Are you an Arsenal fan, perchance?

No, Im not at all!

I saw the big Arsenal flag, and the news story about Chelsea going bankrupt.

That wasnt you?!

And in Tamsin (Egertons) character questionnaire, she said that Cassandra would be an Arsenal fan.

When do they do that?

Straight after they get the first script?

How did they meet the other girls, blah blah blah.

All that kind of stuff.

We get really in-depth.

What did your mum do?

What does your dad do?

So we sit them all together and choose which story works.

Its all down to them.

How long before the shoot do you do that?

From the moment theyre cast they get sent the questionnaire.

Is that something youd carry across to everything you direct, be it a play or a film?

The films, yeah.

Only the main cast.

I dont have everyone do it.

Only the cast that have through-threads we make them do that kind of stuff.

But I think its really important and we make them get the vibe of them.

Thats quite a theatre workshop approach, rather than a traditional movie way of doing things?

I think a few people do that, but I kind of like it.

It really helps you develop character.

And Id say, How would you say it?

You should know your character by now.

You dont take the Michael Bay approach then?

[Laughs] JUST RUN!

But what about the performance?

WELL PUT THE ACTING IN AFTERWARDS!

You dont necessarily sit there and think of how quickly youve turned a scene round.

How deeply did you do the storyboarding work?

Stuff like any big scene.

Any scene of that sort of size.

They were still planned out, they werent storyboarded so meticulously.

Youll be surprised to hear that Ive not filmed a sex scene personally.

Because we showed the girls what we were planning to do.

We explained to them at the beginning in the auditions and explained what we were going to do.

You storyboard it to show exactly what you were planning.

And if you look at that scene, you dont see much.

You see her bottom.

But everyone sees bums.

We promised her that none of her goodies would be seen at all.

And thats part of storyboarding.

Then youre in the bar, and it goes from there.

Its one steady montage.

Youve said of your earlier work that 95-99% of what you write is what you film.

That its not improvised, that you film the script.

Was that the case here?

No, its scripted.

But the others are all scripted.

Even Kevin Smiths stuff, 80-85% of his stuff is scripted.

And then the rest of it came true afterwards!

Ill come to him in a minute!

Im interesting in the co-directing mechanic, though.

How does that work for you and Mark Davis?

Its fine, because Ive known Mark for a long time.

Anyone who goes on IMDb and looks at my first job, hes the editor.

We did a short film calledPlasticthat I appear in.

We wanted to make a BritishGo.

There was never any Lets do this, no, lets do that.

We got on, we get on, we just did it.

I thought I saw a bit ofAmores Perrosin there too?

In the grade especially, the blown-out whites and how we wanted the film to look.

And the dog is the one fromAmores Perros.

But its an homage.

Because thats one of the films Amores Perros,Go,Pulp Fiction that inspired this film.

Its one of the things that we wanted to do.

It struck me too that you have to sit through a lot of logos at the start.

The Universal logo was awesome.

But youve got six or seven more that followed.

It was the one thing that struck me as very British about4.3.2.1.

Yeah, because it takes so many people to spend money together to make a film.

Thats why weve got the logos.

But it wasnt really a case of that.

It was a case of we needed them all.

Some of them, like Pinewood, they dont get involved.

They help the film, they get the logo.

The Film Council, they help you, they get their logo.

Its a thing like that.

Its the thing that annoyed me that we had so many logos.

But you need that many people over here to make the film.

There will never be a directors cut of this film, because what you see is what we wanted.

What also stuck out was that you went to New York for a part of the shoot.

How did the practicalities of that pan out?

Because youre working with a different crew, presumably?

Yes, apart from the DoP.

Mark and I and the DoP came out, and thats what you need.

We know what the films going to be and he knows the look of the film.

You didnt go to an anonymous bit of New York either!

You went slap bang into the middle of Times Square.

How does that alter the way you film?

Presumably when youre filming in Britain you get a few people looking by, but in Times Square?

Its Times Square, people see cameras there all the time.

I think they see people filming there once a week.

People look for Tom Cruise and then move on?

Yeah, people look around.

And there was a little bit of me getting recognised, which I was surprised by.

Is that forDoctor Who?

It was probably moreDoctor Who.

Some people were just calling me by my name.

But its just the same, really.

You have the police there to watch over you, and you go out and you film.

It was good fun.

Just continuing theDoctor Whotheme too, youve got Nick Briggs in the film!

Hes the manager of the salon.

I like him, we got on.

When we didDoctor Who, we got on really well.

Were at the complete opposite ends of the scale.

Weve been mates since.

But Id love Briggsy to pop up in each thing.

I loved him inAdulthoodand this is a much bigger part.

Emma had to be last for me.

It ties stuff up, so it had to go at the end.

I didnt want New York to be first, because it really separates it from the others.

Itd be New York, and then three London stories.

So, I wanted it to be second.

So, then it was a case between Kerrys and Shannon.

I think putting Shannon in the middle would slow the film down.

Its a really important story.

It is melancholy, but it was always written this way.

Shannon going third would slow things down.

You start slow and you build up.

Also, because shes the anchor of the film.

The film is kind of Shannons story.

Shes the face on the bridge you see first.

It is the most melancholy, but its the most heart-rending story.

Shes a put-upon girl, and she feels down.

But a lot of people do.

And you have to have that one first.

Ordinarily, if you go by the rule book, hers is the story that should go third?

I dont listen to rules, man!

Has he actually seen the film yet?

I dont think he has, no.

I dont think he has seen it.

But he was there, did it, knew what he was doing.

He had a good time.

Hes definitely someone Id listen to.

Hes a great guy, great performance, and people really respond to it.

Comedy is something you seem to have a flair for.

Is that a direction youre tempted to go in?

One of the films that were building up is a comedy.

I dont know if Ive got a flair for it.

I think Im a mildly amusing fella, but you could never be sure.

One persons humour is another persons poison!

I just put things in that I thought were funny.

And Im like, Listen, dont fucking tell me what I would do.

And there was one kid who asked a few questions, the only one who seemed interested.

So, I contacted him, invited him to screenings, Ive given him advice and all that.

The rest of them?

I couldnt give a fuck.

They just wasted my time.

People telling me what I would have done!

I just wanted to learn and know, and these people just sat there.

I saw you did the deal with Icon to keep the films coming.

Last time we spoke, the next one was likely to be Olympics meetsRockymeetsAny Given Sunday.

I dont know if thats the next one, but its definitely one of them.

Weve got sci-fis, comedies.

Theres a few things that are bubbling, and Im only going to direct one.

But there are four things that are bubbling that could potentially go.

Were not just about hoodie movies or young movies.

4.3.2.1is a definite direction we wanted to take, doing more commercial stuff.

But theyre not all going to be like that.

Were going to do different things…

Noel Clarke, thank you very much!

4.3.2.1 is released in the UK on Wednesday 2ndJune.