'RoboCop,' when that came out, was like the best comic book movie ever, and it's not based on a comic book.
You get some directors, and I can never understand it - there's a thing they call the 'video village' where all the monitors are, and you've probably seen it on set visits - I hate that! I never, ever like sitting in video village. I get either my own monitor or a hand held monitor, and I stand right by the camera.
You cannot put 50 years of the Marvel universe into a movie. It's impossible.
When you write something, at first you might feel very defensive and protective of every single thing, but after a while, you just see what works and what doesn't. Sometimes you do test screenings, and an audience tells you that, or sometimes you eventually just go, 'Let's cut the joke out.'
I'd like to do some things over again. I never want to repeat anything that went well, though - I just want to do better at slightly different things.
I definitely went through a period when I was a teenager when every girl was 'The One' and every break-up was the 'Worst Thing That Had Ever Happened.'
I was never a DC kid - I went through a phase from, like, 11 to 17 where I would try to buy as many Marvel titles as possible. And '2000 AD' was kind of the sort of sci-fi/punk of British comics.
Every time I watch a Clint Eastwood film, I'm in touch with my feminine side, I've developed a searing man-crush on Clint Eastwood.
It's funny: sometimes with 'Spaced,' people would try and read too much into something I'd done, with the references meaning something more than they do.
I used to stay up all night playing 'Resident Evil 2,' and it wouldn't stop until the sun came up. Then I'd walk outside at dawn's first light, looking at the empty streets of London, and it was like life imitating art. It felt like I'd stepped into an actual zombie apocalypse.
We were shooting 'Hot Fuzz' in my hometown of Wells, Somerset, and I remember looking at the dailies and going, 'Wait, there's a Starbucks in the shot. I don't remember that being there!' We had to digitally remove it; the same thing happened with a McDonald's in another scene. I had this sensation of, 'What's going on here? Where am I?'
I was at art school that had quite a celebrated film course as well. I tried for that film course when I was 18, but they said I was too young. I tried this audio and visual design course instead. Two years later, I reapplied for that higher course, but they said I was still too young and to try in five years.
I've always been fascinated by horror films and genre films. And horror films harbored a fascination for me and always have been something I've wanted to watch and wanted to make.
Some actors don't even read the stage directions at all.
Usually, if you read a script by somebody else and there's a dense page of stage directions, people just skip through it or speed read it.
'Don't Look Now' is a masterpiece. I think it's the best-edited movie of all time. I adore it.
I am always watching old films and trying to fill gaps in my knowledge.
I grew up on Marvel and, like, '2000 AD.'
'The Driver' wasn't commercially successful at the time, but when I was a teenager, I had no knowledge of that.
I'd rather try and cram in another two gags than leave a pause to say, 'Hey, wasn't that bit funny?'
