TODD Field talks about the challenge of directing Little Children and why he chose not to judge one of its most controversial characters – namely, a paedophile…

Q. What have you been doing for the past five years?
Todd Field: We completed In The Bedroom in 2001. It was acquired by Miramax and then there was a very long period of promoting that film – all the way until April ’02. I took about six months off and then started on another project which I worked on for about a year, year and a half. I had trouble getting funding for it. Then I read Tom’s book in 2003 and began working on the script.

Q. Was Kate the first person on board in terms of casting?
Todd Field: Kate was the first person that I asked to come and make the film with me.

Q. Is it true that the film itself evolved from another book that you couldn’t get the rights to?
Todd Field: One of the things that I’d thought about doing after In The Bedroom was another book but yes, there were rights problems and I didn’t pursue it. There was an idea in that book among many things that resonated for me in Perrotta’s novel that I thought were present in this book. So that was probably a large part of the attraction.

Q. Do you have any personal stories or experiences of suburbia that influenced the creation of the version of it we seen on-screen?
Todd Field: In terms of the suburbia component of Tom’s book, it’s probably the one thing that probably made me hesitate from actually doing this story. Only because there’s a long tradition for exploring what you call suburban angst, or the lack of identity in America based on the homogeny of culture and the hijacking of culture. But I don’t think that in the time we’re living in right now there really is suburbia. If you go to the middle of Ohio, or the Upper West Side of New York City, everyone is wearing the same Banana Republic sweater, they’re liste