Why did you want to adapt Edith Wharton's novel?

Two reasons really. One is the modernity of the novel. What is the novel about? It's about what do you look like and how much money do you have. And what's the present culture about? What you look like and how much money you have. There's no difference. Nothing has changed in the interim. But also what's wonderful about tragedy is that we are the only species interested in ourselves. We're gossips, basically.

Do you see the world of Lily Bart as comparable to anything specific today?

Yes, it's like the hermetically sealed world of Hollywood. They have a set of rules in which no-one in their right minds would observe. They're grotesque, they're venal and they're stupid. It's like "Who's on an A-list?" Anybody with an IQ above room temperature doesn't care. You want to say to these people, go and live on an estate in Newcastle, be on Valium and see if you can feed three kids on sixty quid a week. Then you've got a problem. It wouldn't matter then if you were on an A-list or a Z-list.

What made you choose Gillian Anderson for the part of Lily? Were you a fan of "The X-Files"?

I didn't know what that was. I don't watch television and I'd never seen it. Her photograph came into the office and she looked like a John Singer Sergeant portrait. She happened to be in London, we met, I sent her the script and she liked it.