I've always loved movies, since I was a little kid, but I never wanted to be part of that industry. It always seemed horrifying, the way films were made.
Mike Leigh and Ken Loach are the people I look up to. They are quality film-makers making interesting, controversial, ground-breaking movies with very little eye on the marketplace.
What I've always thought I would do is make a bunch of movies and then stop to teach for awhile. And then just teach at film schools - you know, teach children.
I don't make movies for the same reason that a lot of people do. I make films because I need to see them exist in a very specific way.
I am a keen observer of my own films; I also try to discover myself through the movies I make.
Growing up in the Philippines, I loved all kinds of movies. We had a very healthy film industry there when I was a child.
I want my movies to be audience experiences. As much as I like Michael Haneke, I'm not going to make a Haneke film. That's just not in my DNA.
I used to like to set different film clips to classical music, not even my own songs, but make little movies.
I loved the 'Die Hard' films growing up and the 'Taken' movies. They're so entertaining, and I enjoy being on the edge of my seat.
I think film had a terrible effect on horror fiction particularly in the 80s, with certain writers turning out stuff as slick and cliched as Hollywood movies.
When I began making films, they were just movies: 'What's the new movie? What are you doing?' Now they're called 'adult dramas.'
Barbara Stanwyck movies drove me nuts, like 'Ball of Fire' and 'Double Indemnity.' I used to go cuckoo when I would see those films.
I loved movies as a teenager and saw as much American cinema as I could, but I hated the English films of the early '60s and had absolutely no point of identification with them.
Ricky Fitts: I was filming this dead bird. Angela Hayes: Why? Ricky Fitts: Because it's beautiful.
I hear filmmakers saying, 'I wanted to make to make a film about this issue, or this theme,' but I never start like that.
I'm not interesting enough on my own that you'd want to see a film about me.
Television and film acting is really fun because you are working with other people and you are not completely responsible for the outcome of the project.
Sometimes people get really sniffy about the films you choose if you've done more dramatic projects or you're classically trained.
With a film, you try to keep your vision in it. I think with 'The American' and 'Control' I managed to do that.
Juilliard definitely emphasizes the theater. They don't train - at all really - for film acting. It's mostly process-oriented, pretty much for the stage.
Personally, I like films that make me a little bit uncomfortable because I think you're uncomfortable when something is real.
