We have certain things where we know they exist or "everybody knows they exist," but naturally nobody can photograph them, because they are so super secret. For example, the PEOC, the Presidential Emergency Operations Center exists, but nobody knows how it looks, but it's a so called bunker where he can survive a nuclear attack.
I was, it was very high. Especially with international (box office), we did something that I didn't think this movie ["2012"] would do. I was very happy.
Actually, when I did "10,000 B.C.," in the middle of production, I wanted to quit my job, because everything went wrong.
There are many more good stories about Jaye Davidson.
I knew that Jaye Davidson would not last because of that. I really liked him and thought he had incredible screen presence and talent, but I knew that he would not stay in that profession.
The President of the United States has super star status. He's not a normal person, because he's protected like no other person in the world and if this man's life is in danger, the whole world is kind of in peril in a way, because the leader of the free world could fall into the hands of terrorists.
When it comes to action, I'd say Mel Gibson and Will [Smith] were great.
I was actually privately in the White House like invited by Clinton to screen 'Independence Day,' so I know how the private residence looks. I didn't snap a picture, but I have a photographic memory and then I could take a guided tour in the West Wing.
Dean [Devlin, Emmerich's partner on "Independence Day"] and I always said that we'd only do it when we had a really good story that excites us both, and we have the story written. And we've had it for a year and a half, two years. So we've been ready.
It's just one of those things. Everybody wants to do it, but it's really difficult. People had to wait for "Indy 4" for a decade, and the reason is because of the people involved.
In the end [of the "2012"], there were no ships, no water, no nothing. Only the interiors [were real]. Everything else had to be made, and that is always challenging.
["2012"] it was really more about the subject matter, and to do a modern retelling of Noah's Ark, a flood story.
I always try to convince people that there has to be a lot of material about the subject matter, so they created a couple of pieces. One is about doomsday prophecies.
There's not really much destruction in New York besides the weather and it's a natural force so it's not like any destruction. But LA gets leveled (laughs). That's my comment to Hollywood.
