James Gunn is the writer and director of “Guardians Of The Galaxy,” the No. 1 film of 2014, a breakout smash that has grossed $700 million worldwide as of this writing. I recently had a chance to speak with James about character, emotion, and Rocket Raccoon.

How do you balance character moments with visual effects?

Everything is character. All of the visual effects and the action sequences are based in character, character is the thing that drives all of that stuff. So if the character doesn’t work, if the character isn’t fully there, that other stuff is meaningless. And there are plenty of movies that to me are meaningless, because that is all they are.

 The characters are the most important and so for me it’s not really a matter of balance, it’s about giving all the power to the character stuff. And then within that, you’re edging it out—action sequences are fun, there’s little roller coasters in the middle of the movie, but it’s really about the characters. The danger and the peril of the action sequences doesn’t mean anything unless you love the characters.

How do you get people to love a raccoon?

You make him real. I’ve cried probably 40 times watching “Guardians,” because I love Rocket so much. To me, he is a sad little creature who I very much relate to, he’s an animal who has been turned into something he’s not. He’s more like something out of “Island Of Doctor Moreau” than he is out of “Looney Tunes.” He is that kind of character and he happens to be sort of cute, which is irritating to him, so if you make him real then you’ll feel for him.

You ask what would your life be if you were like him and there was nothing else like you? What if you were created in a laboratory and had emotions put onto you that you weren’t fully able, as an animal, to contain or know how to deal with and were tortured and put back together again and went through a lot of agony doing it? It’s awful, his life is awful. And he’s like Elephant Man in that he’s very, very alone—which is what makes Groot so wonderful, because he’s that one sort of simple being that is there that he relates to.