There's no bigger rush than working as a huge team on a set in film and television.
In ten years, or certainly before then, I'd like to not only be continuously busy as an actor playing tormented, playful characters in film and television but also have gotten a few of my own films made.
Successful films are very dangerous things.
You don't choose a film because it's made by a woman, you choose it because it's good.
Films are just consumables.
I just don't see very many films. Because I make them.
I love shooting French films because I don't have to stick with being sophisticated or stuck-up.
I just want to work and be in films that I like, it is so simple. I think from the outside it seems as though as actors, we are picking and choosing our roles, but it isn't like that at all, perhaps unless you are George Clooney. There are not that many movies I would want to be in.
I don't know if I even consider myself a comedian really - I do comedic acting in some films and dramatic in others.
Generally Canadian films are smaller. I think the market here is a tenth of the size of the States. So there's less resources to put into the films.
There wasn't even a movie theater in the town. Nothing. Not even any fast food chains of any kind. Regardless, I knew that I was going to leave and become an actor, and be in film and television, and I've done it.
Maybe I could do some indie film and get my kit off. I'd never say never.
When I couldn't speak English, I loved silent films circa 1914-1929, Abel Gance being my favorite director.
Basically you can do anything in a film. I could have place a spaceship in the middle of a street. You can do anything, and I love to talk about this because is so organic to the process.
I mean look at Antichrist. He's not making films to be liked by everyone, so why is this so surprising coming from Lars von Trier?
I can't watch my movies and get into them because as soon as I see myself I get taken out of the film.
To be in someone's favorite film is just - that's what you want. You want to be in great films that are memorable.
I love to produce, and I've directed two short films.
I think for everyone it's good to have your own personal work on a character and a film before you even start rehearsing, to have an inner life.
I watch mainly fiction. The films I like watching are films where you see people change, like with Boyhood. You see a moment in someone's life where it's a breakthrough. For me, the breakthrough in Boyhood is that amazing moment right at the end when he finds somebody he can feel relaxed with, and who will maybe be a friend for the rest of his life. I like that it doesn't end in a love affair or marriage. It just ends in, "Wow, I found people I can relate to for the first people in my life. These people accept me, I like them."
I know that sounds contradictory - you're going on a journey, but once you know who your characters are, you become more disciplined and you film less and less.
I meet all these American filmmakers that film for months and months, and it's a mystery to me. I couldn't make a film like that. I have to be very clear in what I'm doing and where it's going, and be very disciplined about what I film.
Those are the films I want to make. I don't want to make a film about, "Oh, those poor prostitutes!" Or "Oh, isn't it terrible in Chicago!" I want to make a film where people think, "Brenda's like me!"
The magic of documentary is that I keep being surprised and amazed by the things I film.
The biggest misconception about me is perhaps that I film all the time and film everything randomly. The truth is I film very little and always when something excites me and seems to mean something for the film.
