The feature film business, the studio film business, feels to me like there's just nowhere else to go. It's like a record that's just skipping at the end, with the needle stuck in the run-out groove.
It's one of the things I love about making films: the places I've got to travel that I would never have gone to before.
I keep a diary - one for each film and foreign land I travel to.
I've done films where we don't rehearse and I've done films where we heavily rehearse. I like rehearsals.
When you're making an independent film what you don't have in time and money you have to make up with creativity and diligence.
If I could act in theater, my whole life, and never act in film or television again, and just direct the rest of my life, I would gladly do that.
The great thing about filming a film is that you all have your final day's shooting, but you always know that you're all going to be coming back for the premiere.
I did enjoy theater. I actually do prefer making films and television, but it was a learning experience for me, because I got into television at 5 and film at 11, and theater was something I completely bypassed.
It's always been my dream to be in a war film.
When you do a film, you start to get the character, and then it disappears for a year before it's released and you get feedback.
Creating music, visual art, producing music and film are always at the forefront of my life.
One of the things I've learned over the years is that you only do what you can do as an actor. You do the best job you can, but you have no control over so many elements that are going to determine the outcome of that film. I never pay attention to what happens after.
Hood films now are made by studios and have nothing to do with the reality they supposedly represent.
We had a great producing staff and great filmmakers, but for me, my mission , as a producer, was to make sure that the creators were happy with the film Death Note and that their voices were heard. I felt, if the creators were proud and happy with the film, then in turn, the fans would be proud and happy with the film because the creators know the fan base, inside and out.
I'd never studied film. I had movies that I loved and movie stars that I looked up to, but I really had not seen a lot of the great classic films that he felt like he wanted me to see before I took on such a huge role.
Traffic is one of the most powerful films to come out in recent years. It blew me away.
My films have elements of genre in them, which prevents them from being purely art films.
I was lucky with my first film because it had Warhol in it. That was the selling point.
I don't think people understand when you say you are making a micro-budget film that you are getting paid no money.
The older I get, the more I'm drawn to the smaller films, but I still hope to keep bigger films in my repertoire. It's just maybe going to be a shift in focus, but I'll definitely still hopefully be kicking around in those.
I'm not one of those actors that hates press and gets really groan-y about it - I always like talking about films.
The only thing I really wanted was the freedom to be able to get what I want on film. I’ve dealt with the MPAA since 1973, so I know how to renegotiate and rework.
More personal films, you could make them, but your budgets would be cut down.
I think all the great studio filmmakers are dead or no longer working. I don't put myself, my friends, and other contemporary filmmakers in their category. I just see us doing some work.
I always wanted to make a film that had this sort of Chinese-box effect, in which you keep opening it up and opening it up, and finally at the end you're at the beginning.
