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I’d imagine that after An Education, you received offers from the States. So I was wondering, do you want to make films in this country and if so, what’s appealing and what scares you about that prospect?

LS: It scares me less now that I’ve tried it. I always thought it was tricky to have an auteur background, coming from a completely different tradition: European and low-budget way of working. But it’s a strength, because it means that I have different solutions to offer. And it’s been very positive with [One Day’s studio, Focus Features], because there was no micromanagement. When they hire someone not so obvious to direct something like this, it is because they want and expect me to influence the film. They would be disappointed if I didn’t step up to it.

I’ve done commercials, which have been helpful, because you sit with a whole bunch of people behind you who are paying for the film to look like they had imagined. And you of course not only want to shoot that film, but something better than they had imagined. So I know how it is to have someone look over your shoulder while you’re working, and I don’t like it that much, but I do like having people who will throw a safety belt when you cannot swim any more or will throw more resources at the film if they see it is under budgeted or the schedule is too tight.

Speaking of influencing the story, being based off of a hugely popular novel, in what ways did you make the script your own when you saw it?

LS: I think the move from text to film is quite big, because of the time device. It is such a detailed project; it’s not a simple, clear film. It’s like a Jackson Pollock painting that is messy and disorganized, but then when you look at it for a while there is order, there is layers, there is a system to it. To get that right is hard. The book can take more detours, and doesn’t have to be as condensed as a film, and because of that it becomes personal. The scenes that look the most like something I’ve done before are the scenes in Edinburgh. I feel more related to those scenes that they looked almost Scandinavian with the blue light and the empty streets (laughs) and the Doc Marten boots. But I also took the opportunity to do something that had more color, was wilder, more eclectic, and try not to be too puritan of forcing a specific style onto something that didn’t have a specific style. I thought one way of doing it was to go with it, rather than be too restrictive. There is a lot of color coordination going on. There is very little or no yellow in the film for instance, so in that way it is a little toned down. But it is quite different than what I’ve done previously.

I also noticed that you focused more on the characters and less on the sweeping landscapes.

LS: Because even if there is comedy, there is an emotional balance that is much more important than to get all of these scenic little details right. The book has a lot more of that. The specificity of London through the ‘90s and the last decade is great and really entertaining to read. It is so detailed how David describes everything in Emma’s room, but the film is different. Also, you get all of that immediately on film. You don’t need two pages to describe it. You just put it all there. But if we went into detail, I think we would have lost some of the emotion. Which is why the [songs on the soundtrack] we’ve chosen aren’t well known. We didn’t want people humming along to U2 or whoever would be the most obvious – so the tracks are unknown, not something that a lot of people are emotionally attached to.

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