Interview with The Bourne Legacy's Edward Norton!

                       
In the film, you are the villain in this movie. Correct?
I would say that Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), Marta (Rachel Weisz) and Byer, my character, have all made choices and decisions that have a lot of compromise in them.

For a film like The Bourne Legacy, is there preparation?
Tony’s screenplay was very strong. I read up on the nature of these agencies within government just to understand the differences between the departments of government that handle these kinds of things. It wasn’t something that required a deep amount of research other than to get familiar with the language. Because THE BOURNE LEGACY is so intelligently written, if you can absorb that and make it feel credible, Tony’s done the work to make sure it sounds real.

 As a director, what does Tony Gilroy bring to the film?
Tony is incredibly organized. Some directors are very improvisational, but Tony is like a diamond cutter. He’s very precise and specific, which is great. He’s very articulate and very clear in communicating how he sees things and what he wants. It makes it very, very easy. I really admire the way he works. He doesn’t miss anything and he’s so well prepared that it makes it very relaxed on set.

You’ve been away from the movies for a while. Were you taking time to pursue other interests like environmental issues and theater?
I was building a theater in New York but I made two films last year. I don’t usually make more than two films a year. I was also writing and my company is producing some films. I spent most of one year writing a miniseries for HBO (Undaunted Courage) and a film script.

Is the process for a television mini-series similar to that of a film?
It has been a long development process with this series. We don’t know when we are going to film it. I always do a lot of things at the same time because you never know which one is going to happen right away.

Being so involved in so many different things, do you ever take time off?
I am involved in a lot of things. I have other companies and other pursuits. It all overlaps but I usually find a way to balance it all.