Filmmaker James Gray opened a Sunday press conference at the 79th Locarno Film Festival by admitting he is "always shocked" when actors say they want to work with him, a self-deprecating remark that set the tone for a wide-ranging conversation ahead of him receiving the festival's Career Leopard honour. He went on to argue that actors have far more influence over a film's style than is generally acknowledged, describing his own role as simply making performers comfortable enough to excel rather than actively directing their performances.

Gray also explained that he deliberately avoids writing scripts with specific actors in mind, having learned that availability and physical suitability often force major rewrites. He praised Italian cinema between 1945 and 1980 as an unmatched era of directorial brilliance, and described film as the art form closest to a dream, likening disruptions such as someone talking in a cinema to an unwelcome interruption of that dream.