Some films change your life a little.
Ever since I was a little kid, the only thing that fascinated me, excited me, and engaged me was Hindi films. I didn't know anything beyond Hindi films. I was a 'filmi bachcha.'
The films that I really liked and the ones that really blew my mind when I was younger were independent films. They're like great records to me.
When I first heard 'A Christmas Story, the musical,' I thought, Oh, that could be really good. It just felt like it fit. Some films lend themselves well to other formats, some don't, but there are so many fantasy sequences in the film, and Ralphie's such a dreamer as a character, I thought they could really lend themselves to being set pieces.
I'm an actor. I play roles in films and theaters. I don't act out, and I don't play people.
I grew up making films and always thought that's what I wanted to do.
I have this embedded faith in the process through which films of a certain type get discovered on longer timelines.
When I have been exposed to so many films that are so bad, my soul gets crushed. I just feel intoxicated.
If someone pulls me down, I pull them down, as I don't feel I should live my life in the way other people want me to. If they have a problem with my films, I can rip off their films, be it comedy or their family dramas, which are low on content and have over-theatrical acting.
I don't want to make films that give you the answer. If there is a message to my films - and I hope there isn't - it's to be open-minded.
Only directors like Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who make period films, have songs in their movies that facilitate the inclusion of classical dance forms. No one else is concentrating on making pure classical numbers.
Children, I always think, are just putting on a performance of being naive and not understanding anything. I have worked with children in films, and they're treated as adults and they just drop the pretense of being children.
Israel has a fantastic film industry, and many times we are known for our political films or films that have to do with the army. I love the fact that we can show that there are films coming out of Israel that are just for fun.
I kind of stumbled into comics in a roundabout way. One of the first films my father introduced me to was the 1989 'Batman,' the Tim Burton one.
My films play only in Bengal, and my audience is the educated middle class in the cities and small towns. They also play in Bombay, Madras and Delhi where there is a Bengali population.
Everyone has the opportunity to do a horror film. There's something great about it as an actor. You have to go to places you'd normally never go and be put in situations you would never be put into. You don't get the opportunity in a lot of films to have this kind of acting. It's an interesting challenge.
I never watch my own films.
Doing less films is sometimes intentional, but sometimes things just don't work out.
It seems that we're heading toward the day that films will be released in all platforms simultaneously, albeit with a cost premium to see it at home. But I hope that theater-going doesn't end - I think that watching movies on the big screen with an audience is still the best format and also an important one for society.
Never take no for answer, and try to make films that turn you on.
I love strong women in films that are allowed to play women and not male fantasies.
Most horror films fail to scare me.
Comedy was why I got into acting the first place. Peter Sellers was a huge influence on my wanting to act. I grew up with him and found him hysterical. The Pink Panther films were an inspiration, from my earliest childhood days, when I was watching them with my brother and my dad.
Films are just consumables.
I love being part of huge mega blockbusters, and I love being a part of small independent films and small stage.
I was lucky enough to have parents with a huge film library. My mum is a huge Bollywood film geek. When we were kids, we would watch Indian films with her as well as Chinese and Japanese films. My father was more into the classics, American films, and also Hitchcock films.
There are people who don't like to use other films as research, but I love it.
One corollary of the wretchedness of the second trilogy of 'Star Wars' films has been the final, demented sanctification of the first trilogy of films.
I'm a filmmaker; I want to make films. I don't want to sit in a hotel room waiting to make films, and I can control my thing in Denmark; I can make the film I want to make... of course, I have to write a good script, all that, but if I do my job, it will happen.
My goals are to continue acting and also to produce some independent films in the next few years. Music is a passion of mine, so I also want to continue along that path, creating with my friends.
I'd love to work with Tarantino, Scorsese, Sofia Coppola - all of them! I love thrillers and action movies. I love good horror films. I watched them so much when I was younger that I find it impossible to get scared.
I'm not exactly the type of actress who does half a dozen films a year.
I always look at these superhero films, and I see people hurdling towards at a hundred miles per hour, and then they get up, shake their head, and charge back at a hundred miles per hour. Nobody seems to really get injured or hurt. I don't find any threat in that. There is no tension in that whatsoever.
I think my sweet spot is to make personal films on not-too-big budgets and also make other people's films, bringing productions to Iceland, upping the business here.
I always try to keep a little bit of space in the year to work with other people. Because I love doing musicals, films and plays - projects where I'm not in charge, where I've got somebody else telling me what to do and I have to work with their vision.
I'm not very eager to sit and look at my films all the time.
