[why he became a feature filmmaker] It was something that I developed around the time that I was in the band in my 20s when I was getting into movies and watching movies with a more critical eye and less as entertainment. Everyone else was off at Star Wars (1977) or E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and I was watching Jean-Luc Godard movies or Ingmar Bergman movies or older American 1930s and 40s movies, so I think if I hadn't been a filmmaker I probably would have been a film critic. I bought a camcorder and took it from there. [2016] Show less «

[on _Sing Street (2016) as a musical] The big thing for me is I wanted to make a musical but I didn't want anyone to know it was a musical, and I didn't want to put the word musical on the poster. So it's a stealth musical; it creeps up on you - it doesn't seem like one, but it actually is. I felt that a really necessary part of making a modern musical is that it doesn't have any of the traditional recognisable tropes of the older musicals, which I love, many of them - Guys and Dolls (1955), Singin' in the Rain (1952), An American in Paris (1951), New York, New York (1977). Films where the music moves the drama along, it doesn't just break from the drama, but actually the music is as important as the dialogue and moves the characters and the plot along. [2016] Show less «

I had just come back from making this far bigger movie in America and I was a bit disenchanted with working with certain movie stars in that movie and I wanted a break. I didn't enjoy that experience of paparazzi and fabulous openings. The movie star world is not something that ever appealed to me. I like working with actors and I wanted to come back to what I knew and enjoy film-making again - not that I didn't enjoy Begin Again (2013) but Keira [Keira Knightley] has an entourage that follow her everywhere so it's very hard to get any real work done, and so I was very ready to come back to Ireland and make films that nobody cared about who was in it or any of that crap. I think the real problem was that Keira wasn't a singer and wasn't a guitar player and it's very hard to make music seem real if it's not with musicians. And I think the audience struggled a little bit with that in "Begin Again". And as much as I tried to make it work I think that she didn't quite come out as a guitar-playing singer-songwriter. So I really wanted to work with musicians and actors that could play their instruments properly and sing and stuff like that. (...) I learned that I'll never make a film with supermodels again. Mark Ruffalo is a fantastic actor and Adam Levine is a joy to work with and actually quite unpretentious and not a bit scared of exposing himself on camera and exploring who he is as an individual. I think that that's what you need as an actor; you need to not be afraid to find out who you really are when the camera's rolling. Keira's thing is to hide who you are and I don't think you can be an actor and do that. And working with the kids on this film and real instruments there was no hiding going on. It really was a bit of a journey of self-discovery for the actors in Sing Street (2016) and that appeals to me. So it's not like I hate the Hollywood thing but I like to work with curious, proper film actors as opposed to movie stars. I don't want to rubbish Keira, but you know it's hard being a film actor and it requires a certain level of honesty and self-analysis that I don't think she's ready for yet and I certainly don't think she was ready for on that film. [2016] Show less «