Don't ask filmmaker Scott Cooper about film school. He didn't go. As a result, he doesn't rely as heavily on traditional writing devices. His first film, Crazy Heart, and his followup, Out of the Furnace, were both written from personal experience, research and imagination. Out of the Furnace stars Christian Bale and Casey Affleck as two brothers struggling in the economically depraved Rust Belt. Cooper talks about the filmmakers and literary figures who have inspired him most, including the Dardenne brothers and William Faulkner, and why he grew up watching movies without the sound.
Photo: Ginsberg/Libby