From KCRW in Santa Monica, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to The Treatment.

I'm Elvis Mitchell. You can also hear this show at KCRW.com.

Since his 1994 film Spanking the Monkey, my guest, writer-director

David R. Russell, has focused on family dynamics, defining oneself in those circumstances,

as he did in his 1996 film flirting with disaster, his 1999 film Three Kings, bonds were connected

by through family and the military, and his newest film, The Fighter, combines family and boxing, although his films in some way are always about family and boxing.

David, thanks for coming back to the show.

Oh, Elvis, always good to see you.

For you, comedy, though, is always the thing you go back to again and again and again.

I mean, you use comedy the way other people tend to use drama in films as a way to explore character.

And I wonder where that comes from for you.

Christian Bale said about me, his reading of me, which I thought was interesting,

is that I'm very sincere and very silly, which I hadn't realized.

I knew that I was kind of silly, and I guess I'm also sincere,

because I'm not sarcastic.

So if I joke around, it's usually by being silly or finding humor in something that's real.

So I would say the drama goes together with the comedy.

Yeah, yeah, but I think it's interesting is that whereas they are dramatic situations,

I mean, there's the people in these circumstances are often so intense that comedy can't

help but come out of it.

Right.

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