Steven Shainberg
Movie Director
Steven Shainberg discusses his film 'Secretary', which won Best First Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards and a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. He talks about the unique love story and the performances of Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader.
Steven Shainberg
“Secretary” & “Hit Me”
About Steven Shainberg
Steven Shainberg is an American film director and producer born February 5, 1963. He made his feature debut with Hit Me (1996), followed by Secretary (2002), a critically acclaimed drama starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader that won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance and earned Gyllenhaal a Golden Globe nomination. His subsequent films include Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006) with Nicole Kidman and the horror-thriller Rupture (2016).
In this interview
- Discusses Secretary winning Best First Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards
- Talks about Maggie Gyllenhaal's first big role with no previous associations
- Describes pairing newcomer Gyllenhaal with experienced James Spader's authority as an actor
- Calls Secretary a very unique love story with incredible performances
“You don't have any associations to her. You don't know who she is. So she is this girl.”— Steven Shainberg, in this interview
Since this interview
Shainberg directed Rupture (2016), a horror-thriller starring Noomi Rapace. In 2017, reflecting on Secretary's 15th anniversary, he stated the film 'couldn't get made today.'
