If you have John Goodman in your movie, you want to use him as much as possible.
If you're trying to get to the underworld of Berlin, it's not suits and ties; it's rock and roll.
Spies go undercover. They take on different personas.
Great actors can transform, but sometimes there's just this person who speaks right to the role. When they walk in the room, you know they're that character. That is something you can't teach an actor; that's something that's luck and chance.
Some actors have an affinity for dance, and they should explore it, train in it, and get good.
'Atomic Blonde' is about the characters' bigger existential crisis and their world. It's not so much the conceit of the spy game; it's more that being a spy sucks. But we're going to make it fun to watch.
Coming from an action background, I always approach the action sequences in any script as kind of placeholders.
Every movie you attack has its challenges, and I was excited about the challenges presented by 'Deadpool.' I was a huge fan of the original, and I think, as a director, you have to put the script first.
Fight choreography has far more in common with dance choreography than it does with actual martial arts. You learn martial arts techniques, but those are just the movements for the choreography. You're working with a partner in choreography. You're working on timing.
Choreographing a fight scene is telling a little story. You learn a lot about the characters involved.
Part of the problem is that many directors treat female characters too often as precious. Or they want to live in a fantasy world where they just do spinning hook kicks and knock out guys who are six foot four, and that doesn't work either.
I find fight scenes actually more interesting, in a way, than chase scenes because you're watching your character go through this problem-solving process and fight the antagonist mano-a-mano. It's more powerful, more emotional.
There are a lot of big action movies that we've worked on where the attitude has been, 'Let's just get through this scene.' Then you get those jumpy, what-were-they-thinking action sequences.
The thing that I like about action sequences is that if they're done well, you get to know more about the character in those few minutes than you do through 10 minutes of exposition.
Selling art is a lot different than making it.
The DNA of 'Deadpool' shouldn't change.
It's called 'John Wick' - it's really about this guy's very simple journey. We just didn't want to clutter it. It's gratifying it in its own right, in its simplicity.
As a filmmaker, I'm a collaborator first.
There's an arc to an action sequence, and you need to come out the other end knowing your character better, and maybe the story has moved forward in a compelling way.
Friends who are directors like Jim Mangold or the Wachowskis or Zack Snyder - who, whether they know or not - have really left a mark on who I am as a director.
