Julie Taymor Talks SPIDER-MAN & New Audience's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM in New Podcast

In a new podcast which debuted this weekend, Julie Taymor opened up about the soon-to-close SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK, which she spent years mounting with U2's Bono and The Edge.

The story of alleged treachery and bureaucratic co-collaborators working backstage to force Taymor out after creative differences is widely known. In the podcast, the Tony-winner opened up about her work was affected by the issues.

"You will not be able to create as groundbreaking or inventive [work]...if you have people criticizing you before you're ready," she told Kurt Andersen in the podcast, per Studio 360. "The idea of this opening date should be up to the people creating it."

Taymor also talks about how she was offered a production of MACBETH to helm, but eventually walked away to take on New Audience's current of 'MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM' in Brooklyn. You can listen to the entire podcast below!

In 1998, Julie Taymor became the first woman to win the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, and won a Tony for Best Costumes, for her production of The Lion King. The musical has gone on to become Broadway's all-time highest grossing show and the fifth longest-running show in Broadway history.

Other Broadway theatre credits include Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass, which earned five Tony nominations, and The Green Bird. Off-Broadway, she has directed Titus Andronicus, The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew, The Transposed Heads and Liberty's Taken.

Taymor's feature films include Titus, starring Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange and Alan Cumming; the biographical film Frida, starring Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina, which earned six Academy Award nominations, winning two; the Beatles-inspired Across the Universe, nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy; and her Helen Mirren-starring adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, which had its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival following a world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival.

Beyond the theatre and screen, Taymor has directed five operas internationally, including Oedipus Rex with Jessye Norman, for which she earned the International Classical Music Award for Best Opera Production and an Emmy for a subsequent film version; as well asSalomé, The Flying Dutchman, Die Zauberflöte (in repertory at The Met), The Magic Flute (the abridgEd English version, which inaugurated a PBS series entitled "Great Performances at The Met") and Elliot Goldenthal's Grendel.

Taymor is a 1991 recipient of the MacArthur "genius" Fellowship.