All my movies have an autobiographical dimension, but that is indirectly, through the personages. In fact, I am behind everything that happens and that is said, but I am never talking about myself in first person singular.
I have my own difficulty with movies in which the suffering of the characters is too real, and many find it difficult to watch comedies that rely too heavily on embarrassment; the vicarious reaction to this is too unpleasant.
I only drive in movies. I know that's very weird to hear for an American. I have a weird relationship with it. I know how to drive, but I never went to take the test.
I guess rebelliousness has been explored in many movies, but what about the smart kids' rebellion? Not just the motorcycle jackets and that kind of rebellion; it's the dorky kid - what could he do?
Movies feel like work, and reading fiction feels like work, whereas reading nonfiction feels like pleasure.
I have learned that I will not pay any attention to anything people say about my movies, because people say things that are all over the place.
Where the material is, that's where you go. I'm a workman: I go to work. I've done movies for nothing, literally nothing; I did 'Last I Heard' for next to nothing.
When you work in movies, or on TV shows, there are 50 other people involved. And it's hard, man. They brainwash you to think you're doing the right thing.
Then I went through a whole bunch of crap with my lousy movies and pop records. I had people behind me kind of steering me in that direction, but it wasn't really my bag.
Nowadays the big Hollywood studios only make about three movies a year, and they cost about $200 million each. There's no room for error in that, and not a lot of room, I would think, for free expression.
I want to make movies that pierce people's hearts and touch them in some way, even if it's just for the night while they're in the cinema; in that moment, I want to bring actual tears to their eyes and goosebumps to their skin.
Movies such as 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' in 1939 to 'Dave' in 1993 portray Washington leaders as the ultimate Everymen - decent people just like you and me, only thrust onto greatness.
Nobody's seen all my work. No one. No one in the world has seen all my movies. Some things just never came out... some things may still come out.
There is too much negativity on Twitter, and I want to stay from it. I don't have anything intelligent to say. Whatever I want to say, I will say it through my movies and interviews.
So it took me five years because in the interim I have been doing a lot of personal appearances and movies and some television series that went into the plumbing and I stopped writing for a while.
I didn't want to chase movies. It's too hard. You've got to work at it - opening nights, photo shoots, publicity people, managers. I never wanted to do that. I'm too lazy.
My favorite movies growing up were things like 'The Wizard of Oz,' but as I got older, I really began to admire people like Steven Soderbergh.
A lot of times I'll make films that are mostly character-driven films - stories that involve people. Like, I make the joke: I like to make movies about human beings that live on Earth.
I did as much as I could in Vancouver. You can only play so many ex-'Falcon Crest' sons in so many movies of the week before you burn out.
The time it would take me to write a screenplay it would take me the time to make two films. I would rather make the movies, and I'm a better moviemaker than I would be writer.
'Transformers' was important and defining for me because it taught me about what kinds of movies I want to make and the kind of actor I want to be, and I have a long way to go before I become that actor.
