But 'Memento' was so successful, such a huge cult hit, almost on the scale of a large film. If that had happened, with all the acclaim, before the next job, I'd have found it very difficult to figure out what to do next.

In Hollywood there's a great openness, almost a voracious appetite for new people. In England there's a great suspicion of the new. In cultural terms, that can be a good thing, but when you're trying to break into the film industry, it's definitely a bad thing.

You know when Hollywood does a great big blockbuster that really wraps you up in a world, and lets you believe in extraordinary things that move you in some way, in an almost operatic sensibility? That to me is the most fun I have at the movies.

I didn't do a commentary on the DVD, which people were maybe surprised by. To be honest, my feeling is that commentaries are very tricky because I feel like the audience completes the film, and until a film gets out there you almost don't know exactly what it is that you've done. You have to do commentaries these days before the movie is even in theaters, so I wanted to hold off and instead just have them use the material that we generated during production to explain our intentions.