I will always love psychology, and the basis of psychology is family.
I was never the ingenue or the pretty girlfriend of Tom Cruise in a movie. I didn’t have that career, so I don’t have to compete on that level.
I think Anna and the King is a look at Asia from the Asian perspective, reflecting the Asian experience, which is very rare.
Where I have problems is when I am in the midst of doing something that I am completely focused on, and then I am asked to buy shoes or something.
I saw leaving college as an opportunity to do something different with my life. I always thought that becoming an academic was going to be my path.
All the movies that I make in some ways have to be the story of my life. There are different chapters in my life.
I don’t find acting and directing schizophrenic in any way. I find it completely easy to move between the two.
I love European movies and I kind of grew up on European films.
Acting, for me, is exhausting. I’m always more energized by directing. It’s more intense to direct. I can pop in and express myself, then pop out again. It’s a huge passion for me.
Any actor working a long time should know how a shot is set up, where to place themselves, how to handle the lines. I’m a member of the crew, like the best boy, the electrician. What I’m good at is making eyes at the camera.
I don’t like it when reviews aren’t about the movie. When they’re about how much money somebody made, or who they’re sleeping with, or if they got the job via some connection, or about how Fox is putting X amount of dollars into it.
I think ‘destiny’ is just a fancy word for a psychological pattern.
If I fail, at least I will have failed my way.
I like dramas. I’ve always liked dramas. And I’m a pretty light person. I don’t consider myself a very dramatic person. But I do like doing that onscreen.
I had a prodigious life, living in a grown-up world when I was a child. But I think my abilities were about perceptiveness, and they were about examining psychology and examining people and relationships.
It’s a skill that people are born with. Either you’re a focuser or you’re a multitasky person. I am a full-focus person.
I don’t have a burning desire to act, strangely enough. I don’t know that if I hadn’t been an actor as a young person, I don’t know that I ever would have chosen this because it’s not really my personality.
Everybody reads for me. I was never weird about that. I never minded coming in and reading. They should know if I’m the right person, and I should know if I want to do a movie.
Boys are easy. I mean, there are just a lot of bruises when they’re young. With boys, you get a lot of accidental jabs in the eye and stepping on your feet, and those tantrums they cause when they don’t want to leave the toy store.
I made, like, five movies while I was in college. I think they just weren’t memorable movies. I’ve taken breaks as the years have gone on – I burn out every once in a while.