I really feel that actors should really know who they are as characters; they should really study their lines; they should be prepared; but once they come to set, for me the most exciting way to shoot a scene is to really find it, really kind of grind your way through it, until you feel like you have something that you can put together.
The first view is "bad apple." Bad apple is excusable. It's sort of like, something went bad with this man. But the second option is police corruption, so it's a problem with the department.
I have no idea what the next project will be and if there's a next project. I don't even know if we're all going to be here tomorrow, but I'm pretty optimistic.
I'm looking into a different actor's eyes every couple days, and I'm learning so much just to see the different processes people go through, and how their acting works for them.
It's not a big secret that what's lacking and what's wrong in our society starts with education.
But the reality is that the police serve a certain function, to maintain a certain status quo, and that's one of the things that the movie is about, because it basically gives you three options for looking at the police, as symbolized by Dave Brown.
What is reflected in the way this behavior is happening - in the way that minorities are treated, and the way that the incarceration system works, and the way that even the police are treated, and the way they're paid, and the way they're trained, and the whole educational system.
I think the most emotional part in making the movie and discovering the movie - because it was a process of discovering - is all the scenes with the family.
All the scenes that have to do with the fact that, at the end of the day, we're all engaged - hopefully some of us - in certain causes and ideals and certain ways of living, but we're human, and we're making all these mistakes, and we're caught in particular systems - whatever it is - but ultimately, there's a price paid by the people that are closest to you.
The damage that we do in the service of whatever motivates us in life has a direct effect, mostly on our kids.
I think that's an incredibly overwhelming reality that is really at the basis of how we're going to deal with this. Looking at the film, people will say, "Oh yeah, you're criticizing the police." I say, "No."
It's tough to be an actor and it's tough to portray a real person, and it's tough to play two people adding up to one person.
So the only problem that you have is actually switch things in the department, changing things, controlling things, putting it maybe under federal supervision, and if you fix the department, you'll fix the problems - with police corruption, with brutality, with evidence tampering, all those things.
That's really the big inspiration of this movie. It's really looking at a man who's really showing all the traits and all the characteristics of the classic patriarchal country, where he's of military power, he's the king of the hill at home, as well as in the streets. He has the liberty to live where he wants.
