Indiana Jones

• On Doom Town

• Part of the pleasure of this period, aside from giving us the Russian villains, the context of the Cold War, and the political atmosphere in the United States, is that it was a time sparked by fear of the atomic bomb and Indiana Jones finds himself stumbling into the middle of a bomb test which he survives in typical fashion, by – we're operating right  on the cusp of believability here – seeking shelter in a lead-lined refrigerator!

• On the crystal skull

• I had not heard about crystal skulls prior to becoming involved in this story, but they have been an object of speculation for a long time. There are a number of them in existence. The greatest mystery is how they were made since they're cut from a single piece of quartz crystal, with a methodology which we don't quite understand. Using today's methods to attempt to do such a thing, to carve a crystal out of a single piece, has proved fruitless. Nobody's been able to do anything like that, so there's great speculation about how this was done, what technologies were involved, who the makers were, but as an object of mythology and speculation, the story of the skulls has been around since the 1920s. In the film, the Russians are interested in the skull because of Stalin's interest in the occult, and there was a great fascination in the Soviet Union with using the powers of the occult for military purposes and so the Russians are seeking the skull for its potential as a weapon.

• On the cast

• We've always had wonderful actors in the past films, and again we have wonderful actors. Cate Blanchett plays my primary nemesis, a Russian expert in the occult who's looking for the skull. My friend and occasional nemesis is played by Ray Winstone, who's a lot of fun to watch. Shia LaBeouf is a great addition to the cast. He plays the young man who seeks me out at the beginning of the film and later turns out to be the son of Marion Ravenwood [Karen Allen]. It turns out in the course of events that I am indeed his father, so there's a real emotional bottom to the film that's part of that relation-ship and the relationship with Marion. She remains as feisty, independent, and strong as she ever was, so the relationship is not without some degree of contest between them, but I hope it will be fun for an audience. She clearly describes his trouble with women in general and in a broader sense all men struggle with women, especially strong, independent, intelligent women, and a lot of the comic fodder comes out of their relationship and also out of the process of the revelation of his fatherhood. We are extraordinarily blessed to have John Hurt, who plays the man that Marion chose  to be a kind of surrogate father, not that she and Oxley have a romantic relationship. He becomes a mentor for the young man, Mutt, who is being brought up in a household without a father. For me it's been extraordinary just to show up everyday and watch the work that all of these other actors are doing.

• On Indy's emotional journey

• Certainly the emotional heart of this film is the finding of the son. Actually I'm found by him, but discovering that he is my son kind of plays out during the story. The great love of Indiana Jones' life is Marion – the daughter of an academic associate of his – but he's not seen her or communicated with her for a long time. He's unaware of the fact that they have a child, so it's both delightfully humorous and emotionally satisfying to be a part of these discoveries by Indiana Jones.

• On the movie's exotic locations

• One of the elements of the Indiana Jones films is that some of the action takes place in exotic locations that are a pleasure for the audience to glimpse and provide dramatic context for the story. In the past we've gone to Tunisia, Venice, Italy, and Hawaii, which doubled for a tropical jungle. In this case, a lot of it takes place in the United States and that's not typical of these films, but the environments that we have found in the United States are as fascinating and exciting to be in as the exotic places that we traveled long distances to shoot in before. We had a relatively short period of time on location.  We shot in New Mexico where we filmed the atomic testing grounds and government facilities. We shot in New Haven, Connecticut at Yale College (doubling for Marshall College) which was an extraordinary pleasure. It's one of the most beautiful college campuses I've seen anywhere in the United States. We shot in Hawaii on the north shore of the big island doubling for the jungles of Peru.

• On working on set

• I certainly have, as Steven does, a taste for physical effects compared to those that are produced by computer. I love being on a physical set. I don't so much love being in front of a blue screen with everything added later. It's not because the acting issue is the biggest problem, I think fundamentally so much of what's been done with CGI lacks an emotional kind of component. It‘s not recognizable in the human experience. It's often been used to produce effects that are bigger, multiples of things whether they be bugs, soldiers, or a full stadium full of people observing a sporting event. I think you have to be very careful to keep them human-scale and to use them in such a way that they have an emotional relationship to what the audience is seeing on-screen. Guy Hendrix Dyas, our production designer, has given us extraordinary sets, the like of which I have never seen in 40 years of doing this. The detail and the interest that those sets add absolutely blows my mind.  There's one set which I was amazed by when I saw it. From floor to the top of the set it's easily 80 feet and it's made of stone on the inside and there's a circular staircase inside with steps of about six feet in width. Those steps are able to be sucked back into the wall of the silo that houses this circular staircase, and we find ourselves there as the steps are disappearing. Many of the sets on this film that have mechanical aspects to them are fascinating. We shot a door that we were able to open though a combination of our ingenuity and the psychic powers of the crystal skull, but the door was one of the most amazing things I've seen! It had about 20 different elements that all came together to open it. It's fascinating and skilled work by the effects and art departments.

• On Indy's house

• Indiana Jones has a house close to the college where he teaches and it's reflective of his history that we know from the last three films that's observed and amplified by the detail that is brought to that environment. I'm always a little nervous about walking onto something that represents the character that I'm playing. I always hope that it's going to mesh with the ambitions    I have for the character and how I feel I've represented the character, and I was delighted by what I saw. It was so spot-on and so good.

• On the crystal skulls and crystal skeletons

• You read it on paper and then you see what they have managed to come up with and how engaging and interesting it is visually. It's a great element in the film, overall. I've never been a fan of little green men and that sort of thing, but this is an intriguing new proposition about what might ensue from an extraterrestrial visit to an ancient culture.

• On working with the Indy team

• Part of the pleasure of success is it gives you license to do it again, and to do it again with the same people is a mark of the respect that you have for what they've brought to the table. So to be reunited with George, Steven, Kathy [Kennedy], and Frank [Marshall], who are the original producers, and many of the other people who were part of the original three films, is a great delight. Steven has created a small army of the finest craftsman in a variety of areas. Part of this is because Steven is so incredibly prolific. He's able to keep people busy from film to film. I mean, many of these people have done 10 or 15 films with Steven so they know what the goals are. They understand the man at the top and what needs to be done to satisfy his very stringent requirements. Steven is remarkable in many different ways and the one that I think is less observed by most people is his truly incredible capacity for hard work. I don't think I've ever met anybody that works as hard as Steven does. He has the capacity to be specific and demanding without being hard on people. He gets the best from the people who work with him and they enjoy giving their best.

• On the audience

• The Indiana Jones films truly are for the audience. They are visceral, emotional, and surprising. It's a great ride and part of it comes from a sense in Steven's mind that he is not separate and superior to his audience, that they are us, and that they deserve our best efforts and our clearest interpretations of the ideas.

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