I'm not making a movie about the real people. I'm making a movie about what they did, and what happened to them. But I will create characters so that I can have the freedom to make them say and do what I want. The real-life journalists were fine with that.

As a writer, it's fun to free yourself enough to tap into some darker elements of your personality that sometimes I don't even know exist. It doesn't feel like work.

For me, when I see movies where I kind of know who the characters are and what the situation is, I get bored. To me, it's, How do I tell a story that will keep the audience engaged? A great story does that: it's not exactly what you expect.

So I like switching it up. I like that people are laughing but they don't even know if they should be laughing. I think that's interesting. I think it makes for a fun movie. And you're far more likely to be able to actually get something into someone's head if they don't quite see it coming, as opposed to delivering a very serious examination.

If you have that group of people who are both nice and also creative, then you have surprises like a room with monkeys in them. That has taken a very good scene and just made it a great scene. I want my movies to be visually interesting and to have a lot of energy and be colorful and full of life.

Every movie is a surprise. That's what is so fun about it. You can be planning a movie for years, and then you'd better be surprised every day, or it's going to be stale.