I'm interested in new worlds, new universes, new challenges. I always said the only reason to make a film is not for the result but for what you learn for the next one.
Dramatically, the moment in 'Gravity' that was hardest to nail down is when Ryan is in the Soyuz capsule and she realizes that she's out of fuel. That's when the character's arc gets defined.
A lot of comedians, when they have a bad gig, will blame everything but themselves. They'll blame the crowd, or the room was wrong, it had a weird vibe, or the promoter promoted a weird atmosphere.
The Romans thought of themselves as the chosen people, yet they built the greatest army on Earth by recruiting warriors from any background.
I don't want to continue to do what I did when I was 20. I would like to continue to develop myself and not continue to hang around with bands.
I only make storyboards for action scenes. Once you make a storyboard, you don't film; it can be a stiff move.
With photography, you are lucky if you get people to look at your pictures at some point. There's no formal way to show them.
I wanted to make a film as an artist, and it's going to have to find an audience, you know. I don't know how big the audience will be.
I feel a responsibility to myself, and not so much for the world at large. Because of my Calvinistic upbringing, I was trained to think that what you do has to have a purpose.
When you ask a bunch of people to see a film, and then invite them to comment on it and tell them it's a work-in-progress, they feel bound to offer an opinion.
In Australia, we point out a person's weaknesses as a way of saying 'I see you and I accept you'. If you do that with Americans, they instantly take offence.
Bruce Willis. Pain in my ass, no problem about that. We just didn't get along. We got along off camera, but shooting we just didn't get along.
It's a dumb question, because I don't look at things as a black director, just as a director, so ask me as a director first and we can segue into the colour thing later.
Is there one specific source that determines correct morality and everybody should follow that? Or should individuals come up with following that source or not depending on their situation?
You have to transmit to them what it's like being in the theater. And it has to come from somewhere inside you and not by being like what somebody did last year.
It's hard to make a living doing documentaries. Frankly, if it takes you five years to do a film, and that's the only film you're doing, you're in trouble.
It would be hard to go to your neighbor and say the things people say on the Internet without getting punched out or having your tires slashed.
Many people have this memory of traditional TV documentary-making that aims to portray pure reality, and I just don't see that as the only option.
There are all sorts of inventive ways to get your film out there: sometimes via the Internet, sometimes via viral screenings in people's living rooms across the country.
When Robert Benton was doing the movie 'In the Still of the Night,' I'd choreographed the auction scene and supplied the paintings and had a bit part - I was bidding against Meryl Streep.
When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, 'It's in the script.' If he says, 'But what's my motivation?, ' I say, 'Your salary.'
