Cary Fukunaga Explains His Four Year Gap Between Projects

Cary Fukunaga looks handsome in a shot from the September issue of GQ, available now.

Here’s what the 41-year-old director had to share with the mag:

On his four year gap between projects: “Between directing Beasts of No Nation and directing Maniac, it was three and a half years of no production. [Time] vaporized. Just gone. And without a break. I was working the entire time. You’re like, ‘I’m in the prime of my directing life.’ That’s a long time.”

On leaving It two weeks before filming: “I think it was fear on [studio executives] part, that they couldn’t control me. No, they thought they couldn’t control me. I would have been a total collaborator. That was the kind of ridiculous part. It was just more a perception.”

On rewriting Maniac scripts three months before production:”I was saying: ‘this wasn’t good enough.’ The whole joy in this is to be able to play with different worlds and we’re not doing that. Everyone was concerned. It made it hard to budget; it made it hard to schedule…But it was the right move.”

For more from Cary, visit GQ.com.