Kriv Stenders directed the hugely
successful Australian film Red Dog. His
latest film is the darkly comical thriller
Kill Me Three Times.
My first question Kriv is - why are you so
loveable?
(laughs) I don't know about that, it's a relative
question... You should ask my wife, she might give
you a different answer...
The reason I ask is, I keep reading these interviews
and all these actors are saying I Skyped with Kriv,
and you know, fell in love with him... and I guess
what I'm getting at is you must have a real love of
actors and of film...
Yeah, I do, I love the whole process. I mean directing
to me is the greatest job in the world, and I love
collaborating, I love working with actors, I love
working with crew. It's just a joyful experience for
me. It's great to be meeting like-minded people and
all of us getting a chance to play, to pretend, to create
something. So it's a very magical thing.
And the directing caper, Kriv - just going by my
own experience, I'm by trade a stand-up comic,
and I tried directing a short film for three days
and nearly had a nervous breakdown... Do you
think it takes a certain personality, or is it all in
the preparation? It seems just so demanding.
Yeah, I think you have to have a big ego, I think you
have to be a control freak, I think you have to be
obsessive. I think you have to be a lot of things if you
want to be a director, and some of them aren't
necessarily good things to be! But ultimately it's
about not being faint of heart. Like a marathon
runner, or someone who enjoys the ordeal, because it
is an ordeal, and you've got to find a way to pace
yourself, and also as I said before, enjoy the process.
A lot of that I think is being obsessive about movies
and about what you do.
After Red Dog, which was wonderful, you
undoubtedly had a lot of scripts landing on your
desk, so why did you choose Kill Me Three Times?