It was rumoured that Fincher had discussions with the studio regarding the length…

Yeah. There always are, because there are certain parameters that say a movie can be more successful if it plays more times.

That’s not to say you don't get a very good movie. Certain stories take a certain time to tell, and this is a man’s whole life story.

One can debate whether a film is too long or too short; there are those who love Benjamin Button and feel it could go on for another two hours, as if absorbing themselves in a great novel. And there are others who feel that it's indulgence.

Was anything lost between your screenplay and the final cut?

Not really. There were little vignettes’ that are somewhat like the man who got struck by lightning. I had a couple more where we would meet characters and find out a bit more about their lives and dramatise that. They became unnecessary, I think.

It does feel like you wanted to focus on Benjamin solely all the way through…

One of the big things that David did was that I always had these incendiary characters that helped inform the main character, but David thought that each of the characters he meets has to have something to offer him.

You do only get a finite amount of time with the characters...

Isn’t that true of life? You get your hellos and goodbyes…

But it doesn’t happen to the central characters. They have their time, then go away, and then come back again...

They're more about missed opportunities. You do find – and not everybody does – but I do find that most people find one person in their life. A partner or a friend or a lover or whatever that kind of weaves in and out of their life. Some people find two or three of those people!

Sometimes they work and they don’t. And the years’ progress. You’re happy and you’re not happy. That’s these two people. Put aside the fact that he has this extraordinary ability to age backwards - if they were having a normal relationship it would be the same thing.

It becomes a different kind of tragic thing that they can’t be together, but that’s all great love stories – people can’t be together.

In Button you have both though – the pair have a tragic romance, but manage to have a happy ending…

Yeah, that was a little bit of a trick! I don’t know how I did it, but I think I pulled it off!

Would you say that was down to the screenwriter or the director?

I’d say that’s the screenwriting! David had to translate that and make that more poignant or whatever, but I think if you read the script you’d feel the same thing.

People said that when they read the last twenty pages of the script they’d start crying and not stop.

My wife and I talk about that all the time. She said she was a little arms' length with it at first because of the CGI, but all of a sudden things accumulate and you start feeling you’re watching a real story.

And you begin to consider your own life, about where does loneliness kick in and what makes people stay together.

Fincher is renowned for putting his own stamp on his movies. Were you concerned when he first signed on board?

When I first met him I didn’t know where he wanted to take this, because it was unlikely material if you just judge the other movies he’s made.

But you quickly realise that he has all sorts of varied interests and is a well-rounded human being, and this was not far from the thoughts and feelings he had about his father’s passing.

Do you think this is Fincher’s ‘Oscar’ movie?

I told him that he’s gotta’ grab hold of my coat-tails! In fact, I just called him up the other day and told him, ‘Look at the ride I’ve given you here, buddy!’

So it’s all down to you then, if he wins?

Basically, yeah! It’s not about him!