irector David Mamet, Tim Allen and Chiwetel Ejiofor on the set of Redbelt Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

I don't know that much about ultimate fighting and mixed martial arts. Is handicap fighting a real phenomenon or did you make it up?
I made it up. One of the ways in my academy and I think in others, one of the ways in which they train is that they take two guys and say you're gonna — it's not sparring, 'cause sparring involves striking — they say you can't use your arms. They say to one guy, you can't use your arms, you just have to submit the other guy just using your legs. Or you can only use one arm and you just take the other one and stick it in your belt or you can't submit the other guy, you aren't allowed to use any submission holds. All you have to do is keep yourself from being submitted. So it's a good method of training.

Chiwetel Ejiofor and John Machado as Augusto Silva in Redbelt Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

It struck me as somewhat gladiatorial. Who benefits from it other than the spectator?
Well, in addition to the spectator the fighter benefits when you train that way because you never know when you're gonna be injured. A good example is Randy Couture, heavyweight champion of UFC [Ultimate Fighting Championship], who in his last fight in which he regained the heavyweight title, his arm was broken. He got his arm broken in the first thirty seconds and he won with only one arm.

Does that kind of thing happen often in the sport or was that a fluke?
Well, it happens once in a while, but the whole idea is that in the world of jujitsu, if you're really training for the street, if you're a cop or if you're military or a bouncer you have to train not when you feel like it but when you don't feel like it, for when other people might think you're incapacitated. So that's one of the themes running through the movie. That's what Emily Mortimer says to him at the end of the movie — "Don't tell me you could complete the fight except that you've been injured. Of course you've been injured, what are you gonna do now?"

I want to take the opportunity to ask about my favorite film of yours, House of Games. How did you view Joe Mantegna's con artist in that film, making a living performing these elaborate cons on people. Was his character sort of a pure capitalist, producing nothing but getting your money anyway?
Well, I mean he's a crook and a con man, which is a little bit different than capitalism. It's what capitalism can devolve into, but it's what socialism certainly devolves into, is crime. I wouldn't characterize him as a capitalist, I'd characterize him as a criminal. Here's the thing. The purpose of capitalism is to optimize the ability of people to make bargains with a mutual benefit. That's what capitalism is. Confidence games pervert the human ambition for gain to the benefit of the criminal, by playing upon the ambition of the mark. So he's not selling anything. He's not trading anything. You know, somebody said to Helena Rubenstein, "You're selling this little white glob that women put on their face, for a lot of money, but there's nothing in that glob so you're selling nothing," and she said "No, I'm selling the most important thing in the world, I'm selling hope." So she was at least selling hope. She wasn't selling rattraps or steel girders, but she was selling hope so she was selling something. The confidence man isn't selling anything.

Are you fond of happy endings? My reading of your filmography is that you often like to send the audience out on a high, but then again, I consider Heist and The Edge to have happy endings.
Well, I think it depends on the genre. I think Heist was kind of like, six to five and pick 'em. You know, his wife sells him out, but he gets the gold. And of course, The Edge, you know he says, "This guy died saving my life," but his friends do die and his wife abandons him. I like happy endings.

What have you seen recently that you loved?
I just saw Michael Clayton last night, hadn't seen it before. I loved it. I thought, my God that's a great film. Just crazy about it. My friend Robert Elswit, who shot Redbelt and who of course won the Oscar last year for There Will Be Blood[worked on the film] and George Clooney's such a good actor and Tilda Swinton, they're spectacular actors and it's a beautifully directed movie. I thought it was also interesting because it's generically the same film as Syriana. It's a film noir with a happy ending or a mixed ending, but definitely a film noir.