This weekend marks the release of Breach, a political thriller based on the real life story of FBI agent Robert Hanssen, the worst spy in US history. It stars Chris Cooper (American Beauty, Adaptation) as Hanssen and Ryan Phillippe (Flags of Our Fathers, Crash) as Eric O'Neill, the young agent the FBI selects to help capture him.

Breach was written and directed by Billy Ray, the writer of Flightplan and Hart's War and the writer/director of the critically acclaimed Shattered Glass. ReelzChannel.com got an exclusive one-on-one interview with him during the junket at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. Luckily for me, when I told Billy Ray it was my first time doing a one-on-one, he was just as beguiled by the virgin angle as any man.

Heather Huntington: I fought to get to see [Breach] because I'm the only girl in the web department.

Billy Ray: Is that right?

HH: And this is clearly going to fall into the guy domain movie. Because they pretty much just send me to the romantic comedies and the cartoons.

BR: Oh, I'd kill myself. Oh my God.

HH: (laughing) I like romantic comedies. I don't like cartoons.

BR: Do you like romantic comedies?

HH: I do.

BR: Is there anything worse than a bad romantic comedy?

HH: A kung fu movie in another language that I can't stay awake through?

BR: You know what? I'd rather see the kung fu movie than a bad romantic comedy. Holy Moly.

HH: I feel like thrillers can sort of go one way or the other. They can wax cheesy or they can be great. So how do you make it good?

BR: My personal take on thrillers is that they are as good as their obstacle. And by that I mean, in any thriller, at any given moment, you're going to say to yourself, "Why don't they just go to the police?"

HH: Yeah. YEAH.

BR: She's in a house and there's a dog that turns into the ghost of a five-year-old child and tortures her. Okay. I got an idea: Get out! Or call the police! Or do something intelligent! Right?

HH: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

BR: And they never do. And that's why those thrillers are always so stupid. But in this case, Eric [O'Neill] is stuck. What creates the tension is he can't go anywhere. He can't leave the guy. He can't tell his wife what's really going on. He can't tell his dad what's really going on. He certainly can't tell Hanssen what's really going on. So he's got a problem and you experience the movie through him. And it becomes your problem.

HH: When I see the things that are sometimes are too big, sometimes it's hard to tell if it's the writing or directing.

BR: I think they're all the same thing. It's all just the storytelling.

HH: Well, you're also the one who writes and directs, too. You're not somebody who, at least in this case, is doing somebody else's work. You're not directing somebody else's stuff.

BR: No. I don't think I'll ever do that. I don't think I'm a good enough director to direct somebody else's script.

HH: I might have to disagree with you on that one.

BR: I'm a writer. I'm not a director. I'm a writer who directs.

HH: So you were never like, "I want to direct"?

BR: I was not one of those guys who was dying to direct. The first movie I directed was called Shattered Glass.

HH: Yeah, yeah. I definitely saw Shattered Glass. I heard it was good and saw it on Tivo.

BR: I'll take what I can get. Anyway, I decided it was time to find out if I was grown up enough to direct a movie. 'Cuz that's a pretty grown-up job. I remember very clearly being on the set of Hart's War, which I had written. And Greg Hoblit was directing it. And we were in Prague and it was just freezing. It was nuts. And you know what? I went to my trailer and warmed up. And I had that option because I was the writer. And the director had to be out there. And at a certain point it was time to just say," Okay, can I do this job?"

HH: Can I stand outside...

BR: Can I stand outside in the cold and take bad reviews or good reviews, but take them? And be the person standing on front of a movie?

HH: Did you go to school for directing as well as for writing?

BR: There were a lot of ways that I tried to educate myself. I had taken an acting class for four years, which was excruciating.

HH: You don't like to be in front of the camera?

BR: Oy. Awful. Awful.

HH: You don't like it or your performances are awful?

BR: No, I think I'm okay. It's just painful and terrible and just thinking about it I just want to barf. Bad.

HH: Well, all right.

BR: But I had done that. I read a phenomenal book called Directing Actors by Judith Weston, which I would recommend to anybody who wants to direct anything. And then I called up a bunch of young directors and said, "You don' t know me, my name is Billy Ray, I'm about to go direct a movie. Could I take you to lunch and ask you some questions?" And they all said yes. They were very generous with me. And I called people that had produced scripts that I had written and took them to lunch. And said, "Okay, what about me makes you think I'd be a good director? What about me makes you think I'd be a bad director?"Just tried to learn. And then decided it was time.

HH: How did you get funded and hired?

BR: Well, I had written a script that Lionsgate liked. And I said, "I'd like a shot at directing it. Here is how I would direct it if you let me." And I pitched like Steven Glass and they decided to take a chance.

HH: And that made it substantially easier to do this one?

BR: Oh yeah. Sure. I mean, Shattered Glass was seen by about five people. But fortunately some of them work in Hollywood. So it was my entrée to direct again.

HH: Do you have any other projects you're working on?

BR: I just wrote a script called Hurricane Season, which is another true story also for Universal. It's a post-Katrina story, set right outside New Orleans. And I'm hoping to make that sometime this year.

HH: And you're going to direct it?

BR: I would like to, yeah.

HH: Do you have ideas for who you'd like to see in that one?

BR: Not yet.

HH: You're going to see what happens.

BR: Yes. Well, because there are two very different templates for that movie. I have an idea if they want to spend the money for a huge star. I have an idea there. If they want to make it down and dirty, I have an idea there.

HH: Got it. So it just depends on which way they want to go with it. Which probably has something to do with how well this does...

BR: Oh God.

HH: I'm not just...

BR: No, you're probably right.

HH: Wow. You've done a great job really covering all my questions.

BR: I think you've done a great job. I think it was you. I think you're the rookie of the year. You have totally succeeded. You're one for one.

Breach, by my new favorite director Billy Ray, opens in theaters this Friday, February 16.

Check out ReelzChannel.com's Breach page for clips from the film and more!