He was enormously manipulative, very ambitious and not always truthful. I didn't want a biography that worships the title character. I wanted a movie that portrays the truth.

He was enormously manipulative, very ambitious and not always truthful,

With a play, there's more of a definable arc because of the nature of theater: You know, there's no editing, so there's something more natural about the arc a character follows in a play. I think theater is more an actor's medium, whereas film is more a director's medium, because that's who controls the final feel of the film.

I'm not ambitious.

All we want is for this thing to be truthful. It is not truthful now. It is deceptive. It is designed to destroy governments.

I was raised Jewish and bar mitzvahed.