Nicole, Sean, Sydney and Kofi?

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Sydney Pollack is know for directing intelligent thrillers (The Firm) and intelligent actors (Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Meryl Streep). His newest film, The Interpreter, pairs Oscar winners Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn in the first movie ever shot inside the U.N.'s New York City headquarters. TIME's Josh Tyrangiel sat down with Kidman, Penn and Pollack to discuss Kofi Annan, Chris Rock and Princess Leia--and to hear Penn dispense a surprising number of Borscht-Belt-or-better-quality one-liners.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK WAS FAMOUSLY DENIED PERMISSION TO SHOOT NORTH BY NORTHWEST IN THE U.N. WHAT POWERS OF PERSUASION DO YOU HAVE THAT HE DIDN'T?

SYDNEY POLLACK: I'm sure if Hitchcock were alive today, he'd be shooting at the U.N. It was time, honestly, more than anything else. We came at a moment when they were interested in opening up, and we came with good credentials, two terrific actors whose politics were known to the U.N. They were comfortable that we weren't going to make a picture where people were getting it on on the floor of the General Assembly.

SEAN PENN: You cut that?

POLLACK: I was desperate to get the building--the movie would have been a fiasco without it--but also desperate not to be a used-car salesman. I met with Kofi Annan and said, "I wish I could tell you we're going to make this great message movie for the U.N., but we're not. It's a thriller. It's sympathetic to the U.N.'s goals, but it's not a preaching piece about politics."

PENN: We shouldn't dismiss the possibility that the U.N. came strictly because Nicole was in the picture, and they wanted to meet her.

POLLACK: We did hear a lot of that.

PENN: But whether or not Sydney was doing a dog- and-pony show at the U.N., I guarantee you he was relentless. It drives you crazy, but he gets what he wants.

NICOLE KIDMAN: Yes, and that's a good thing for a director. You prefer someone who'll tell you what he wants and get in your face rather than sit back and be on the cell phone between takes.

DO OTHER DIRECTORS TALK ON CELL PHONES BETWEEN TAKES?

KIDMAN: [Laughs] Maybe.

PENN: Probably just to badger the writer.

SYDNEY, YOU'VE WORKED WITH A NUMBER OF ICONIC ACTORS--REDFORD, NEWMAN, STREEP, JANE FONDA. DID YOU KNOW EARLY ON WHOM YOU WANTED FOR THIS MOVIE?

POLLACK: I had Nicole first, and I was trying very hard to find the actor who would disturb her--I mean, disturb the character. The movie takes place over five days, and there are five major scenes between these two characters, and each one is kind of a one-act play. They have to disturb each other in an attractive way. We didn't have a finished script until deep into the shooting, but I thought, O.K., I know Nic a little bit, I can be embarrassed by asking her to do a picture I don't have a script for. But I didn't know Sean that well. Am I going to fly up there like an a__hole and say do this thing for me without a script? In the end, I just admitted it. When I met him, I said, "If I were you, I wouldn't do this."

PENN: There wasn't a finished script, but you had a lot of good things. There was her, and, you know, you've already made 152 great movies. What is that, about a movie a year?