Hello, and thanks for tuning in to another episode of The Directors Cut, brought to you by the Directors Guild of America,

featuring today's top directors sharing behind-the-scenes stories of their latest films and insights into the craft of directing.

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This episode takes us behind the scenes of director Karen Kusama's new drama, Destroyer.

The film stars Nicole Kidman as LAPD detective Aaron Bell,

whose undercover assignment when she was a young cop,

the infiltration of a gang in the California desert,

ended tragically.

When the leader of that gang reemerges years later,

she seeks to finally lay to rest her personal demons from that case.

In addition to Destroyer, Ms. Kusama's credits include the feature films The Invitation,

Jennifer's Body, Eon Flux, and episodes of the television series Halt and Catch Fire, Billions, and Casual.

In 2000, she took home the Sundance Film Festival directing award for her

debut feature Girl Fight. Following a recent screening of the film at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles,

Ms. Kusama spoke with director Christopher Nolan about filming Destroyer. During their conversation,

Ms. Kusama discusses reworking the genre conventions of

the revenge movie, her desire for most of the movie to have a pressure cooking feeling to it,

and how she worked with Nicole Kidman to define Aaron Bell as a character.

Thank you. So, let's talk genre and the use of genre because for me I'm a big fan of the genre.

And a very big fan of what you've done with it here. And for me the best examples of the use

of genre are when they reflect on or allow you to extrapolate from your own human experience.

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