Fame & Fortune: Filmmaker James McTeigue 'V for Vendetta' director puts his interest in real estate
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Bankrate: Any one thing you're sweet on, investmentwise?

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James McTeigue: Part of my history of growing up in Australia and Australians, especially Australians in capital cities, are obsessed by real estate. Even though I'm not, I've had some sort of trickle-up effect from that. So I guess I'd take more of an interest in real estate than anything else.

Bankrate: Do you own any investment real estate?

James McTeigue: No, I don't at the moment. I have a property here in New York and a property in Australia, but I wouldn't really call that an investment property.

Bankrate: What steps have you taken, then, as far as securing your financial future and making sure your money is working for itself?

James McTeigue: The DGA, the Director's Guild of America, has a good health and pension plan. I guess that's one of the main ones. And then I'm always looking at other pension funds or private pension funds, too, when I'm looking into the future.

Bankrate: You sound like a pretty conservative investor.

James McTeigue: I guess I probably am. Sometimes I may do some short-term stuff on the money market, but I'm not really out there. Yeah, I'd guess I'm a conservative investor.

Bankrate: Interesting for a guy who worked so heavily on "The Matrix." Not very futuristic, your portfolio.

James McTeigue: Yeah. I guess if I had more time to get out there and play the market and follow the market more I'd probably do some stuff like that, but I guess that's not where the majority of my time has been.

Bankrate: I guess that's a consequence of being so successful and so busy.

James McTeigue: (laughs) Yeah, I guess.

Bankrate: It's always tough breaking into a career such as yours, but considering the sea change in the industry right now, is this a better-than-average or worse-than-average time to try to break into the business?

James McTeigue: I would say it's an average time. I think with a lot of the new technologies out there, there's more access to hardware, if you like. There are a lot of filmmakers making stuff on HD and video, a lot of different ways you can film something at the moment. The way the prices have come down on those things, it puts the merchandise more in people's hands. I guess that's great, but I guess at the end of the day, too, more importantly than ever you have to know how to tell a story. There's no point having a camera if you don't know what to do with it. I think there's a lot of people out there who have the equipment that can't tell a story, but hopefully that will come along. I think it sort of ebbs and flows, and if you're persistent enough, you'll get into the industry if you want to.

Bankrate: From a business and financial standpoint, what advice can you give people looking to break into the business?

James McTeigue: I would ... I guess it's a hard question in some ways. Be persistent, and be willing to do anything you need to do to get into the industry. If that means doing something for free, or doing something for a small amount of money, do it, because eventually people notice you, and then you'll get a job, and you'll get paid more money, and from there on in you'll probably make a decent career out of it.