I think a good director casts a film so that the actors bring a lot to the table.

In the film world you don't often get much rehearsal time. Only on big-budget films do you have the opportunity to rehearse for a week or two.

[By the time she appeared in the 1952 film] Singing in the Rain, ... The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

The production team's first meeting took place at my house. I had ideas and a color scheme in mind, how I wanted the movie to look, because that has to be a real collaboration.

It goes back to a style of moviemaking I remember seeing as a child, in movies like The Man With The Golden Arm, which I think was shot all on a sound stage.

The riot isn't seen in the movie, but it is alluded to. He has this one speech that gives a great sense of texture and paints a picture of what was happening in Harlem then.