Tom Hooper: 'I Don’t Want to Go on Oprah Drunk' After Winning Oscar

"I don’t want to be the first person to go on Oprah drunk," laughed Tom Hooper after winning the Oscar for best director, admitting that he had an interview scheduled Monday morning. “I don’t think I’m going to bed tonight.”

He also talked about the “love” between the cast.

“I think Geoffrey (Rush), Colin (Firth) and I had three weeks of work-shopping the script, and we became incredibly good friends. There is something about the way I was shooting …that kindness and compassion is in the DNA of the movie.”

PHOTOS: Oscars 2011 red carpet

Hooper noted that the scenes between Rush and Firth where shot first and were a “source of endless comedy. …Helena (Bonham-Carter) felt it was a love story between the men. Off camera, she was constantly teasing us.”

Of the discovery of the play -- by his mother -- he said it “made me more open-minded that masterpieces are lying neglected and the system doesn’t always deliver what is out there.”

PHOTOS: Oscars 2011 show moments

In another serious moment, Hooper also noted that “it does seem to touch people in the most extraordinary ways across age groups.”

He summed up: “I felt the key was to get inside the mind of someone who stammers...I thought if Colin could capture the intense drama, then the story would open up. This is a story about a conflict within someone.”