Have you found since your Oscar nomination that you’re getting different types of scripts, more scripts – has it changed your life at all?

It has, you know, I get asked that question more often. I think there’s a lot more opportunities now than there was, but I think also with those opportunities comes a certain responsibility to do the most with those opportunities. I mean, in a way it’s like when you only have one option when you’re starting out, it’s easy because you take that option. But when you have a lot of them you really have to make sure that that option is going to give you more opportunities or take you in the direction that you want to go.

You don’t have to answer exactly where, but do you live in downtown L.A.?

Yeah.

I saw a thing with you before the Oscars where you were taking some reporter around – do you just dig the old buildings or the feeling of downtown?

Yeah, I’ve lived all over. I think it’s interesting to watch a city develop. I’ve been involved or been able to watch this kind of  ‘gentrification.’ And I love and hate it, I think it’s kind of fascinating thing to be a part of and to watch happen.

What other things do you have coming up? Are you filming something right now?

I’m not, I have a film that I’m working on myself, other than that, just looking.

What’s the film you’re working on?

I wrote a film that I’m going to try and direct, hopefully by the end of the year.

Is there a title?

Yeah, it’s called The Lord’s Resistance and it’s about the Lord’s Resistance Army in Northern Uganda and the conflict in the north, the 20 year conflict, and the war affected children and child soldiers.

Did you write it yourself?

Yeah.

How much research did you do? How long did it take you?

It took me – it’s been a couple of years process, and I just was there a month ago doing some more research, shooting some B rolls, getting ready, obviously as you can imagine it’s a hard film to put together.

And studios love this kind of film.

Yeah, right, everyone’s banging down my door.

It is such a different direction for you, is that something that you’ve always wanted to do?

Direct?

Direct something like that, so serious, rather than something, not lighter, but not –

It just felt like – it’s not like I’ve always wanted to direct something, I just heard this story and I was in Darfur, well the Darfur refugee camps in Chad about two years ago, and I was shooting a little piece of a documentary and I think like anybody that goes to Africa, that experience doesn’t leave you, especially those kids, and I started to learn about child soldiers and then this phenomenon of night commuters in Uganda, and the more I learned about it the more I couldn’t believe it, and I felt like it was some kind of Grimm Brothers story or something.

They kidnap the kids, don’t they?

Yeah, 30,000 kids in the last 20 years. 1.5 million people misplaced from their homes. It’s one of the bloodiest conflicts in Africa’s history and they’re famous for them. And it’s still going on, and has been going on in plain view of everybody and it’s involving children, children fighting children and children killing their own parents, little girls being made sex slaves and it’s gruesome, and I just heard that story and I thought that it was something that I wanted to try and tell.

Would you shoot it there? You go there, isn’t it dangerous?

It is, but the time that I went there were peace talks, so I think it was a safe visit as it had been in 20 years

Do you play an active role in things like Darfur?

Not really, I’m not involved with any specific –

Not like Clooney

No, not like Clooney, I just have a personal interest.

This director uses more cameras and does less takes, is that right?

I don’t know about less takes, but he does more cameras.

Was his style a little different for you, did you like or dislike it?

It’s different, I like to try new things, so for me it was a whole different world to come into, it’s a big movie, lots of cameras, all this stuff, and it was interesting to try find a way to navigate through that. Greg’s really like a kid, he’s still excited about making movies, he sits in front of the monitor like this all the time, and he’s thrilled to be there and it’s really fun to be around that kind of energy.

Was there any adlibbing – when Anthony Hopkins goes like with the tie –

First of all, you never know what Anthony’s going to do. He doesn’t, is he behind me?

That was funny when you did (the tie bit) back to him at the end.

That was something that was in the script, but there are lots of things that weren’t. Also Anthony, just like every time he does a take he does it completely different, he says the lines but it’s amazing how many takes on one line that he can have.

Give us a question for your fellow cast members that they might not be expecting. Something that would get a nice little reaction out of them.

Ask them if they had a weak spot, what would it be.

Don’t you have a restaurant?

I do, yeah. Have you been there?

Yeah, it was very good.

If you liked it, it’s getting better. Oh yeah.

You might as well plug it

It’s called Tagine. It’s on Robertson and Wilshire. 132 North Robertson, it’s a Moroccan restaurant.