When you were finishing Y Tu Mama Tambien, you were invited to direct a Harry Potter movie, and you were reluctant. I understand that you had a conversation with Guillermo del Toro that changed your mind. Can you tell us about that conversation?
Cuaron: I talked with Guillermo, as I always do, and he says, “What’s happening? Any projects going on?” And I said, “I’m going for Harry Potter, can you believe it? And I even made fun of it. I hadn’t read the books or seen the films. And then he looks upset with me. He called me flaco, that means skinny [in English]. He says, “F---kin’ skinny, have you read the books?” I said, “No, I haven’t read the books.” He says, “F---kin’ skinny, you’re such a f---kin’ arrogant b---rd. You are going right now to the f---kin’ bookshop and get the books and you’re going to read them and you call me right away.”

When he talks to you like that, well, you have to go to the bookshop. At that time, the fourth book had just come out. And I read the first two, and I was halfway through the third, [and] that was the one they had offered me. And I called him and said, “Well the material’s really great.” He says, “Well, you see you f---kin’ ...” I mean, it’s just untranslatable from the Spanish.... As a filmmaker, it was almost like a lesson of humility, of saying how am I going to do it my own, but at the same time, respecting what has been beloved in those couple of movies?