Coltrane is great fun, flitting between comedy voices and generous with laughter, but the no-nonsense edge is never very far from the surface and it takes only a clumsy question to provoke the sharp end of it.
This is a conference for up-and-coming screenwriters as well as the seasoned writer looking to hone skills and get a no-nonsense industry edge.
So in that flighty piece of violent nonsense with Mel Gibson, Edge of Darkness (2010), Winstone allows himself a straight-faced pleasure in being someone called Darius Jedburgh, sitting there looking omniscient and bored while the plot prances around like an unbroken horse.
And that's where we are now, careening on the ocean of superficial imitation and whimsical nonsense towards the edge of the musical world.
To that end, he's going to (at least try to) seem more measured and presidential without completely losing the no-nonsense, angry outsider edge that got him the Republican nomination in the first place.
Born and raised in the community of Dorchester (or, as he would pronounce it, "Dorchestah"), he's got a Bostonian no-nonsense, tough-guy edge, and his books, including "Mystic River" and the six-book Kenzie-Gennaro mystery series, are set on the city's streets.
If he's comfortable living on the near edge of nonsense, why shouldn't we be?
With his no-nonsense reputation and authoritative edge, Mr Valls, by contrast, gets a handsome 79% rating from Socialist voters and 58% from those who back the centre-right UMP.
Edge called it "nonsense", and Dan Whitehead of Eurogamer said it was "as clichéd as it is shallow".
Hot on the heels of its soft, leathery older brother, the Chumby One goes for a more non-nonsense aesthetic with hard edges and a more clock-radio feel.
I'll stamp George's fingers off the cliff-edge if he tries any of that nonsense on me.
