I'm basically drawn to defeated, injured, hurt, barely walking characters.
Steven Shainberg
I love moving through long spaces and being enclosed.
There's a kind of dream that movies sell to people: You can start as the lowliest person and rise to the top. 'Hit Me' doesn't sell this fantasy.
Who could be more desperate than filmmakers?
I'm almost exclusively interested in what happens behind closed doors, between people. The removal of their public face.
After 'Secretary,' I was wanting very badly to find something to make that I really cared about.
Diane Arbus is one of the most mysterious, enigmatic, and frighteningly daring artists of the 20th century. Her work emerged from a deeply private place and profoundly affected all those who came into contact with it.
Basically, independent film doesn't exist anymore. It does if you have two or three stars in your film, but it's just very difficult.
I would define independent film as a movie that is not financed by any of the smaller film companies. Because then, those are movies that in all likelihood are made without stars. And then they have to rely just on the material.
If somebody sent me a good script, I would do it, and I mean that, but it never happens. Not once. I can't even point to an exception.
