I think I learned discipline on 'Jane Eyre.' Charlotte Bronte's dialogue, the intellectual duel between Rochester and Jane Eyre's character, is so compelling that you didn't have to do much with the placement of cameras.
Cary Fukunaga
I think any character has to be well-rounded, whether they are male or female - they have to be complex and make choices that maybe we don't agree with, you know? I guess that's what makes them human.
I've written immense love letters that are supposed to be opened over days at a time.
There are elements to the 19th century which just don't work for contemporary audiences.
I want to have a nice country home one day, yeah.
Ed Norton is probably one of the smartest people I've ever met.
Every single substitute teacher growing up could not pronounce my name, so whenever someone pauses, I'm like, 'Oh, that's me.'
I didn't grow up watching detective shows. I've never even seen an episode of 'CSI.'
In terms of tackling different subjects, I can't really think of anything I wouldn't want to try; that's the fun of it right? Each new style brings new challenges - not that you shouldn't focus on one and master it, but it takes so long to make a film, you just want to have some variety.
I eventually want to do writing on all the films, but not necessarily to be the writer. Writing is a painful, painful thing; it really is.
I'm not a very sentimental person, so you're not going to find schmaltzy scenes in my movies.
My mom loved the old black-and-white films.
I don't really put trophies out. I don't keep trophies around my apartment.
I have a really good relationship with Focus Features; we had a wonderful time working together on 'Sin Nombre.'
My ideas tend to be either really big in terms of like, the logistics, or really small.
I don't believe happiness comes out of material gain, for sure.
You work with the communities to make films. And you just don't go in and take over their territory.
I have no idea what it would be like to be just one thing and speak one language. I feel enormously privileged to travel and be able to mingle and speak to people that, had I only known English, I wouldn't have been able to meet.
One of my problems with a lot of things I watch is that everybody's too pretty, and it takes me out of the film because I'm thinking that all these people look like I've seen them in a cafe in Los Angeles.
I have these plants in my house that are dying, so having a robot butler to water them when I'm away would be pretty handy.
When you have a script, and you're discussing what it can be, and who going to play what role, that's a kind of like a fantasy football game. You can imagine these different dream teams interpreting these characters that only exist in your head.
Writing, for me, is an inherent part of understanding the material on a deeper level.
I wrote my first script, which was 50 pages, at age 15. It was about two brothers in love with the same nurse while they're convalescing in a Civil War hospital.
I do want to direct a movie from horseback one day.
As storytellers, you're always somehow creating history.
Increasingly, there's much better material on television, but there's not always the time and money to make it, so you've got to make sure you make it in the right place. It also depends on time commitment; a lot of directors will make a pilot, but a series is just a whole other level of involvement.
No, ramen's not good for you. But in Japan, our favorite thing to do after drinking all night, especially in Sapporo where it's freezing cold, is to go to the ramen place at two, three in the morning.
Casting directors I don't think are the best in Mexico at street casting. Whereas, I think, in New York and in L.A., that's more common; not so in Mexico. So it's up to you as a director in a lot of ways to go out and do that.
I used to do Civil War re-enacting between the ages of 15 and 19. I was part of a unit that was considered very authentic. We would source the right wools, the right buttons for the costumes. We had the right look.
With 'Sin Nombre,' there are parts that I wish were longer. And with 'Jane Eyre' especially, there were parts that I had to compress that I thought it would have been really nice to spend more time with - to spend with the characters.
Going from having an Atari to a laptop changed everything. It allows me to work anywhere I want and send my work home - I can work anywhere in the world.
I'm definitely sensitive to the idea of exploitation. You don't want to glamorize certain things.
I'm better suited to be a director, I think. I see myself as the general author. I hate the word 'auteur,' because it sounds so solitary when filmmaking is anything but solitary.
I live in Brooklyn, New York, and hail from the 'East Bay,' Oakland, CA.
When I was 20, I was living in the Alps, snowboarding and studying political science. I blew out my knee, and I began to realize my days in the sport were numbered; the reality was I would never be a pro.
On 'Sin Nombre,' Adriano Goldman and I improvised a lot of things on-site. We were working with untrained actors, and you can't really block a scene in a traditional way.
The problem with being a writer/director: unless you're really disciplined, you start adding projects, and you have to make time to make them. Because you have to write them... no one else is writing them for me.
Tom Hooper had done 'John Adams,' and David Lynch did 'Twin Peaks.' I figured I could do eight hours of television, and I wanted to.
My dad is from Japanese descent, my mom is from Swedish descent and, through marriages and divorces, a pretty multicultural family - a lot of Spanish speakers in the family.
Some directors don't get involved in the cinematography and are just about story, but I'm definitely more tactile than that in terms of my involvement in the minutiae.
I'm clearly not meant to be in front of the camera. I'm really not meant for anything but behind the camera.
After 'Sin Nombre,' I just needed to take a break to go to completely different worlds.
It's so easy for shows to be gritty and handheld and shaky and really tight in people's faces.
To be straight, I was kind of a dork, and in order to fulfill the creative fires burning inside me, I participated vigorously as a Civil War re-enactor through most of my teenage years, traveling across the country to participate in large scale reenactments - grandiose plays enacted by over weight history buffs and war enthusiasts alike.
I've certainly never been dying to go to England my entire life.
Have you seen McConaughey in 'Unsolved Mysteries?' Even back then, it's a great performance! And he's mowing the lawn.
'True Detective' would not pass The Bechdel Test.
'Jane Eyre' was one of those films that I was familiar with as a kid, and I always enjoyed the story.
'Victoria Para Chino,' my 2nd-year film at NYU, gave birth to 'Sin Nombre.'
I think I have this field around me that makes electronics work bad. It's not like an entropy thing; it happens very quickly.
