You can only get that cast by either paying for them or having a good script. And we didn't have any cash.

Those are hard films to make, medieval films. Nobody will put a lot of cash into it, but it needs a lot of money because of sets and costumes and stuff. I really, really wanted to make that film just because I knew it would be a big challenge, and I also knew that I wanted to create a world that was my world and it wasn't a world based on what we all know.

I always knew that the violence would be something that would be probably be brought up, but actually it's nothing to do with the movie. The first two minutes are all about establishing fear, that something horrible is going to happen. It [the violence] was done really quickly, and it wasn't like pornography where you can like dwell over it, you know. It had to be done, we had to kill some people.

When you get great actors like that turning up and not being paid, then they all come for the right reason. They all come to play and they all come to enjoy the characters.

I have some great digital pictures I could sell on the Internet [of Lucy] doing splits and handstands and running around and stuff. My parents came to the set, I brought them over from Scotland, and they loved her. They said, 'This girl has so much energy, where the hell does that come from?' It just comes from her. She's incredibly infectious.

He's quite extraordinary at being ordinary. He has this dichotomy about him that's fascinating to watch.