You used the same actresses for your other film The World Unseen. Why was that?
I think it was a great experience working with them the first time. The World Unseen reverses their roles. The one who’s the introvert becomes the extrovert one and vice versa. It’s a testimony to their ability I think. And Lisa Ray was attached to that movie for quite some time. I did cast around again, I didn’t want to stay in the comfort zone but, in the end, I think these two had a really amazing chemistry on screen.
The film was released in the US before the UK. How was it received there?
Really well. We sold out in the cinema’s while we were there. It was first in all the cinema’s that we were in. So it was really a great response from the audience and it was really wonderful to see it play in New York and LA and Toronto, all the big cities.
I read that you thought most of the men on set were chauvinistic, is this true?
It was on I Can’t Think Straight sadly. We had a very difficult first financier who didn’t pay people, who was just very unethical and immoral in his way of working and he surrounds himself with people who gravitated to that so they tended not to be a very helpful bunch of guys.
It just so happened when we fought for the film and got it back in court the second time around, that we had to have mostly female investors. We were just looking for people who were excited about the movie, and really understood the core themes of it - the integrity, being true to yourself and, in this case, the story, so we were very lucky the second time around.
The film features music from Leonie Casanova. What is it about her that made you approach her?
I think she has an incredible combination of the most beautiful lyrics and really beautiful melodies. It’s kind of something you can listen to and hum along to but if you listen to it five times you’ll hear more and more in the lyrics every time.
Brilliant singer, very beautiful woman as well and when we just saw her on stage when we were still prepping the movie we just looked at each other and said, this woman’s got to write something for us. So we’re really thrilled to have her on board. Her singles are being released both from the film as well at the end of March.
What would you say the overall message of the film is and what effect would you like it to have on people?
I think the overall message is, to find true love you have to be true to yourself first. I think that’s relevant whether you are gay, straight, black, white, anything. I think it’s relevant to everybody that you have to be comfortable with who you are and know who you are before you can really find that true love and not expect somebody to come and rescue you.
You've said that you love film. What is your favourite film of all time?
That’s a tough one, it depends which day you ask me! I’d have to pick one quite recently and say The Hours. I thought it was a great film. Beautiful scenes and great females stories as well.
Have you any plans for future novels or films in the pipeline?
Absolutely. We’ve just published the novel of I Can’t Think Straight in England and in the USA, so that’s out now. We’re working on another British film called The Dream Inspires which is a love story set in Oxford between a young female professor and her student, a young man from America who takes geography. So it’s a kind of delicate love story.
I Can't Think Straight opens in the UK on 3 April 2009
FemaleFirst: Fiona Haran