How much did you know about Ted Bundy when you received the screenplay?

I followed him at the time and thought he was hysterical. He was the first serial killer, a new kettle of fish, because we didn't have the detection techniques in those days. I was watching his career and thinking, "Jeez, when are they going to fry this mother******?" Eventually they did, being Florida.

What do you mean, hysterical?

He looked like such a Republican. He dressed like Pee-Wee Herman. But had I known what he had done when I was reading about him, I might have thought different. He didn't admit anything till like a week before his execution, and the guys that were interviewing him didn't publicise the details of his crimes. I think the son-of-a-bitch should have been exposed and embarrassed.

You clearly don't like the guy and yet, in the film, his execution is done in a way that makes us sympathise with him...

I didn't have sympathy. Stuffing his ass [with wadding] was a guilty thrill for me. I made it so that people could laugh at it. I wanted to give the audience a sensation of being on the tie-down team. For me, the unusual thing was it felt like the very first pro-death penalty film.

The FBI says there are 40-50 serial killers in America at any one time. Why does the States produce so many?

Because you people dumped all your Puritans on us and now you're running around topless on the Riviera and we're dealing with the Klan and the Nazis and everything else! The funny thing is all these school shootings that we have, always happen in very religious communities. Maybe it's because the centre of their lives is a big fat nothing and it's just a fantasy and there's nothing there. I think maybe that might have something to do with it.