Quotes from Sebastian Lelio

'Gloria' is a film about a fifty eight-year-old woman who is quite alone in life; however, she is quite optimistic. Nobody has much time for her, and so she regularly goes to these single adults' parties where she is looking for someone. By the end of the film, she doesn't necessarily find love, but she does find something else.

I'm very open to following the stories that move me and reach that flexibility where you can be more flexible. I'm expanding my horizons.

Every human society has its lights and its shadows. That's the reality of existence.

Fashion is totally political, the icon of a political system.

There has been too much silliness and cliche when looking at older people: I think that hides a fear of death that we have as a society. We are obsessed with youth and denying death.

Rachel Weisz is amazing, instinctive, volcanic - an amazing force of nature.

I'm interested in characters. I love them, and I love to write them.

I'm interested in the intersection of character and actor.

Sometimes we have to disobey in order to transcend, in order to survive.

I'm not saying transgender characters should be only interpreted by transgender actors - because that would be as rigid as saying transgender actors cannot play cisgender roles, and that's not the idea.

I had the idea that I'm going to make a trans-genre film about a transgender woman.

I knew 'Transparent' and saw a few episodes of 'Orange is the New Black,' so I knew about the trans actor in that cast. Of course, I saw 'Boys Don't Cry' back in the day. But the path that led me to this subject was different... it's just my curiosity as a human being more than my awareness of any political struggles.

In the case of 'Fantastic Woman,' I wanted to make it a more complex animal than just a 'cause' film. Even though I was sympathizing with the character's struggle, I didn't want to be trapped at that level - it's important, but it can be quite basic.

Latin American culture is conservative, and the rural areas are tremendously conservative. I don't believe that's just a Chilean thing.

I learned at an early age to be socially effective while practicing disappearing.

The mystery of film is not in the script. It's in the shooting, in the interacting of humans and space and time.

I've been following my intuition and what moves me.

In the case of 'Disobedience,' the very secretive way of life and religion and tradition that the North London Orthodox Jewish community has was a huge invitation to explore an unknown world. And also a possible trap, and I tried to overcome that by portraying it, hopefully, with great nuance and detail and texture.

My stepfather was in the navy, so I got to know a side of Chile that is not what you would expect from an artist.

I went to church as a boy, and then I quite quickly stepped away from religion. But I remained fascinated by the need people have for religion.

To me, there was something moving about the idea of telling the story of a lady who is, in a way, a forgotten character - someone who would normally be a secondary role in a movie.

When you're filming, you're blind. But if you follow what really moves you, then you operate from a place of hope: maybe that the story you're telling will resonate with whatever the world will have become when the film is ready to be born.

In order to make a film, you have to operate on many different levels, making all these different forms of expression converse, and so I just followed that intuition.

There's something about using the cinematic device as a tool to connect with dimensions of the world that you don't know too well, you're not too familiar with. It's like a creating a bridge, or a spaceship to travel to the unknown.