Casting Is the Key to Lala Land

I first pitched him sort of you know the role before we made Lala land it was my first meeting with him or our first kind of shake hands at a festival once. I went in thinking this was a pitching first man meeting and so that kind of came out of that but then by the time we were done shooting Lala land he had come on board. Once he was in it was a matter of yes sort of figuring out our dates and then building building the rest of the cast around. Do you think casting is the key really or can do you feel a due director on set do you direct the actors a lot?