"For me, it is the most alive and electric filmmaking. [Martin Scorsese is] obviously one of the greats, but he brought that ’70s filmmaking to 1990, which… I can’t believe it’s a 1990 film. I love gangster films and I love The Godfather, but I am a Goodfellas girl. I thought there was just so much captured in the masculinity of it and the relationships between men, the family dynamic, the structure of it, the mafia, that sort of hierarchy and camaraderie. I just think it’s one of the most exciting films ever made, of course. The writing is extraordinary, as is the improvisation of it. And seeing what he puts in a frame during a scene, like Joe Pesci telling the story, and you think it’s a funny scene when you realize it’s really just like these two setups over and over and that these… You sort of see the layout of the guys in the background who’s listening and the tension that he’s able to create by just hanging on something. That was something that I was trying to bring into [Hustlers]: in terms of how he treated violence, that was something that I felt about how to treat the nudity, in a way. So it was a touchstone for me in how to, not just approach anti-heroes or an underworld, but also just… What’s the difference between the gun and a body as being used, being weaponized? And an outfit, a bandage dress, being weaponized, you know? And the role that each of them play in that hustle and in the group."

"Is it cheating? [Laughs] It’s hard to pick. I wouldn’t necessarily know which. I mean, I love the Goblet of Fire. I don’t know. Maybe the Goblet of Fire. I read those books so quickly when I was a kid, because that whole world was so, like… it took me out of my reality. And I just love magic and I loved that whole world, the creatures, and just how you felt so friendly with all the characters. The way they translated that into movies, I thought was genius. You know when they take a book, and they make it a movie, and you hope that it’s gonna be everything that you hope for and more? To me they just succeeded. I don’t know, I just love them so much. Every time I’m sick I’ll watch a marathon of them and I can repeat all the words."

"My family, we only watch scary movies together. We do not watch comedy – anything – we just watch scary movies. The only other times that I have seen scary movies is when I’m watching Netflix in my room. And I think I’ve probably watched The Conjuring 100 times. I’m not exaggerating: I’ve watched The Conjuring a hundred times. I could recite the movie. A lot of scary movies usually just [feature] a bunch of pop-ups, which is pretty scary, but I don’t really think it’s that scary – it catches you off guard and you’re just shocked. But with The Conjuring it’s actually creepy stuff. And they have a lot of things that I have phobias of. It all piles up. It’s not just like, “Ooh that was scary for a second!” It’s like “Oh my God, that’s so scary!” and then it keeps adding on. It’s not a pop-up and then in another 20 minutes it’s going to be another pop-up. It’s: “Why is she still walking towards me? And why is it still getting more intense?”"

"That’s another one for me that, basically it’s stunning how — it’s an incredible watch. And I think it’s the performances, again, I find riveting. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman are just incredible. It’s just such a beautiful film, I think. The story is incredible, it’s so well made. I think Frank [Darabont] dialed in on the direction — I love all of his movies. They have a style that I really like. Anytime I think of this movie, it’s just a sweeping shot coming over the prison while Morgan Freeman is narrating his — it’s such an incredible sense of memories. I went to see it with my parents; I guess I was thirteen when it came out. I think I was — or fourteen — and I remember just being absolutely blown away by it. I mean I know it’s one that’s on nearly everybody’s list, but for me it was also — it was kind of like the first sort of grown-up movie that I went to see with my parents, and that we could have a proper conversation about."

"I guess I would say, again, to choose among a lot of different ones, I love Sullivan’s Travels. I love a lot of Preston Sturges movies. It’s a movie about movies, and I just think it’s just so funny. I love it. The first five minutes of the movie are among the funniest five minutes ever. Like when he’s in the studio boss’s office; it’s the fastest dialogue. [laughs] How they managed to do that scene, it’s just flying."

"Royal Trux are a band I maybe got into four or five years ago. I think me liking them has a lot to do with just how good a guitar player Neil Hagerty is, but I like Royal Trux a lot more than any of the other bands he was in. It's just that feeling of when you're making music with the right person, a whole genre might evolve from it. They are completely unique and I think that he couldn't have done it without Jennifer Herrema - it could have only have ever been the two of them. That's what's so great about so many records I like... they often have a partnership of two people and their music couldn't have happened any other way. I feel The Horrors are like that a bit because we've seen so many bands come and go in the ten years since we've been a band. It feels like such a lottery whether a band stays together or not. But, on the other side of that, for us it feels like we could never actually break up. I guess that's an odd thing to say. That's about as optimistic as I get, probably."

"This song has this kind of rocksteady beat over a little bit of a punk rock thing, but I could relate to it because it still sounded like folk music. It wasn’t over the top like the Sex Pistols, it was music from the street and for the people and it had a heartbeat. Joe was explaining the situation in the song much like Bob too, and something in my head just clicked where I was like, ‘This is the same.’ That sent me even further on my musical course. “When I first heard Joe and Mick [Jones, lead guitarist in The Clash] get together and play those beats with the simple guitar stabs, I knew that all I cared about was lyrics. I didn’t care about the music or playing technical. Of course, I was only 13 years old and now I care much more about that, but at this point I just wanted to communicate my message and The Clash showed me the way. After that I got even deeper into storytelling punk rock music."