On being in a futuristic film...
Samantha Morton: You can get focussed on that too much when you’re making a film set in the future. Michael [Winterbottom] wanted to lose that, to liberate us in a way. We were making a film about love as opposed to making a science fiction film with all sorts of gadgets. I enjoyed that aspect of the script, with the focus on two people so that the fact it was set in the future didn’t really matter.
Tim Robbins: I really liked the idea of doing a romance. I hadn’t done one in a while and I wanted to find one that was interesting. This was set in the future, with the classic love story structure of an obstacle placed between the man and the woman being together. This had classic elements but reinvented in a way that was really interesting. The obstacle was the genetic make up, and the idea that in the future with man messing around so much with cloning that certain people are forbidden from being together, sexually, because of what they might produce. My character and Sam’s character recognise a love and a faith and a destiny but they have to overcome the obstacles placed in front of them.

On filming in Shanghai, Dubai and Jaipur...
Robbins: You had to be ready for everything. The first couple of weeks were fairly chaotic, because we were in Shanghai and that’s a chaotic kind of city. I can’t understand how more cyclists don’t get hit, but there don’t seem to be any rules on traffic, or maybe it’s that the bicycles rule the traffic and the cars are supposed to stop. I couldn’t figure it out; it was too chaotic for me. Michael had such a renegade spirit, that we would just jump out of cars and start shooting and that can be fantastic. I think he got some really great stuff there.
Morton: I’ve done a lot of films like that, and it’s one of the reasons I love my job. But the separation aspect in the story is one that’s happening more and more in society. People are being pushed into this world that’s encapsulated in their own self. You’ve got all these books on self help, getting to know yourself, doing the right thing, eating the so-called right foods, even down to what books you have on your shelves. People are encouraged to look to themselves first as opposed to being a part of society.

On how Code 46's bleak future is echoed in society already...
Robbins: There’s a tendency now to rule by fear, to convince people that they’re in danger constantly. At least in my country, although probably in Britain too. There’s this scare and that scare, this warning alert and that warning alert. If you just consider what happens when you turn the television off, you’ll find if something’s dangerous to you in your area. Word will get to you. There are some people that are now staring at that thing for hours and hours and hours, becoming completely terrified of life. That’s not a good thing.
Morton: Actually I think there’s a lot of social conditioning in society even today – whether we’re aware of it or not. A lot of people aren’t, but it has to do with the image you put out to the rest of the world. You can analyse it and say that to a potential mate you’re saying a lot about yourself in what you wear, for example, and you’re therefore attracting a certain kind of person. The film just focuses on this in a way that’s a little more controlled.

On the film's nightmarish bureaucracy...
Morton: When I was growing up I wanted to go to drama school to become an actor, but you needed a minimum of five GCSE’s to even audition for RADA. I left school very young, so I didn’t have this piece of paper and I was told I couldn’t even audition without it. And then there’s the issue of homelessness in the UK now, it’s ridiculous, it’s getting like Victorian England. I think the film’s incredible because it’s more true to life than any science fiction film I’ve seen. It’s shockingly real. The stuff that’s in the film is happening now; we just choose not to see it.
Robbins: Maybe it’s a warning. Maybe it’s a way to imagine a future that we don’t want to be living in. There are limitations placed in every society. The only way to be totally free is to be free in your mind. There are always going to be restrictions, laws and limitations placed on us. This prevents anarchy. Finding your way to freedom is always a challenge of overcoming whatever obstacles are placed in front of you by society. That’s a universal theme. There’s a way to be free in a terribly oppressive society, and there’s a way to be a slave in a free society. It’s really up to the individual and how they choose to live their life and whether they choose to celebrate their freedom or let it lie stagnant and atrophy.

On the film's cautionary message...
Robbins: Imagine that you’re the enforcer of a rule you don’t believe in any more. A good parallel would be the policeman who is a good and honest man, but he has to arrest people for smoking pot. He knows that putting these kids in jail is going to make them criminals, it won’t do anything productive for society anyway, so he stops doing it. He makes a decision when he sees that person that he’ll ignore it, because he can’t participate in that lie any more. But he’s not doing his job. His job is to arrest them, but he’s making a moral decision. I think [my character] William has reached his limit with these kind of overly intrusive laws that he’s involved in the regulation of. When he meets her and he sees her spirit he doesn’t have the belief he had when he started his detective work. He doesn’t have the passion he had. And this, of course, leads to trouble.
Morton: We’re all living blinkered lives, and we’re not seeing what’s going on and looking to change it. I’m not saying that everyone has to make a political statement, but we need to be more aware of what’s happening and why. I think it’s a film that stays with you. People are coming out and going ‘wow’, and want to see it again. I watched The Usual Suspects again the other night, and I’ve seen it so many times but I can keep watching it and notice different bits each time. This is the same, it really makes you think about things in society, your motivations, your relationships. But, if you want, you can also get lost in the love story.”

Thanks to Jo at McDonald Rutter