Being Australian, how did you approach this very British story?
I am a great believer that in the smallness of detail and the uniqueness of a place comes the greater picture. It's always fabulous to peer into someone's world and experience a culture you don't really know about. I think the more specific you are in whatever world you're examining, the more universal things come out of it. In fact, when my 90-year-old Australian mum saw it she said, "This is a film about me!"
Was it difficult bringing together such an illustrious cast?
It's a dream for me to be working with the people I considered were the cream of movie actors from this country of my generation. The hardest part was getting people to play their younger selves. It's not just about lookalikes, it's people who've got the essence, that magic charisma that actors like this have. Patsy Pollock [casting director] spent months working on that, and I venture to suggest that most of those young actors will be in the same position in a generation's time. It will be interesting to see if I'm right!
How do you find working in England?
When I first came here I found the actors fantastic and the crews quite arrogant. You had work practices that were a little antiquated, certainly in terms of film making, and you also had attitudes that were a bit strange. A lot has changed now - the economics of making films here have become so stringent they've had to change.
