When I left Ohio when I was 17 and ended up in New York and realised that not all films had the giant crab monsters in them, it really opened up a lot of things for me.
Although humor is present in every one of my films, it has always been used as a way to make the darker, heavier stuff in my stories more palatable. I never set out to make 'Humpday' a comedy.
I was in the school plays, I did a lot of music. I carried on through university for short films and loads of plays.
In Bollywood, they've got their systems in place. It's a monster machine that's churning out, like, 400 films a year, consistently. They're able to efficiently process things.
Even though I've done Hollywood films, I still don't think of myself as a Hollywood actress.
For behaviorist films, that's been much more useful - the change of technology - but for my kind of films, doing them on film is much better, because it's more beautiful.
When I started out, I preferred to watch my films without music, as its presence tends to mask the underlying pace of the film. I felt I could feel the rhythm of the film better without music to influence me.
I guess why the Ocean's films are hard for me is because on the one hand you have to make sure the performances are there, but on the other hand it's a film that demands, to my mind, a very layered and complex visual scheme. That takes a lot of time to figure out.
I would love to do more films. I really like the whole process of doing that. I like how close you become to everybody.
Most films are written and made with a hero around 35, or even 25.
Independent films are where you really get to cut your teeth and have some fun and do the things that mainstream Hollywood doesn't want to do.
I think one of my biggest influences is Bette Davis. I've seen almost every one of her films, and she's been very inspiring to me.
You would be surprised of films that people just don't see. You know what I mean? I'm always working and I'm a film buff but I'm an old school film buff.
This film is what it is. It's a campy thriller horror movie where you go and have fun. With these types of films, you can't take it too seriously. They are what they are.
There are a lot of films where I play characters that are about the windows to the interior person rather than the exterior.
Usually people like to categorise artists. With my films, I categorise people: if I know which one of my movies you like, I can tell which kind of a person you are.
It is totally different making films in the East than in the West. In the East, I make my own Jackie Chan films, and it's like my family. Sometimes I pick up the camera because I choreograph all the fighting scenes, even when I'm not fighting. I don't have my own chair. I just sit on the set with everybody.
I like films that probe emotional questions and inspire you to get creative and get writing, get draping, painting, cooking, whatever that thing is where you have that kind of output.
If you start with a good idea, you can encapsulate it in a phrase and explain it. I like high-concept films. Everyone can get hold of it. I don't think there's any harm in that at all.
We've seen so many films now, that you have to be on par with the best films that have preceded you. You just can't make any movie and it will be good.
There are so many things we have not seen in 'Spider-Man' yet... I want to use bad guys never seen in movies. The first films were so traditional and so scrupulously followed the character's classic plot... So there's a lot of stuff left in stock. 'The Clone Saga,' for example.
All the jokes in my films, the comedy, they're not me, I just try to hold a big mirror up to us.
I prefer the countryside to cities. This is also true of my films: I have made more films in rural societies, and villages, than in towns.
My children have never watched any of my films. Charlie knows that daddy makes movies, but he says they are not good enough for him to watch.
I got exposed to art-house cinema and foreign films. I was from L.A., so it was a film culture that I didn't know about.
I want to make films that make a difference. I want to be out and hope that that will make things better for gay people and for myself. I hope one day I can start to make the kind of projects or be involved with kind of projects that can really make a difference.
Events are the best opportunities to experiment with clothes, as we have to stick to a character in films.
One of the best animated films I've seen come out of Disney was the Tarzan movie. I wasn't crazy about the story or the design on Tarzan's face, but the traditional animation was spectacular.
I don't really know how many films I've done, and I don't look at this as a race that I necessarily want to win. Nor is it a race that I want to stop running.
All the jobs I've gotten in the last two years are because directors have seen the work I've done - indie films, plays, short student films, TV - since I moved to the states in 1996. I mean, I have an entire career in Canada that nobody has seen.
To tell you the truth, I never wanted to become a moviemaker. It was like I was a cinepihile, and I go, like, three or four times per week to the cinema, and I like to watch films.
I take things on a day to day basis when it gets really hectic. But I do think long term and I'm looking forward to the next couple of years when I do start producing my own films with my production company and playing some characters that are older and that's really exciting to me.
Nowadays people don't know how to handle it if all the ends aren't tied up and they're not told what to think in films. And if they're challenged, they think it's something wrong with the film.
I think we have the wrong notion of commercial and intellectual or artistic film. Because all films are commercial.
Some of the greatest relationship films of all time, the two stars have hated each other, but mostly you see that chemistry.
Heritage is something martial-arts films don't often talk about.
