The guys who invented Hollywood, tried to ostensibly organise something entirely couture – which is storytelling – and put it in a factory, and design it around the principles of an assembly line. I think the movie business still suffers from Louis B. Mayer’s complete misunderstanding about his life’s work [laughs]. He was a businessman, and this was how he could account for things.
Sometimes you have to roll up your sleeves, and get with people, and listen to them when they say, “I don’t get what I’m doing here. Why am I doing this?” And you have to work that stuff out.
Because I’ve already seen the movie, especially this movie – I’ve seen Mank four times a year for 30 years [laughs]. So for my money, every time somebody would say, “What is this movie about?” – I would just be like, “WHO CARES?! [laughs] I already told this story!”
As a director, your job is to tell the story. You’re going to tell the story to Gary [Oldman], you’re going to tell the story to Amanda [Seyfried], you’re going to tell the story to Tom [Burke]. Every actor, you’re trying to seduce to be part of your Mercury players. You have to gird yourself, and get up your excitement and energy, and hopefully tell them something in a coffee shop that makes them go, “Oh my God, I would love to give six months of my life to something like this [laughs].”