Paul: (on casting for “United 93“) I cast trying to reinforce the fact that 9/11 happened to ordinary people, it didn’t happen in movie star land, it happened to us and it is about ordinary people coping with the unimaginable or trying to cope. Many of them were not experienced actors but I would often find that their changes of intensity were exactly what I wanted. I would say to the actors what I wanted and they would kick it up one pace and then naturally the non-actors would follow them to that level. Whereas left to their own devices they couldn’t do that. So you got a complex and interesting interplay.
Paul: (on trying to remain detached when making “”United 93“) I felt the emotions. It was a very intense film to make. But you have to remain detached in a way in order to keep it truthful. You can’t make a film like this and not be powerfully involved. You feel it when you bring it to birth. But with a film like this you have to do the best you can and then the audience must decide. They have to make their own minds up. All I know is that as a group we gathered together to try and explore what 9/11 felt like and what it meant in an honest, robust and mature, responsible way...with the support of the families. The families have seen the film and supported it and audiences have supported it.
Paul: The United 93 families are an extraordinary group of people who come from all parts of America and beyond, many different walks of life, different religions, different politics, different responses to 9/11 but linked by this one event. What they want most of all is to seek the meaning of this. This had to mean something. The why is very important to them and the what are we going to do is very important to them. But for lots of us we don’t really want to focus on these issues because it gets in the way. and we ask ourselves why and what are we going to do, and realise it is going to demand change. And that’s the problem.
Paul: (on criticism that it was too soon to make “United 93“) I didn’t meet any Americans who thought that...other than reporters. I saw a lot of audiences but nobody said that. I never once met a family who had lost a family member who said that. I met lots and lots of families who said why did it take you so long? So I think there is an odd disconnect here between what we think and what they think. And I think that is to do with our desire to not have our life interrupted by political violence.
For his film, United 93, based on the September 11th hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93, Paul won the BAFTA award for Best Director and received the Best Director award from several critics awards circles. In addition to also receiving many other runner-up citations and nominations from critics group (including the Broadcast Film Critics Association), he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Director.
Paul first worked as a director in the 1980s, for the current affairs programme World in Action.
Paul specialises in directing dramatisations of real-life events and is known for his signature use of hand-held cameras.
Paul co-authored of the book Spycatcher which was initially banned in England for revealing insights into how MI5 operated.
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