By Ashley Elizabeth Smith in New York City

Situated in the near future, "Code 46" depicts a post-globalized world where deserts have taken over the land, and a hybrid of English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Arabic is spoken. This sci-fi flick is a dystopic glimpse of what class struggle may look like in a future where a giant database called ‘The Sphinx’ controls movement between borders, and dictates who lives inside and al fuera (outside) the system.

In the post-globalized world of "Code 46," the two characters William (Tim Robbins), and Maria (Samantha Morton) negotiate love, memory, loss and cloning. With lush, textured shots and futuristic settings, director Michael Winterbottom ("24 Hour Party People") serves us with a provocative human love story in the midst of what otherwise might just be an apocalyptic look into the future.

I sat down with Tim Robbins in a post-post-modern hotel in SoHo to discuss the perils of guerilla filmmaking, love, control, and genetics.

Q: Did you read a lot of science fiction to prepare for this role?

TIM: No, I didn’t approach it from a futuristic or science fiction kind of point. I approached it as a classic love story. Two people fall in love and forces conspire to keep them apart and prevent them from coming back together. And I love the idea or concept that there’s just something about these two people that they just fall in love again and again regardless of what the memory is like, stored or not. The fact that when he goes back to her the second time she doesn’t know who he is, its just that pre-destiny, that fate, that two souls are meant for each other. Of course there is that genetic element that draws them together too, and complicates things a little bit.

Q: What was it like shooting such a low budget film?

TIM: Well we went to China, Dubai in the UAE and Jaipur, India and I don’t know how many times we actually had permits. So often times we would be outside in Shanghai on the streets and…First of all there is absolutely no control, that wasn’t the point, the point was just to go there and to grab shots and assume that they were going to get permits but I don’t think that they have permits to shoot in this communist country.

Q: What was it that originally drew you to the movie?

TIM: Working with Michael and the script. I like his work a lot. I think this movie is very good. I’m a big fan of Michael Winterbottom and the material. I wish someone at MGM liked the film as much as I do.

Q: What’s the MGM comment?

TIM: Well its being released in two theaters. Right there, I mean, c’mon we’re not dumb are we? [laughs]

Q: You wanted to work with Winterbottom but was there ever a point where you were thought that you might have gotten in over your head or that you felt like a fish out of water? Both he and Samantha Morton have both suggested the notion of this guerilla filmmaking, like they said not working with lights and so on kind of confused you at points.

TIM: Where did they say that?

Q: Samantha Morton said it in an interview with the Independent and Winterbottom said it in an interview with The Observer.

TIM: It didn’t confuse me but [pause]---what was the implication of those articles?

Q: Well if you want me to read the quotes I have them here.

TIM: Yeah.

Q: Michael Winterbottom [said], “We’d be shooting in a busy street in Shanghai and Tim would be saying, 'Well what’s the point of this you can’t see me and you can’t hear me?' He likes to know the shape or the point of the scene where Sam is more experimental…more likely to say, 'Let’s try this.' Tim felt that the cameraman who was 22/23 was way to young to be a cameraman. Poor Tim had to struggle with a lot of chaos.”

TIM: Well, let’s put it this way: when you don’t have permits, when you are working that way, a lot can go right. But things can go wrong too. And I’ll say, 'cause Michael is being so honest there that this is the only movie that I have ever been on that I have been close to death. Once that happened, my attitude changed a little bit.

Q: What happened?

TIM: We were filming in a car, and I was driving and there was no trail car or no lead car. I was driving at the speed that the filmmaker wanted me to drive at and a bus pulled across 6 lanes of traffic and I swerved to avoid it and I almost got into a serious car accident. So there is a lot to be said for chaos and there is a lot to be said for guerilla filmmaking but when you cross the lines into safety issues…. I won’t go there.

Q: So how did you react after that happened…no more driving?

TIM: No, I said what are you guys doing here? And can you insure my safety? And for them that was uncomfortable. Michael doesn’t believe in meal breaks either. [laughs] that’s part of guerilla filmmaking…to work for 10 hours without eating.

Q: Would you do guerilla filmmaking yourself?

TIM: I would feed my actors…[laughs]

Q: Has directing your own movies changed your relationship with directors?

TIM: Not really, certainly not with Clint Eastwood or [Robert] Altman, or the Coen Brothers. For example, if someone is working on a Monday and we know that we have a lot to get done but we are in a studio and it could be done on a Tuesday and the director starts going into his 17th hour on a Monday. I will say something about “you have to keep this crew through the week” but that has nothing to do with creating the visual. It has to do with practical matters, safety, and being able to show up the next day and be good for it.

Q: About the cloning issue…do you think this movie is a warning about the implications of cloning?

TIM: I dunno. I think it’s a little dangerous. First of all, don’t f*** with nature. It’s not a good idea. Never has been and never will be. To f*** with the creation of a human being there is just too much room for error.

Q: Should it be regulated?

TIM: No, regulations. I mean how are we going to regulate the nuclear waste a thousand years from now? Regulation is relying on the intelligence and longevity of man. I can’t assure that there is going to be people that I would trust to regulate anything as radical as cloning.

Q: Do you think that this film provides a commentary about where our country is headed?

TIM: No, I hadn’t thought that, but I think that the world is headed that way. We’re close to it now. We have to have passports to go through, and certainly that’s ok but when it gets into fingerprints and crossing that line. I mean we’ve already crossed it in this country. In California, you can’t get a license plate without giving your fingerprints. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens when all of this gets put into a huge database and people start passing judgment based on genetic evidence and fingerprints. We already had one example where this guy was in Oregon or somewhere and was implicated in the Spanish train bombings and he wasn’t even close to the place. They misidentified a fingerprint and he was in jail for a month based on that. It was just a semi-close fingerprint and that he was a Muslim. So we are going to be seeing a lot of that, hypersensitive and paranoid behavior from the government.

Q: Did the movie make you think about things that you hadn’t thought about before? And what were those things?

TIM: When I saw it all put together I thought that they had done a really good job with the minimal amount of money that he had to create a world of the future. I think that was a great example of limitations leading to creativity that is inspiring.

Q: What’s the last political issue that you and Susan [Sarandon] disagreed about?

TIM: there’s not a lot of those. I see eye to eye with her on most things…but if you give me a half an hour I could probably think of something….[laughing]

"Code 46" opens in limited release this Friday.