Tony Gilroy Jettin to London this month for a special BAFTA screenwriter lecture series.

Issuing the allure of his hotel breakfast buffet, the Oscar nominated screenwriter and

director of Michael Clayton and Born Legacy, headed down to the Empire's studio for a special

chat with us about the art of screenwriting and his career in movies. During his 40 minutes

on the podcast, he gave chapter and verse on his route into the craft, the future of the

Born franchise, his own experiences directing Born Legacy and his occasionally tricky

relationship with Matt Damon, as well as a fascinating soup to nuts inside, interpenning

Michael Clayton's Oscar nominated screenplay. Be warned though, there are Clayton spoilers

about 5 minutes worth near the 20 minute mark, so if you haven't seen it, do the dodging

thing there, and then go and see it, it's great. And with that, it's over to Tony

Gilroy, enjoy.

We have very pleased to be joined on the Empire podcast by Tony Gilroy, the writer of the

Born franchise, director of films like Duplicity, Michael Clayton and obviously most recently,

Born Legacy. And you're over in town at the moment for a lecture which you gave last night

for the BFI and BAFTA. It's a screenwriter's lecture predominantly, so presumably you leave

your director's hat behind and talk purely about the mechanics and the engineering of

the screenplay. How did it go?

It was fun. It was, it makes you nervous. I've never given a speech before. Most writers

never give a, you know, you do a lot of Q&As which are very easy answering questions,

but to get up and sort of have a 20 minute manifesto about something is a little bit daunting.

You've never given a speech before, not even a...

I'm given like a presentation speech at a charity thing and I gave a speech at the director's

...