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Joe Wright went from being called "stupid" in school to directing movies based on some of the most complex literature in the world.
For Wright, being labeled as "stupid" was his motivation in life. Wright has dyslexia and never finished his General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in his London school.
"I guess I'm always feeling like I'm stupid and, at the same time, I want to prove that I'm not," he said.
His learning disability didn’t keep him from pursuing his passion for theater. Wright grew up above his parents’ puppet theater and was fascinated by the art since childhood.
He’s directed Pride and Prejudice (despite not reading the novel), Atonement, and Anna Karenina.
Wright’s dyslexia didn’t prevent him from directing Anna Karenina, noting that to him, literature is more than just words on a page telling him a story—each person can find something different in reading, even with a learning disability.
“Tolstoy wrote [Anna Karenina] to be accessible in terms of emotions,” he said. “It spoke directly to me. Everybody in it is trying to learn how to love.”