I just wanted to make movies, but I never though about, "How am I being perceived because of my culture or my skin?"
The fun of directing for me, other than working with the actors, is trying to extract those ideas that you have in your head and make them real.
I've been clawing my way to directing since I was a kid.
I was only driven to be the best and it was very disheartening sometimes that it took me so long to start getting my voice heard. That certainly started with television, but it was never because of where I came from, it was because people saw something in me.
NYU Film School was the way to learn about film, to be exposed to film, to go to repertory houses, to be exposed to New York and see films. I would go to the library and see one, two or three movies a day.
Being exposed to the Ryan Murphy machine, it is very much a personal extension of him. So, if I can learn from that and tell longer stories that are quite personal, and balance that out with features, then that would be the ultimate dream.
Musicals and horror films can be very non-verbal and very pure cinema with movement. The camera is justified in being a character. It can really move and tell a story, and literally direct you to look here or there.
If you can make the day, you can do whatever you want.
I love visual stylists like Bob Fosse and Vincente Minnelli and Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger with The Red Shoes and The Tales of Hoffman.
I'm a fan of musicals from great masters, and I was able to have an opportunity to express myself in musical numbers with Glee.
Horror allowed me to quickly switch gears.
It's a great asset to you, on your first film, to bring some people with you from the television world because they understand the speed that you have to work with to get your grand ideas down.
It becomes an extension of your imagination to make something tangible and concrete.
I don't set out to do something weird, but if you see something a certain way and it's a little left of center, and you can realize it, that's a real thrill.
On some kind of unspoken, deep, deep level, I think we [with Ryan Murphy] have an aesthetic that we both understand or connect to. It's not that we see the world in the same way because we have very different points of view, but we're both visual stylists.
TV is all new to me because I came from features.
I went out to Bali, and I cast all of these supporting roles. I love that stuff. I just love actors. And then, Ryan Murphy asked me to direct second unit for him on Eat Pray Love. I was already booked on something else, but I joined them later. And then, I wrote him a thank you email and I got no response. I was like, "Okay, that's it." We didn't interact much on set either.
To me film school was film history because there weren't a lot of books out there that I had access to.
I still think that being thrown in a very competitive environment where you really have to see what you are made of - certainly when you come out of nowhere - was good for me.
There are the relationships you make. All of the friends I made in grad school are the closest ones that I have.
As a fine artist I was drawn to composition and technique. I would count the cuts.
As a director who loves the camera you learn a lot.
I'm really grateful to Ryan Murphy for so much because he's fearless. He's so confident. He has a very unusual and unique way of seeing the world sometimes, and he's somehow able to translate that into entertainment for the masses, at the right time in pop culture.
The Ryan Murphy television world has assistants who have become producers and writers and. If he trusts you and you have a unique way of seeing his world, he nurtures you.
Ryan Murphy just gives new people a shot, and it takes a lot of confidence and generosity to do that.
