"Nikola Jean "Niki" Caro" (born 1967) is a film director, film producer/producer and screenwriter who was born in Wellington, New Zealand. Her 2002 film Whale Rider was critically praised and won a number of awards at international film festivals.

More Niki Caro on Wikipedia.

It was not interesting to me to make the movie if I couldn't make it in that landscape.

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When I put up Springsteen songs against our pictures, I couldn't make any of them work, ... Springsteen writes almost exclusively about the young male experience in working-class America. But you put anything by Dylan against this film and it works.

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[That's the kind of insight Caro goes for.] The people on the Range are so down-to-earth and strong, and they don't take s---, ... I loved hanging around in bars with the real women. They advised us on every detail - make-up, props, dialogue, manners. And I was so glad that, at the end of the film, we could have some of the real women stand up in the courtroom scenes.

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Frances was a hard one. Oh, man, ... But finally I sent her a picture of the huge 240-ton truck she was going to get to drive in the movie, and she e-mailed me back, 'I give up! Men may come and go, but that is a really nice truck.' .

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[When Caro met Dylan, there was still no title for the film.] I wanted to call the film 'Landmark' for a long time, ... But the studio didn't think it was a sexy title, so I didn't get my way.

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I make it my business to have felt everything the characters need to feel, so if the actors need me to help them go where they need to go, I have already been there.

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[If people walk out feeling emotional about the movie,] that would be enough for me, ... But for people who have experienced (abuse), in an ideal world, it would give them courage to stand up.

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There is usually so much stuff all over the floor that it's like the actors are in a cage. How could you act that way? We were able to have the camera follow the actors, so they could move and breathe.

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