Moments that show the poignancy of Button's reverse aging were among Fincher's favorite in the film because of the sadness they evoked.

BD: It must've been important for Brad to feel as comfortable as possible.

DF: It was so freeing not to have to worry about all of the technique that you have to in motion picture acting... So much of what we ask actors to do is more about how they dance with the camera than how they reach down and illuminate a little piece of their souls. That was an interesting thing for me. To be honest, I felt that we really needed to be careful about how we set this thing up because I didn't want him walking into the performance capture stuff and all of a sudden it becomes something other than playing. Because that's really what acting is and the environment you're hopefully trying to set up: to play and feel freedom to make mistakes. And we were able to do that and he felt completely unencumbered. And we budgeted for 10 days and we were done in five.

BD: What is your favorite moment in the movie?

DF: My favorite moment? I don't know. To be totally honest, there were a lot of things I understood intellectually but when you see them they're very different. One of the things I wasn't really aware of was... the poignancy of seeing -- if you buy off on the idea that he's aging in reverse -- a certain kind of sadness that's evoked. If you see someone who is 50-years-old, you have no idea of they have 30 years left or five years left. When you see someone who is aging in reverse and they're 11, you know exactly how many years they have left. I mean, in a weird way, the clock ticking down or the hourglass running out is more poignantly expressed by this conceit. And so I always imagined the child as a little old man: I sort of knew what that was. But the notion of him coming back into [Daisy's] life as a 23-year-old, you really start to go: "Wow! It's really winding down."

BD: So much of it is internalized...

DF: Yeah, which I always love. I like actors who don't wear it on their sleeve.

Fincher sees Button as a Hollywood romance with a little bit more riptide.

BD: Years ago, I made the observation that your movies were like Grimm fairy tales: parables about getting closer in touch with your own sense of humanity. I think Benjamin Button doesn't get under your skin like your other films, but it still fits.

DF: I don't know about that. I saw Benjamin as a way to repurpose Hollywood romance and hopefully have a little bit more riptide with it. I don't know.

BD: Have you seen any of the other big vfx movies?

DF: I saw The Dark Knight. I saw Speed Racer -- that's just so insane in an amazing way. I think that movie will be revisited, and I think it will be very interesting to see how that movie stacks up in five years, 10 years... Yeah, I appreciated it.

BD: Did you like The Dark Knight?

DF: Yeah, I loved it. It was beautiful.

BD: Did you see Indiana Jones? [At ILM Fincher worked on Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.]

DF: Yeah, I did.

BD: What'd you think?

DF: You know, it's such a hard thing because I realized that that movie wasn't made for me. You know what I mean? The first one was made for me and the last one was made for my daughter. It's a whole different density of information; it's a whole different storytelling conceit. So I appreciate it and I thought it was beautifully done, but I sort of felt like... I wasn't in on the joke, somehow.

BD: Did you like Iron Man?

DF: I liked Iron Man for Robert [Downey Jr. from Zodiac]. I remember hearing about the casting and I thought: "You've got to give it to Favreau because that is ingenious -- it's just perfect." And there is no better discovery than the right actor in the right role. But it's way better than any new shader.

BD: And what are you looking forward to in 2009: Avatar?

DF: Yeah, you gotta look forward to that. Anytime that guy [Jim Cameron] comes out of retirement...

BD: And Watchmen?

DF: I mean, this is going to be Zack's arrival. 300 was interesting and beautiful but I think this could really be monumental -- and he certainly has the chops.

BD: What's your impression of the footage in the trailers?

DF: I don't know the [graphic novel], so I don't want to have any preconceptions. Some of it looks funny to me, which I like. It looks like it has wit. But there's no doubting the guy's [talent]. You look at that trailer vs. the 300 trailer and you realize he's come a long way. If this is his arrival, there are a lot of places he's going to go that are going to be really exciting.

BD: What about Zemeckis doing A Christmas Carol?

DF: I'm always interested in seeing what Zemeckis is up to. I actually thought Beowulf was stunning. But I think performance capture is still... It sprung from videogames and so you judge it in a different way, which is a little odd and unfair. It would certainly stack up against other videogames, but I think we're still years away from reaching maturity. We'll see. To me, it's like the acting in videogames is in the '40s...