Quotes from Tom Hooper

What I learned about stammering was that, when as a young child you lose the confidence of anyone who wants to listen to you, you lose confidence in your voice and the right to speech. And a lot of the therapy was saying, 'You have a right to be heard.'

I think the thumb print on the throat of many people is childhood trauma that goes unprocessed and unrecognized.

Actors enjoy being treated as ordinary people.

I find that after a screening, people really want to come and tell you what they feel.

Thank you to my wonderful actors, the triangle of man-love which is Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and me.

Sometimes your body language is enough for an actor to know that you're not happy. And you don't really need to say it out loud if you deal with actors you know very well. And I don't think you really need to be explicit.

I'm the son of highly functioning parents who I'm incredibly lucky to have.

The more uncompromisingly specific you are the more you end up touching the bigger universal truths.

I think I would say 'The King's Speech' is surprisingly funny, in fact the audiences in London, Toronto, LA, New York commented there's more laughter in this film than in most comedies, while it is also a moving tear-jerker with an uplifting ending.

The more and more I work with really great actors, the more it's about opening yourself up to what they bring.

In 'The King's Speech,' patriotism is utterly contained within a historical moment, the third of September, 1939, where the aggressor is clear, the fight is clear, it hasn't become complicated over time.

My films seem to be about men's struggle with failure.

I think directors can become overly infatuated by gilt and gold, and the word 'lavish' and everything being magnificent.

The thing that fascinates me is that the way I came to film and television is extinct. Then there were gatekeepers, it was prohibitively expensive to make a film, to be a director you had to be an entrepreneur to raise money.

My films seem to be about men's struggle with failure.

In 'The King's Speech ' patriotism is utterly contained within a historical moment, the third of September 1939, where the aggressor is clear, the fight is clear, it hasn't become complicated over time.

I feel connected to the Second World War because my father lost his father in that war. So, through my dad and the effect it had on him of losing his father young, I always felt connected to the war. It goes back years, but it still feels to me as if we're completely living in it.

I mean, we've all had those dreams where, you know, we try to cry out and our voice won't come.

My dad said, 'The thing that I was told that was really helpful was that I mustn't be afraid of the things I was afraid of when I was five years old'. The shock of his childhood had put him in this defensive crouch against the world, and he needed to know that he had a nice wife and kids and it wasn't the same any more.

I think English film is very embarrassed by patriotism, generally.

When I was growing up my mother would say, 'Your dad may have to learn about being a father because he lost his own and that would have affected him'.

I think I would say 'The King's Speech' is surprisingly funny, in fact the audiences in London, Toronto, LA, New York commented there's more laughter in this film than in most comedies, while it is also a moving tear-jerker with an uplifting ending.

I think we all have blocks between us and the best version of ourselves, whether it's shyness, insecurity, anxiety, whether it's a physical block, and the story of a person overcoming that block to their best self. It's truly inspiring because I think all of us are engaged in that every day.

American movies are often very good at mining those great underlying myths that make films robustly travel across class, age, gender, culture.