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Well, it's kind of like playing in a sandbox because they were one-day shoots, with the exception of Cate Blanchett, which took two days for obvious reasons [she plays two characters in one segment]. So they were really fun.

Did you have scripts for each short?

I had scripts for each of them but I tried to encourage improvisation and even try to trick the actors at times into improvising by saying to them that in the next take we are going up to this point in the dialogue and then when they'd pass that point, I would just keep rolling to see what they'd do. They did all have scripts to kind of use as blueprints--some of them stayed quite close to them and others departed. But it was really like playing because it was really fun and there was no intention, they didn't have to link back their characters to previous actions or previous scenes like in a feature film. They are just fun, self-contained little exercises really.

Were there any in the cast who really surprised you with their improvisation?

Tom Waits surprised me right off the bat going into this thing about being a doctor that was not in script at all, which I loved. Then he had to keep replicating that in other angles and shots and that was immediately incorporated into the overall script.

How'd you decide who you wanted in the film? Did you write some scripts with certain people in mind?