I want to tell beautiful stories. I know I want to tell stories that appeal to a large audience. I want to make movies that appeal to mass culture.

I've always had a love affair with New York City, and I've threatened to get an apartment there one day. But it just made sense for me to set 'Burlesque' on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. It's a place I know intimately well and love, and I think there's a great story to be told with L.A.

I actually had a movie green lit at Disney the same week 'Burlesque' was green lit - a movie for Disney called 'Mash-Up', about a high school marching band.

I love actors. I love working with actors. I really enjoy the process. I love having those in-depth discussions about the interior of their character, and actors really love to discuss that too.

Kristen Bell is rare as an actress, because she's the type of actor who jumps out of a plane without a parachute - from a totally fearless place, which is really refreshing and inspiring.

This is such a cliche, but I feel like filmmaking is a collaborative experience.

Cher is really down-to-earth, very nurturing, incredibly funny and fun, a great storyteller, and creates a great environment on the set.

I've been involved in burlesque for a really long time and I've always been really interested in burlesque, and I was writing musicals for different studios.

I want to do something where the script is there. That doesn't mean that I won't need to come in, or be asked to come in, and help develop something. Things can always get better. There's always room for improvement. But, I want to do something that's the best version of whatever it's supposed to be.

In a huge way, everything that I've done in my life has helped inform my ability to communicate with actors and direct them.