A few months after graduation I was working in films. It took off pretty quick.
I prefer to write music for family films. I like people.
Our films have the ability to tell global audiences who we are, and this is something the government should feel compelled to protect. My film, 'Bend it Like Beckham,' for example, would not have been made without the backing and support of the U.K. Film Council.
I feel Irish-Americans are the forgotten minority group. Nobody else is making films about them.
I have not given much credence to reviews of my films. Sometimes they're wrong, but it didn't matter to me.
My first interest was always music, and somehow that channelled itself into films and acting. I don't know what the natural transition of it was. I mean I acted a little bit when I was young and like any kid would in a community theatre.
Films do have suspense and tensions and scares and jumps, and I like to write things that have both in them, comedy and horror, but sometimes they are hard to balance.
From 1911 to 1928, the country was officially called Republic of China, but in reality, it was actually split between different warlords. It was one of the liveliest periods in Chinese history. It is therefore quite theatrical, and it is good for making films.
I attribute the black tones in my films to Stephen King, Tim Burton, Joe Hill and Richard Matheson. However, most of my writing is influenced by mental health. I'm incredibly passionate about shedding light on the stigmas associated with mental illnesses.
As I travel the world, it seems that younger people identify me merely with some of the folklore in the 'Chuck Norris Facts' - those hyperbolic sayings that elevate my abilities beyond my capabilities. Others view me in light of the character I played in 'Walker, Texas Ranger' or in one of my 20 tough-guy films.
My movies have always done pretty well in the UK - 'The Matrix' films did very well in this country and I do like the crews here and the people we're working with here.
Right now the thing that I have learned the most is to be grateful that I have finally gotten to a point where I am being paid to make films, after eight years.
I just make films that attract me.
'Quantum of Solace' was a bit of a different circumstance than a lot of my other films because you're stepping into a franchise, and also in that particular film, we're dealing with a script from the writer's strike, which was difficult to handle because there was never time to really develop a finished script.
To paint comic books as childish and illiterate is lazy. A lot of comic books are very literate - unlike most films.
I think early on in my career, I was heavily inspired by bands like Throbbing Gristle and Test Dept, and films of David Lynch, for example, where the soundscape plays a very important role in the listening experience.
I don't care about Hollywood films. I'm not against Hollywood films, you know? Hollywood films were very good before, in the 1950s.
Often times people complain about the lack of time in television, but I have to say, you don't have any more time to film in feature films then you do in television. It's just a question of how many scenes you'll be doing in the course of a day.
So our films had a lot more to them than entertainment value, and I'm glad that a lot of people recognize that now. People realize now the value of them as educational.
I love the opportunity to do lots of different kinds of projects - independent films and big studio epics as well. I'd love to be able to do a mixture.
Most Pixar films are better than most live action films.
Well, I'll keep on auditioning and one day maybe I'll go to LA and try out for films there.
I don't really have much to prove. I can easily go in a comfort zone, make two films a year, hype them because I've signed them as a star, make them cheap and they will be big hits.
I have as much artistic freedom in my television work as I have in my films.
Whenever I go to have a meeting at Universal, the security guard just leaps to his feet and comes over, bumps my hand, and says, 'Thank you! Thank you - I love your films!'
People use location as a language in films, and Quentin uses action as a language in his films. There's really not a lot of violence. It's more of an emotional beat than it is a physical beat.
After doing films like 'Krrish,' 'Bang Bang,' and 'Mohenjo Daro,' 'Kaabil' is one film where you can't lie at all. You can't be a hero. You have to be real. You have to be yourself. So that was a challenge.
I didn't hang around films. I don't know if I'd ever seen Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes.
Films with a message just make me laugh.
I never thought about acting before I started modeling, but since then I've been in short films and music videos, and I got interested. It felt natural to switch over.
I want to do films that challenge me. I want to do what the actors I look up to are doing - the Gary Oldmans and Daniel Day-Lewises.
One of the things I've discovered at my age is I must have enchantment. And that was not clear to me in my earlier years. When I look at my favorite films, the Frank Capra - even Scorsese, even 'Goodfellas,' what makes that movie so remarkable is there's enchantment in their world.
Our goal at Home Theater Films is to inspire and entertain our audience. We want to make great movies that everyone can enjoy and elevate them with contemporary, relatable characters that naturally demonstrate their faith in real world situations.
I think that there's a lot more freedom in the low budget, the independent films where, unfortunately, you don't have the money, necessarily, to get the orchestras in there to play a lot of stuff. But, you have a lot more freedom, very often.
My father was a big Bruce Lee fan. He's Chinese-Hawaiian, and my mother is Chinese. He used to take us to all these really fantastical films with martial arts in them.
And in movies you must be a gambler. To produce films is to gamble.
