Anna Boden

“I don't think I knew that much about camera placement and working with actors when we did 'Half Nelson.'”

“When we look to cast somebody who hasn't had any acting experience before, it's really essential we find somebody who at some level can just be themselves and who shares a lot in common with the character.”

“We love telling stories about characters who you root for, even though they sometimes make it really hard for you to root for them and the choices they make.”

“One of the great things about Marvel is that they allow you to take pieces of the character and storylines from the comics and doing your own thing with that.”

“It seems crazy moving from making little movies to making like literally movies with Marvel, which are like the biggest movies that they make.”

“I think the most valuable thing that we've done at festivals is meet other filmmakers.”

“I grew up reading about all those film-makers who were part of a group, like the new wave. It's a little stranger when it's you.”

“With our movies, you start off getting to know the characters in the way that you meet someone in real life, and then slowly, over time, you get little clues as to who they are. By the end there are still some mysteries, but hopefully you're starting to understand them more.”

“The Gambler' is one of the movies that inspired us. We love that movie.”

“I mean, television has really changed a lot, and changed the way movie people think about working in the storytelling business.”

“I don't have an inflated sense of what a movie can do. But you can at least try not to put something out there that you don't believe in.”

“No, we are not tyrants on set, and we are kind of come at it very much as collaborators and not just with each other but everybody and particularly the actors.”

“We have nothing against working with actors.”

“With 'Half Nelson' we had a little bit more leeway to let the political be more present, because he was a social-studies teacher and this was what he was teaching the kids, so we'd have those direct-to-camera addresses.”