I don't usually direct actors in the classic sense of that word. Instead, I try to remind the characters before the shoot what's going on in a very simple way. I then watch them, their inventions as actors, approving or not approving what they're doing.
The artist himself is actually the subject in everything after, say, 1900. Eventually, art becomes so removed from the community that you have to know about the artist before you can even look at the painting, because there is a conceptual idea going on.
I think that what I'm attracted to is people who are wild. But the self-destructive side comes out of the wild side. The wildness is very different from me. That's why I think I like it.
One of the things that is devastating is I realise I haven't been living a different life than when I was, like, 12. I'm shocked at how reclusive I've been since then. I was unaware of it until recently.
My department is to get actors to do stuff.
The dark comedies tend to be in a non-releasable area. There can be romantic comedies. There can be dramas. But there's no 'dark comedy' inbox for the advertising.
If a movie isn't released, it's one thing, but if you know it will be, it's nice to have closure and see it come out.
Even when you're making a movie about life, death is a presence, and I guess it's part of my dramatic viewpoint. I'm not sure why exactly.
If I'm diagnosed with cancer I might become despondent, but someone young might not, and they might need connections with somebody outside their circle of family because their family is so despondent.
There's always a risk if you don't do things the way you've done things before.
You know, I don't think I had a concept of what I would be or do.
I'm normally drawn to something I haven't done and seen before.
I'm usually trying to react to what the actors are coming up with. And then the environment, and then the story.
I hadn't made a big-budget film, and in Hollywood there's a sort of man and boys situation. You're a man, you make $80 million movies! As if it's harder to make an $80 million movie. Well, I guess businesswise it is because you have more executives to argue with.
The media has gone through lots of things that make it a less foreign thing to have your lead character be gay.
Usually people just hire me.
I mean, I think I'm pretty sentimental.
I think that in some cases, I've made films that have a sentimental quality, at least as part of the film.
When you get to be 23, 24 or 25, you start to freeze up and become an adult.
Yeah, I try to be really calm.
