Spanish film director and icon Pedro Almodóvar told Latino USA that if he had to create a film about the current political climate in the United States, “it would be a catastrophe movie like Poseidon or Titanic—to see the whole country drowned. But I prefer a screwball comedy. A crazy, surrealistic comedy about this reality.”

For his latest film Julieta, Almodóvar had at one point considered casting a very vocal dissident to President-elect Donald Trump as the lead.

“In the case of Julieta, if I were to do it in English, I thought about Meryl Streep when the character is older and Cate Blanchett would be perfect for when the character is younger.” Almodóvar said. “Here, there are many actresses to work with.”

But ultimately Almodóvar decided that he did not want to make a film in English.

“I know that I can be understood by the actors and actresses but in my way of shooting before every day, we have a rehearsal and almost every day I adapt [the script] and I change the dialogues. And this is something I cannot do in English,” he said. “This is one of the reasons I almost did the movie in English but I preferred not to because of this insecurity—that I correct everything in the last minutes and I can only do that in Spanish.”

Julieta is out in theaters now, and to hear how Almodóvar feels about its place relative to the rest of his films, listen to a snippet of Latino USA’s interview with the director.

Latino USA producers Antonia Cereijido and Fernanda Echavarri’s interview with Almodóvar will air next month as part of a piece featuring his retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Featured image courtesy of Sony Classics