I knew I needed to make a studio film - not for any financial reason, but because, as a filmmaker, and especially as a female filmmaker, you have to break through the glass ceiling.
Lexi Alexander
Back-light is the cinematographer's friend.
My dad is Arab. I'm not Muslim, but half of family is, so I see a lot of injustice happening in the portrayal of Muslims that they don't have any heroes.
People would go from village to village with their books in a time of poverty and disease. They would get people around them, and for an hour, these storytellers would change people's lives. I'd always thought I was a reincarnation of that. That's who I want to be.
When I was pitching 'Hooligans,' with a budget of $15 million, most people said they don't want to see a picture about soccer thugs.
For every IP block, DRM, and who-knows-what security feature Hollywood spends thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours on, some piracy kid will undo it for free and within a couple of minutes.
The only reason I was offered 'Punisher' was because I had made an indie film that was rated R for violence and was filled with fight scenes.
I understand it must be hard to realize that the playing field you are collecting all your trophies from is not a level playing field, but that doesn't mean you can just make inaccurate statements.
I have heard of 'Green Street'-dedicated birthday parties, a website dedicated only to the clothing. It has no end. If you hashtag #greenstreet or #greenstreethooligans, you cannot go a day without people saying it's their favourite movie. It's frustrating because it's a massive hit, but nobody gives it credit.
Religion is all good, but we are almost back to medieval times now, where we are obsessed with going into religious wars and electing our politicians based on their religious statements.
I thrive on impossible odds - always have.
Movies and TV are America's No. 1 export. So if our No. 1 export is all male, all white, then there's only one point of view. And I just think it's really important that as Americans - I'm a new American, but I am an American - that we don't portray ourselves to the world so one-sided and exclusive.
A lot of the guys that work for Warners and make these big films there all come from the same film school. Like Michael Bay, Zack Snyder, Tarsem Singh - they all went to Art Center in the College of Design. And there's a certain expectation when these guys graduate.
I'm not really the kind of girl that goes for action films.
While I was able to pass as white as soon as I came to America, this was not really possible while I was growing up, as it was pretty obvious that I wasn't 'all German.' So my privilege was that in America, I could conveniently withhold one of my bloodlines and avoid racism and discrimination. That is not a privilege most people of color have.
Bottom line - American history tells us that where there is a will, there will always be a way to achieve quick and fast inclusion.
In martial arts, for every attack, there is a counter you can throw. Somebody traps you, you can throw a hook. But there is no counter for bias.
I say this often, but 'Supergirl' is the best experience in my entire career.
Almost everybody agrees that the Academy has to become more diverse. Even the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences knows this, which is why, in 2013, it announced it would extend its membership quotas in an attempt to bring more women and minorities into the organization.
In L.A., every day, I see people taking other people's jobs, and they don't care whether that person is married and has two kids. People have no morals here.
I don't like people telling me what to do.
Maybe the biggest award show of the largest entertainment importer in the world needs an economic incentive to embrace diversity. Indeed, maybe we should boycott the show and pressure advertisers to do the same. Or maybe the Academy should learn the lesson of history and change because it's the right thing to do.
Until I was on Twitter, trust me: I was completely wiped off everybody's consciousness in Hollywood.
One thing I get from competitive sports is that I am fiercely ambitious.
I truly believe that if I would make a bad film, I might be walking into director's jail and never out. And that I think is probably a little more true because I'm a woman.
I'm a special case: I'm a former stuntwoman and former kickboxing champion, but you couldn't be more overqualified for the job. I cannot be the base level for what women have to do to be trusted with action, because the guys don't have that base level.
To make an entire country as big as America aware of a movie costs so much money.
Joel Schumacher fired me from 'Batman & Robin.' I don't think anybody knows that. I was having trouble with these contact lenses that were supposed to make your eyes glow under blacklight.
My brother and sister and I were latchkey kids, with a singer mother and no relationship with our father, and being in a firm is often about filling a void at home. For me, it was like having 50 big brothers.
Frank Castle knows only two sides: Good and Evil. There is no grey zone for him.
I always miss any kind of constant, especially now that I'm a film-maker who travels all the time. I'm always tempted to go to Catholic churches, although I despise the religion. But you want to go there just because it's the one thing in your life that's never changed.
Being into comic books is definitely an Americana thing.
My equality rants have been out there so much that people must be getting sick of it, and frankly, so am I, but if a writer wants to do another story about it, then go for it, because the cause is a good one.
Women are underrepresented and neglected in all aspects of the entertainment industry, so naturally, those of us who want to make a change use any opportunity to shine a light on someone when we can.
Let me make something clear: There are very few things Hollywood is right about. This is a very corrupt, elitist industry that breeds favoritism and fails people up the career ladder.
I look back now and think, what was I doing, moving to Hollywood with $2,000 and a duffel bag? But there is no money in martial arts competitions, and in Hollywood, there is an outlet for those skills. And I have always been pretty fearless.
I try to write for women, but I suck at it. I really do.
Foreign distribution is a major aspect of financing films. If you're flooding an entire country with cam rips DVDs before the movie is released, that will affect the bottom line eventually.
I'm not someone who throws the towel in, although I think there are many times when I could have and should have thrown the towel in, and nobody would have thought any worse of me.
I think in industries riddled with bias, you tend to hire women only if their previous work is very masculine, which is hilarious given that this is not how male directors are chosen.
I am pretty sure when Kenneth Branagh came up for 'Thor,' nobody at Marvel thought, 'Yes, that Kenneth Branagh is masculine enough to do action: just look at 'Henry V' and 'The Magic Flute.''
When I was nominated for an Oscar and seated next to Martin Scorsese, there was nothing in my mind that made me think, 'Hey, in three years maybe I'll make another remake of 'Punisher.''
I swear, if anyone near me even so much as whispers the sentence 'Women probably don't want to direct,' my fist will fly as a reflex action.
I was nominated for a live-action short-film Academy Award in 2003.
The people at Cabot Guns are a rare breed of geniuses and artists in a vast gun world.
I was pretty certain I'd stay in TV rather than returning to the feature world because the material just seems so much better in TV, especially in drama, but then 'Crossface' came my way. A heartbreaking, true story about the dark side of wrestling... I couldn't say no to that.
It's very hard to shame people in Hollywood into anything because they don't often feel that kind of shame.
Why is it when we see a white guy, we automatically think, 'Let's turn this dude into a star?'
When 93 percent of our stories are told by white men, it's an issue. And if those white men go on and tell the stories the way they see their world, which is all white, then it's an even bigger problem.
What's really amazing is that the showrunner who really got me my start in TV is Andrew Kreisberg. He brought me on to 'Arrow,' and he tracked me down because he was a fan of 'Punisher.'
