When I was in London, working on First Knight, which was 1994, I met Anthony Minghella, who phoned me up. And he was in negotiations with Saul Zaentz, who had produced Unbearable Lightness of Being, which I had edited back in the mid-'80s. And Anthony and Saul were planning to make a film of The English Patient, the Michael Ondaatje novel. And I immediately warmed to Anthony as a human being. And I loved the subject matter. I had already read the book, not knowing that Saul was thinking of making a film of it. And we bonded pretty quickly just as friends. And one thing led to another. And I found myself in Rome in 1995, editing English Patient.

There had been some last minute shuffles with the studio, who did not agree about the casting. They didn't think the casting was strong enough. From their point of view, they didn't like Kristin Scott Thomas. Not they didn't like her, they didn't think she was a star. And Ralph Fiennes, they didn't know really. They thought... Anyway, the suggestion that the studio had, instead of Kristin, they wanted Demi Moore to play Katharine. And there's a kind of symmetry here because Demi Moore had been in Ghost. And she occupied a certain blue collar, American wavelength. And the idea of her playing the part of cut glass English nobility, aristocracy just... There was a meeting where this was discussed, apparently. And Anthony and Saul said, 'Are you serious?' And the studio said, 'Well, yes, we know she probably wouldn't be good for the film. But she would be good for us', meaning, we would like to cast her in the film, which might make it difficult for you. But having her in a 20th Century Fox film might allow us to make a deal with Bruce Willis, who was married to her at the time. So it was part of this, you know, real politic negotiation that goes on a lot, and is responsible for some of the miscasting of films that we were talking about earlier. It has nothing to do with what people thought would be right. They even knew it was slightly wrong. But they wanted to have that because that would give them some advantage in the chess game, further on down the road.