How did you work with these non-actors to integrate them into a story that was not their own, although analogous to their own? I didn’t do anything. I didn’t tell them anything. In fact, I didn’t even tell them precisely what characters they were playing.
Because I never chose an actor as an interpreter. I always chose an actor for what he is. That is, I never asked anyone to transform himself into anything other than what he is - Pasolini, interview, 1965