I've tried to make 'Strictly Ballroom' impossible to date. It does feel a bit '80s but I consciously made sure there was no technology in the movie that could date it.
When I was just starting out, I had two choices: I could be the beautiful girl on the main man's arm as decoration, or I would have to do a little independent movie to get any depth in the female character.
You've got to believe as a filmmaker that if a movie's good enough, it's going to survive; and if it's not, well, it won't.
You have to listen to the movie while you're making it. I think that's important.
Younger audiences are into me because I did 'Stuart Little,' and that movie was a very big deal for kids. And in 'Angels in the Outfield,' a generation of kids learned about magic and angels. And then, of course, there are these two blond girls named Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and I played their nanny on their TV show.
If you're going to be an entertainer, entertain thoroughly. If you're going to make a scary movie, scare people well.
And that's another reason to make this movie: We can put plays on film now, at a relatively small cost, and they will reach an audience they would never have reached otherwise.
I would love to do a movie.
A movie that costs only $1.6 million doesn't have to be a cultural event to turn a profit.
I just wrapped this movie called 'The Wedding Crashers' which was a pretty big break for me.
It's not like the original movie where you thought it was the mother committing the murders, but it was actually the son. I don't think it's possible to create the kind of shock today that we created in 1959. And I don't even want to try.
Even if you didn't see the movie, you'd see two words you'd never seen put together before - comedy and Muslim. Comedy is friendly - it's the least offensive word in our language.
The idea was to make a movie ourselves with everyone playing a cameo role. Preferably before we all go, 'cos poor old Charlie Wilson was murdered, and of course Buster has gone.
I never got into this business thinking I'd be like a movie star.
A boxing match is like a cowboy movie. There's got to be good guys and there's got to be bad guys. And that's what people pay for - to see the bad guys get beat.
I wouldn't recommend young kids see 'Speedway Junkie.' It's definitely an age-appropriate movie - dark and realistic and edgy. If young kids want to see me, go see the Christmas movie.
I grew up reading comics - mostly Marvel - Doctor Strange was my favourite comic book and has remained my favourite as an adult. It's the only comic book movie property I've ever gone after. I felt uniquely suited to it.
We kept a broad audience, and we didn't make fun of people who had necessarily made mistakes in their life and burned them to the ground. We made fun of a commercial or a movie or ourselves.
When I was a little kid, I wanted to be, like, you know, a movie star, you know? Or, I always have interest in movie, you know? Because I like the visual aspect of the movies, et cetera.
For the most part, I think that people enjoy seeing a movie where they can just have fun.
Like all kids who want to be in action movies, I want to jump out of a speeding car, shoot guns, slide out the side in slow motion like a John Woo movie.
The ought to be a worldwide cultural taskforce that just stops you when you have ideas like combining The Red Desert with an armored car heist movie.
But with my last film, Spider it was agony. The money was always disappearing, nobody got paid, it was very difficult - and it's very distracting from the process of making the movie, of course. So I think things have been getting harder and harder.
I have no regrets. I wanted to raise the kids and be a present father. When I developed a movie, I was gone for a year. That didn't really work for me. That isn't fair to make these life-forms and then disappear.
People get on a show and they fought tooth and nail. Almost 95% of the actors out there want to be on a television series. Then as soon as they get onto one, no, no, I want to be a movie star. This television series stuff, no, no no.
Being a movie star isn't easy. It requires a lot of commitment and sacrifice. Your career goes through extreme ups and downs. You are judged all the time. Great things are written about you, but at the same time, not-so-good things are also said. At times, things are said about you that are completely untrue, and people mostly try to pull you down.
I'm not a very efficient filmmaker. There's a lot of guys, filmmakers like the Coen Brothers who shoot a whole movie and maybe don't use 12 setups. I'm in awe of people like that; I'm just not that guy.
I think one third of my work is with first-time directors because I think I should, you know? Really, the difference between a first-time director and a second- or third-time director - I mean there's no director who makes enough movies anyway - but if they're talented, they have it. And there is no movie that is perfect.
I don't have a single complete show or movie or anything else that I could look at and say, 'Nailed that one.' But endless dissatisfaction is, I suppose, what gets us out of bed in the morning.
I now hate actors that blink too much on screen. When people blink, I turn the movie off. So I don't blink at all.
I loved being in the film called 'Carnal Knowledge' - the one with Jack Nicholson, which was very dark but a really brilliant movie. I loved being in 'The Ritz.' 'The Ritz' I think is just hilarious. I just saw it again recently and by God, it's still funny!
I'd love to make a movie with Tom Hardy. If we ever got the chance to make a Venom movie together, that would be super-cool, but his movie would have to take place in the MCU because I'm not giving up my ticket in the MCU.
From what I hear, everyone who does a Marvel movie gets a three-picture deal. I'll be Sam Jackson's stand-in. I'll do eight pictures for Marvel, and then I'll just do indies. Marvel can pay for my indie career.
Movie stars are supposed to be healthy. They're kept happy and nutritionally together.
I've met people who will go to a movie that I can't stand and they say that they saw that movie ten times. There's something they like and identified in that movie, and I don't see it.
'Rosemary's Baby' is still one of my favorite movies of all time. The idea of her being impregnated with the devil is just so frightening. I'm actually going to work on a movie in February, called 'Mercy,' from Jason Blum, who produced the 'Paranormal Activity' movies, and there is a similar theme to 'Rosemary's Baby' in the movie.
