TOPICAL Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar has told reporters that he gave up taking cocaine because it ‘gave him writers’ block’ and he ‘preferred to live’.

“I wanted to remain lucid, so I stopped taking it,” Almodóvar confessed to Clarín magazine, based in Buenos Aires (Argentina).

He also explained to journalists that he preferred actors and actresses with ‘a natural sense of humour, instinct and intuition, and no prejudices’, and that he was not bothered whether or not they were ‘intelligent’.

Almodóvar (pictured) also revealed a surprising lack of confidence, despite his resounding success as a film director spanning more than 20 years.

“I don’t believe I’m the best director in the world, but if they’re now premièring the film in France, I’m very worried about the criticism I might get for it, although I try not to be,” he confessed.

“This profession is not an exact science.”

Lastly, the Castilla-La-Mancha-born director, now aged 60, admitted that he has been in treatment for an hereditary predilection to migraines.

He has described his new film, Abrazos rotos (‘broken embraces’) as ‘emotional and moving’, and says it was inspired by his love of ‘the darker side of cinema’.