I had to adapt to other worlds, and that helped to educate me that we are all basically the same.
What I never want to do is start phoning it in and making things just to show that I can keep my foot in the door and do big movies.
I always say that 'Star Wars' had a huge effect on me, too, but what 'Star Wars' did for some people, 'Superman' did for me.
My fantasy is that I could wake up looking amazing, that I could be strong and stop the bully, but that everybody would love me, too. I think that's intrinsic to fantasy - fantasy is fantasy.
I think that, for whatever reason, we've gotten to a place where, particularly in Hollywood, things have to be very pat. Like 'I'm a good guy. I'm a bad guy.'
It's rare that a character film is easy to fund.
I can't stand characters with contradictory information.
I have a long love of superhero films, and I'd been saying over and over again to my agents at CAA that I'd like to do one.
It's not about superheroes. This is the method of universal storytelling that all people have... To me, they're the same as the Greek myths or the Roman myths or religious figures of every religion. These are common characters that we use to express stories about being a better person or what you would do when faced with various things.
My father was a fighter pilot, so I moved around the world when I was young. Then I ended up in Kansas. I'd just sort of gravitated toward the arts, and I had always loved music and really loved theater even though I didn't want to act.
To me, superhero movies are like Greek myth.
As soon as I went to painting school in New York, I took an experimental film course, and everything clicked and came together. I realized my love of music and drama and the visual arts all came together. This happened in 1989. Since then, it's been a long road of educating myself in every possible way.
I think making a film that you think is good and you believe in is going to be difficult forever.
Movies always had a captive audience, so they were able to do deeper, more complex things. Television was always about, 'Look at me now! Look at me now! Now go away!' That's starting to change.
I was a closet Journey fan when I was growing up.
I try not to buy into that whole, crazy 'you are what you drive' mentality here, but I wouldn't want to be seen in a Ford Fiesta - you know what I mean?
There are a lot of pretty actresses in Hollywood who try to act tough, and the audience laughs.
It's been my experience with damaged people: they don't wake up every day and wallow in the bad things that have happened to them.
Frankly, I like DVDs having lots of things on it, but I have issues with it as well, too.
The need to look behind the curtain is great for a filmmaker. But whether you want to deconstruct what you like as a viewer, what you like and don't like, I wish we could let films stand on their own a little bit.
