In the past five years, David O. Russell has made two of the most successful films of his career, The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook. What made all the difference, he says, is that these are stories that were intensely familiar to him. His own family is similarly colorful to the family at the core of The Fighter, and Bradley Cooper's character, Pat, in Silver Linings Playbook, was like a 35-year-old version of Russell's 18-year-old son, who also suffers from bipolar disorder. Russell also shares thwarted plans for the film, which was originally penned for Vince Vaughn and Zooey Deschanel, and explains how he eventually got his dream cast (including Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro) to form the perfect dysfunctional family.
Banner image: Larry Hirshowitz