[on how Les Misérables (2012) was produced] Normally, if you were making an old-school movie musical, as a group of actors, we'd go into a studio, we'd record an album and then two months later, we'd arrive on set, and they would play the playback and we would mime alongside it. The problem with that is that you have to make all your acting choices three months before you've even met the actor you're working with. By recording it live, Tom [Hooper] is allowing us the spontaneity of normal film acting.
