My basic view of India is of a super diverse country with a fascinating history and cultures, and really great food. Politically I see a country that unfortunately is leaning in a more authoritarian direction as time goes one, and one that is getting increasingly unequal to its inhabitants. I really think India has so much potential but little will to actually improve.

Do you mean back when he played a caricature of a conservative “talking head”?

On the Hobbit movies, I don’t even think studio meddling was the biggest issue.

Peter Jackson had so much time to prepare for the original trilogy, where as he took over the Hobbit movies quite soon before they were scheduled to shoot and he couldn’t use the preparation the previous director had done.

So he had no time to prepare and basically had to wing it with 3 movies and little to no prep.