When a male stunt performer falls down a flight of stairs, he has a lot of clothes on and can wear all this padding. But because actresses never have a lot of clothes on - they are always falling in their underwear - you can't wear any padding whatsoever.
You cannot make a living doing independent films.
In my other work as a self-defense instructor, I have taught the importance of listening to one's gut instincts.
It never occurred to me that artists, of all people, have to be reminded that instinct is more important than tradition, but in our industry, people seem to forget that sometimes.
It's one of my obsessions to come up with ways to reimagine establishing shots in new, non-boring ways. Shots that have energy and excitement.
Hollywood is silly sometimes.
When I first arrived here, after spending years as a competitive fighter and training U.S. Marines in hand-to-hand combat, Hollywood is the last place I would have expected to find such blatant bias and discrimination.
There's something not right with a person's soul when they judge another human being to be less adequate because of their gender or skin color.
Being half-Palestinian comes with its own challenges, especially after 9/11 and also, working in Hollywood. But denying my own father, the three siblings I have on my father's side, I would essentially be destroying my own essence. So I decided I'm going to be me.
I think I have a responsibility as a film-maker to bring not only controversial subject matter to the screen but also to inspire a thought process.
You can be Michael Moore and make 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' but that's hitting people over the head, and a lot of Americans don't like to be hit over the head. I want to make films that make people walk out and say, 'Wow, I really question if this is all right.'
There are only two kinds of people who are successful at this social media thing: those who are funny and those who get real.
Women in Hollywood have no male allies. There are some who pretend to be on our side, but yeah, not really. They may say the right thing because, after all, they're liberals, and that's a public image they'd like to keep up.
Truth: I loathe the idea of being hired because of my gender, and I shudder at the thought that one day I show up on set, and half of the crew thinks, 'Here comes the quota hire.'
I thrive on impossible odds - always have.
I've pitched movies to all of the major studio heads in my time.
Although I'm aware of how under-represented we are, I sometimes forget how desperately Arabs who aren't in the film business wish for better stories about us.
The thing about TV is that it's great work for directors because the responsibility is not ours at all. In a movie, you choose a movie, and everybody points his or her finger at you afterward. It doesn't matter how much influence you had on the script, how much decision you had, or the fact that you didn't have final cut.
When I first made 'Green Street' and I was considered a hot director, I pitched everybody, but there was always this feeling that I was being underestimated in the room. I pitch TV, and nobody underestimates me. They literally think you could be the next whoever, and that is a very cool thing.
In terms of writing and developing, TV is very open because TV needs stories. They need new pitches, and they need new ideas. They don't always take the risk for new ideas, but they are certainly open to it. They can't have enough people come in and pitch to them. It doesn't matter how they look or what gender they are.
