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A. No. Because if you knew her, you'd know that's not true. She's a sharp, grownup person. She's probably more mature than I am. I really mean that.
Q. Your movies always explore these types of emotions and motives. You must have sat up one night and thought about the problems you might cause dating the daughter of a previous lover, a mother she doesn't like?
A. I didn't think about her not liking Mia. I did think that, well, she is the adoptive daughter of my previous girlfriend, but that didn't mean anything to me. It didn't manifest itself in any significant way. She was a grown, sophisticated person. She was raised in New York.
Q. You're a guy who can find moral dilemmas in a broken DON'T WALK sign. Didn't you see some here?
A. I didn't find any moral dilemmas whatsoever. I didn't feel that just because she was Mia's daughter, there was any great moral dilemma. It was a fact, but not one with any great import. It wasn't like she was my daughter.
Q. Did you ever discuss with her, "What is Mom going to think of this?"
A. Mom would have thought more or less the same thing if it had been my secretary or an actress.
Q. Come on!
A. There is a different psychodynamic here, without any question, but the difference is one of small degree. If I had said to "Mom" -- it was actually "Mia" that she called her -- I'm in love with my secretary, there would have been some version of the same thing.
Q. But you didn't tell Mia before it blew up, right?
A. I wanted to make sure this thing was going to take off. For all I knew I might have just been a little footnote in Soon-Yi's life, and then she would later say, Well, I had a little flirtation with my mother's boyfriend at the end of their relationship.
Q. Did you talk to your analyst about how this would affect a child?
A. It wasn't so complex. It doesn't have that quality to it that you think.
Q. What about how it would affect her siblings?
A. These people are a collection of kids, they are not blood sisters or anything. If Mia did not keep them whipped up and enraged these days, telling them how to react, I don't think they would have cared two seconds.
Q. Did you really take nude pictures of Soon-Yi?
A. Yes. Soon-Yi had talked about being a model and said to me would I take some pictures of her without her clothes on. At this time we had an intimate relationship, so I said sure, and I did. It was just a lark of a moment.
Q. What did Mia do when she found them?
A. She hit the ceiling. I said, Look, our relationship has been over for some time. We should go our separate ways. The important thing is that we do what is right for our children. She was too angry. She instantly brought all the kids in on it, told all of them. This was Jan. 13. It was a dreadful thing to do. She phoned people saying I had molested her daughter, raped her daughter.
Q. What did she do with Soon-Yi?