Born in New York City, Bill Condon attended Columbia University, where he graduated with a degree in Philosophy. 
An analytical piece he wrote for Millimeter magazine brought him to the attention of producer Michael Laughlin.  Condon subsequently co-wrote the feature film Strange Behavior with Laughlin, who also directed the film.  The movie became a cult hit, leading to the unofficial sequel, Strange Invaders. 
Condon made his directorial debut with Sister, Sister, which starred Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judith Ivey, and Eric Stoltz.
Condon wrote and directed Gods and Monsters, which won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature and was named Best Picture of 1998 by the National Board of Review. The film, a poetic meditation on the final days of Frankenstein" director James Whale, earned Condon an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and garnered nominations for its stars, Ian McKellen and Lynn Redgrave.
Bill Condon wrote the screenplay for the big-screen version of the musical Chicago for which he received a second Oscar nomination. The film, which starred Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Richard Gere, won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture in 2003.
He also wrote and directed Kinsey, for which he won the 2005 Best Director Award from the British Directors Guild. An uncompromising portrait of one of the twentieth century's most influential and controversial figures, Kinsey also earned a Los Angeles Film Critics Best Actor Award for its star, Liam Neeson, as well as an Academy Award nomination for Laura Linney as Best Supporting Actress. 
Condon currently serves on the board of Film Independent, as well as the recently formed Independent Writers Steering Committee of the WGA.

Q: Have you edited some scenes that had contained song & dialogue
A: It is a hard convention for people to understand. Obviously we need some of it but originally there was a lot more in the second act that we took out.

Q: Why is the time right for the rebirth of the movie musical?
A: It is true the time does seem right. It is a form that allows film makers to do so much. So once the door got opened with Moulin Rouge a lot of film makers thought this was something that they would like to play with. I also think that movies are so familiar and they just repeat the same things over and over. You can get very excited by an action movie but the 100th time you see it, it gets less exciting. To me one of the great movies that pointed us in this direction was Crouching Tiger. It seemed as much like a Gene Kelly dance musical and it did an action movie. I remember seeing that for the first time and at the first set piece, people applauded as though they had seen a musical number. So the excitement of what a musical can be is part of it and the way the audience can interact with it is partly why it has come back.

Q: What scared the studios away from musicals?
A: A lot of things. Grease and saturday Night Fever were the last musicals that had a series of songs that were actually hits on the radio and with stars like Olivia Newton John, who basically came from  music. So part of it is that the music had become so remote to audiences. Secondly the musical is artificial in some way. We tried our best to disguise that and make it seem real. But the fact that the characters break out into song is still a convention that generations are still not used to.

Q: What was Jennifer Hudson like in the film?
A: She is the sweetest person. So it was hard for her to act like a diva is some scenes and she hasn't become like that at all. She is still very much star struck.

Q: Jennifer's character dominates the film?
A: Her character is the strongest character in the film but Jamie and Beyonce are on screen for longer. The movie starts when Jamie crashes into Beyonce and it ends when Beyonce leaves him. That is kind of the central story. In the last 20 minutes of the movie Beyonce's character finally finds her voice and breaks  free...that is an almost solid chunk of Deena with very little Effie in there.

Q: In a sense this is a disguised story of The Supremes. Have you had any feedback from Diana Ross?
A: No. It is not literally her story. But obviously there is no question that we are taking off a lot from her and her style. I think she will see the movie soon and I hope she is pleased with it. I think she understands...I means she has had this for 25 years now, those question s about the show - which she claims never to have seen. I don't know if that's true. But it must be an odd thing to be watching a version of your life on screen.

Q: Has there even  been a girl group that worked over a long period of time?
A: It does seem that inevitably one person emerges, leaves and that's it.

Q: Because of Destiny's Child was Beyonce a little cautious of the movie?
A: Not at all. She might have brought some of that experience to figuring out how to play certain scenes but this is a completely different story. She was so intent and took so seriously the idea of  becoming a different character.

Q: How did filming fit into Beyonce's schedule because she seems to do so much? And what about her entourage?
A: It is incredible how much that woman gets down in a week. We did some extra shots of The Dreams going on tour and she came back and did them three weeks ago. She has a tight schedule but that was never presented as an ultimatum. What I discovered with her is that when she is making a movie, that is the main thing. She will bend everything to that. When she is making an album, that is the main thing. It never felt like it was a constraint. The entourage thing isn't true with her. She is there on the set like everybody else and you don't see anybody else around. I was impressed by that. There was not all that stuff that comes with being the kind of star she is.

Q: When you cast her were there any worries about her being this big pop star?
A: I did have a concern. She was interested in playing the part. We met and I asked her to do a screen test and she agreed - which was a good thin g. And a generous thing to do. My concern was two areas. One of them was - because I think this has happened in movies before - when someone has such a strong and defined stage persona already, could that person become somebody completely different? Because this is a style that was performed 40 years ago. So if you just deal with her sexuality which on stage is very powerful and aggressive in a way - Deena is just the opposite of that. It's being a sixties version of that...being kittenish, shy and withholding. The voice was a little voice compare with what Beyonce could do. In the script they keep saying over and over again that she [Deena] doesn't have the talent that Effie has. And we all know that Beyonce has a great musical talent. So that was the first thing - could she perform in this style? Secondly, I had seen her movies, I'd liked her. But this involved real acting and she had to be carrying a lot of these scenes. So I wanted to work with her on a scene and we did that in New York and I was thrilled with the result. And that was how we cast her.

Q: Did you have anyone else in mind?
A: No. It was her, I was hoping it was going to work and it did. And that was true of a lot of parts. Eddie Murphy was the same thing. After I finished the script I went to David Geffen and said my casting ideas were Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy. DreamWorks had worked a lot with Eddie Murphy, I had met with him. Jamie we made a deal with and  then the deal fell apart. But those three were all first choices. I hate to think what it would have been like to go to the next choice. These seemed so perfect for it.

Q: It's said Eddie Murphy was the most challenging to fit into the film schedule?
A: Yes and no. Usually when a big star takes a big pay cut and takes on a role that is supporting - one of the things that you have to do is twist the schedule round so that he shoots in four weeks and then you are done with him. But Eddie said..'Don't worry about me I will work when you need me to'...His part  got spread out over 12 weeks. I think it was partly because he wanted a lot of time in between to get ready for the next number. he has eight numbers in the movie. I think it was bigger than it seemed on the page.

Q: As a musical fan, which ones do you think ought never to have been done?
A: The one for me, that I saw in high school, was a musical version of the backstage political book, The Selling of The President. It was about the 1972 Richard Nixon presidential campaign and the numbers were all commercials that were all paid for by different products. It was one of those nights you treasure because it was like watching Springtime For Hitler...everyone sitting there with their mouths open. I've actually seen quite a few ...but i won't go further than that.

Q: How do you avoid the mistakes that some movie musicals fall into?
A: If you could answer that...I do think there are certain pitfalls you can avoid. There are a lot of big bomb movie musicals that have a lot of wonderful things in them but don't come together as a whole. One thing is - just because you can, doesn't mean that you should. In A Chorus Line - which is so effective on stage because you are there on stage in  this environment and you are not going to leave until the thing is decided - but in the movie you can take Cassie in over the Brooklyn Bridge. Don't do it. One thing I realised about the Dreamgirls show is that almost all of it takes place on stage or backstage. We did not adhere strictly to that. But you should not do the phoney opening
up thing, just for the sake of it.

Q: What might be the reaction of purists to the introduction of four new songs?
A: Being entirely faithful to the show doesn't necessarily serve the material well because it is a different medium. Each of those four new songs exist to replace that were sung/dialogue in the stage show. As a purist, you either get on board with this or not. And the ones that don't - the ones who want a video of the show - won't be pleased. But I have been pleased by the number of people who love Dreamgirls and understand that this is a movie version of that show.

Q: Why did Beyonce lose weight for the film?
A: That was her decision. I didn't think she was losing 20 pounds. But she is a perfectionist and I think that when she looked at the costumes she decided because one of them is like they have poured liquid metal over your body. Partly it was also to get a sense of that lankier sixties line.

Q: What surprised you most about working with Beyonce?
A: The work ethic. Everyone worked hard but she did it to an extra extra degree. And her perfectionism. I would be pleased with something and she would notice a little thing and go back and do it better. She had an incredible sense of wanting to do her best and then push it further.

Q: So could this really launch her film career?
A: I think it could. it is as though we have a new movie star. Sequences like 'When I First saw You' remind me of Audrey Hepburn when she first emedged. She is someone who has such a glow about her. You just can't take your eyes off her and that combined with this major musical talent means that hopefully there will be new movies that will be designed around her.

Q: And what about Jennifer Hudson's screen debut? What is her potential after this?
A: Look at what happened with Barbra Streisand! I think people will try and figure how to use her great talent.

Q: What about another movie musical from you?
A: I would love to do a film of the Sondheim show, Follies. But although musicals have been a life long passion I would not have felt comfortable directing a movie musical if I had not been inside the  Chicago experience. That was like my university education -  learning how a musical ticks from the inside.

GO BEHIND THE SCENES OF DREAMGIRLS

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