Independence day is an interesting time to reflect on our strange fealty to institutions that the British left us, including those that were explicitly set up to be used against us.
When I was 11 I went to New York with my mum, dad and sister. I felt like I was on a movie set the whole time and loved being over there on Independence Day.
We excuse movies like 'Independence Day' that really lack logic and say, 'It doesn't make any sense, but it's a ride.' I thought a movie was a movie and a ride was a ride.
It's funny: When I first heard they were thinking of me for the president in 'Independence Day,' I just assumed it was a comedy - I didn't exactly think of myself as leader-of-the-free-world material.
Fox was interested in a different title to 'Independence Day.'
I've been lucky to be a part of many blockbuster movies... in which it's hard to get to that level of being memorable, but I still have fond memories of 'Independence Day,' to be sure. There are also many small ones I've had that give me many fond memories.
When I saw 'Independence Day,' I said, 'I want to be like Will Smith.' I want to do something like that. If he can do it, maybe one day I can come close to a set like that.
'Independence Day,' ever since we did it, there's been enormous pressure to follow it up.
Many years ago, I was actually hired to write the sequel to 'Independence Day.' And I wrote a sequel. And they paid me a boatload of money to go write this thing. And after I wrote it, I read it and I gave them back the money and I said, 'Look, this is an okay movie I just wrote. But it's not worthy of the sequel to 'Independence Day.'
As for 'Independence Day,' we never intended to do any films in that series beyond the first one.