No. I didn't look at the last few scripts. I didn't want to read them because I'm a 'Breaking Bad' fan. I wanted to experience it with everyone.
I watch a lot of TV - 'Perfect Strangers,' 'Family Matters,' 'Who's the Boss?' - then I go over my notes in the script, lock it into my head and go to bed.
I know a lot of people in the business recommend the many Story Structure seminars being offered here, but I point to them as the single biggest contributor to lousy scripts.
Shooting in Hong Kong, you can do whatever you want, even change the script every day. In Hollywood, you have to have a lot of meetings.
When the children were little, I'd fly into L.A. for a specific work project, but then I'd leave again, and when I was home, I wouldn't even read a script.
There's not a huge pile of scripts at home. It's what happens to be on the table at that moment with your availability. And then you have no control over when these things come out.
I read the script and decide if a particular character looks fun to play. I look for complexity and a sense of humor. Those are crucial, real things to life.
You hate to see yourself do one draft of a script and then have somebody else come back in and change what you've done.
During long car rides to the set, after I study my script, I go onto my iPad to read books and play games.
I've done a number of things based on real people or true stories or based on books, and I'm a great believer that you have to be true to the script.
Reality TV finds talented people. There are no scripts. The editing is what it's all about. Great editing makes those shows.
This was a really big opportunity. This script was even mediocre. The idea was great, but Jay came on with his guys made it great and very specific. It all came together well.
I always feel that if you put me in a room with a director and a writer and let me talk about the script, I can give a good account of myself.
You just have to take these opportunities when they come along. They're not that frequent; you'll get a really good script, oh, maybe once a year if you're lucky.
If I read a script and find it engaging and I start making choices in my mind on how to approach the work, than that's a good indication that it is something worth pursuing.
They put it on the page because it sounded good or it looked good or they read it in a book somewhere that this is how you structure a script or something, and they just don't get it. It's surprising.
'King of California' was just, I thought, a really great, fresh, original kind of script. I loved the tone, the mix of tragedy, comedy, and drama, and that it was a good part.
The reflection of the flame in the glass seems to be touching the hand. And you feel the helpless fear of these dismembered parts. This sort of thing can hardly be visualized at the script stage.
Our characters were antiseptic but we weren't. And if you remember what we did on BATMAN, as the scripts were written very funny, we played them very straight.
I would say 80% of the scripts I get are dramas and not comedies or romantic comedies, which is funny because that's what I do every week.
So often, I read scripts and am like, 'This would never happen in real life. It's not trying to be funny. It's trying to be serious.'
