Even on a large ensemble where their parts are relatively small - because having ten main characters obviously affects their screen time - the thing that attracts great actors is when there is that challenge to get some reality into something.

John Hillcoat

What irritates me about sci-fi is that it got hijacked by video games and also became so high-concept it was all about ideas and gadgets and technology and nothing about the human experience.

John Hillcoat

Everyone has a family, even if they're at war or fallen apart. It's the closest initial bond, and there's a sort of primal element to that. Your primary relationships are formed out of family.

John Hillcoat

My own personal aesthetic is all to do with real actors and real locations and a kind of almost hyper reality and actuality to things. But the digital world, I explore that through other mediums, with music videos and commercials. Even 'The Road' was a real learning curve for me with digital effects.

John Hillcoat

I like the realism of anti-heroes. It's a healthy thing. I think heroes can be very unhealthy at times because it doesn't connect you to reality.

John Hillcoat

I'm actually a humanist, believe it or not, and I believe even when people are corrupted, even when they've gone to the dark side, they are still human beings.

John Hillcoat

Bands are actively seeking more film involvement - because the days of recording albums and MTV and even touring, to some extent, are gone.

John Hillcoat

Radiohead showed a real affinity to being bold with visual imagery, so it came as no surprise when Jonny Greenwood did 'There Will Be Blood.'

John Hillcoat

It's the aspirations that capitalism is promoting as beautiful, positive attributes that are dangerous. All that is in the bedrooms of the poor and in the villages of the Third World, and it's like a cruel carrot that's being waved in front of people's noses. It's a seduction, an unattainable dream.

John Hillcoat

The last time I played video games was 'Space Invaders.'

John Hillcoat

There are so many tricks and so much eye candy in cinema. What I love about the classicism of genre is that there's a discipline. I think it's a healthy thing to resist all that candy.

John Hillcoat

For all the spectacle of CGI, there's something alien and unreal about that domain, like a videogame.

John Hillcoat

I'm an Australian. And I'm speaking generally here, but Australians in general aren't patriotic or nationalistic. Our country was built by immigrants. So, by my experience, I've seen the way immigration has transformed nations. They are the key people who quite literally build civilizations, be it culturally or musically.

John Hillcoat

I kept hearing about this incredible guy called Tom Hardy. I started watching his work, and I was awestruck - he was amazing.

John Hillcoat

Certain films, when shot digitally, the detail is like CG: you can't feel the sweat. I feel like digital is alienating. There's something superficial to digital compared to the richness of film.

John Hillcoat

Unfortunately, I've seen violence, and I think, in films, it is the dramatic extremity of it.

John Hillcoat

There is a capacity for violence we all harbour, and under certain circumstances, it comes out.

John Hillcoat

I have very mixed feelings about big corporations. Oftentimes, they're more troublesome than not.

John Hillcoat

Even on a large ensemble where their parts are relatively small - because having ten main characters obviously affects their screen time - the thing that attracts great actors is when there is that challenge to get some reality into something.

John Hillcoat

Comedy, I'm still in awe of. I think you need a comic genius somewhere in the mix. It's got to be the actor or someone. But the 'comic genius' actors are the darkest people on the planet - and that kind of scares me!

John Hillcoat

The Globes are voted for by anyone in L.A. who's ever written for a foreign newspaper or magazine. That means, like, Romanian cookery writers.

John Hillcoat