When I met Bono at the Cannes Film festival while I was there for the film 'United 93,' he said to me, 'That's a great film, brother. Thank you for your courage in making it.' I plotzed.
One year, I went to Cannes with the film 'The Indian Runner' that Sean Penn directed. Everyone else in the film was all the same height, and on the red carpet, when they were taking photos, none of them would stand next to me, and I totally got it.
After Cannes, my agent told me to get the next flight to LA. He was right. I had a part in 'Prime Suspect 3' by the end of the week.
Cannes is the oldest film festival in the world, and I've long dreamed of having one of my films there in competition. It's a dream that lay dormant for a long time; I stopped believing in it.
You see Mexican cinema in festivals throughout the world, and you see Mexican directors getting recognized at Cannes, at the Oscars, in Berlin, but the question is, What is the end result of that in terms of the market? That's where it's lacking.
Red carpets are awful. They're like a kind of purgatory - you stand there, and there are cameras flashing everywhere. One of my first red carpets was in Cannes for 'The Great Gatsby,' and I'd never seen anything like it.
I didn't really know what to expect. I had been told about the scale of Cannes, but nothing could have prepared me for just how many people would turn out for our photo calls or for the opening ceremony.
Political perspective and the Cannes festival are linked almost as inextricably as fast-food consumption and detrimental effects on health.
Apart from 'Stoned,' I can't think of a film that's made me think, 'Blimey, that should have been at Cannes.'
I think Cannes is usually pretty fair in choosing what will play well to the home festival crowd.
