I think it's easier to make a film with 200 million dollars than 960 grand.
I've always loved comic books, which is why I've done films like Hulk and The Punishers.
I wanted to be a martial arts film star when I was a teenager.
Nowadays, if a studio assumes that his film is bad, there is always an executive that gets more nervous than usual and thinks that if they change the music, the film will become a masterpiece.
I thought I'd never do film, let alone television. I was a diehard theater nut.
My process differs. . . my process for a Richard Linklater film is very different than a process for Training Day.
Don Quixote was a song for a 1969 Michael Douglas movie called Hail Hero! I wrote the title song for the film and they also used the Don Quixote one I had submitted.
Going from a short to a feature is like going from crawling to flying. It's a big jump, really. Everything triples - size of crew, budget, shooting days, the cast. Not to mention the stakes - as a first time feature filmmaker so much rides on this film.
We didn't create the culture of film. We certainly market it better than anyone in the world, but film could have happened anywhere. It's not distinctly American, as witnessed by the fact that there are film communities throughout the world that tell stories to their own cultural liking.
Sometimes, I feel the reason I have become a star beyond my films is that I am politically incorrect.
I've always wanted to be in musicals, not just in film, but on stage. I think it's a wonderful medium.
I love romantic films and love drama. Any film that has romance or romantic element is my comfort.
My job is to create a film, where we are capturing truth in performances.
I'm not a massive fan of 3D. I've seen some good 3D, and I've seen quite a lot of bad 3D. I think if a film is created for the shock effect of 3D, then it's a certain type of film that I'm not massively bothered about.
It makes it difficult to decide which to go see, since no film about say, some tragic genocide in Africa is going to get a bad review even if it's poorly made.
The challenge of film is making it right there at that moment, and then you get to move on.
Well the Bombay film wasn't always like how it is now. It did have a local industry. There were realistic films made on local scenes. But it gradually changed over the years.
In the moment of making films, I want to share my observations of life, not of other films.
I really feel like indie films are where I learn to be a better actor, especially because they always give you a bit more freedom to collaborate.
When I started photographing Patti [Smith], I knew that there wasn't a whole a lot of information out there about her. I was periodically interested in films, and so I just kept asking her if I could come around.