The fact that ‘Astro Boy’ appealed to me as a boy in America was proof that the story and character transcend cultural stereotypes.
I’m legally unable to ride motorcycles. It’s a contract that I have with my life insurance, so whenever I get a chance to do a movie and ride a bike I go for it.
Generally my instinct is to not do biographical movies. I want to build characters and not be locked into playing a part in history.
I’m always fearful of something happening to people I love. That doesn’t go away.
I had been making a lot of family oriented movies, which I also like. But I still have a passion for the midnight audience and for midnight movies.
I just try to keep it fresh. I try to keep it interesting. The truth is my roots are independently spirited dramas that are small, and I will always go back to that well, because that’s where I broke out of. But I’m going to keep doing as many different movies as I possibly can.
I love it all. I don’t want to go through my career with one hand tied behind my back. I love making kids happy. I love the midnight audience. I like intense dramas. And I like high-adrenaline action films.
The most meaningful movies I can make are the ones where parents can share them with their children and children can look forward to sharing them with their parents, a ritual if you will, where they get to spend time together and the kids are smiling.
I always wanted to find a way to apply my acting in a big mad monster movie where I was transforming into this scary entity.
If you get a chance, whenever you’re traveling, do go to the local boutique comic book shop and don’t buy your comics online ’cause those guys are going to go extinct, in a minute here, and we want to be able to have those experiences with our kids.
I like the idea of being involved in pictures that can entertain the entire family and can stimulate youngsters into looking at picture books. There’s nothing wrong with that.
You often feel like you are on a high wire with no net productions because you have to rely on spontaneity and come up with ideas on the spur of the moment – and then what happens is that there is electricity to it that gets caught.
I’m a seeker. I’m very much a believer in science. But I do think there are times when science and mysticism intersect.
I believe that everybody has the right to believe what they want to believe and to knock somebody’s faith and religion is foolish, whatever it may be – Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism.
I was thinking about being more global in my work, which means trying more foreign countries and working with foreign filmmakers, hoping they would give me a new take on my work, a new point of view, reinvent me in some way.
I think that the best characters are the ones who both manage to be attractive and repulsive at the same time.
Remakes are always a challenge and they always are sitting ducks.
I find it inspiring and I always think when I’m working on something new, whether it’s a new kind of character or a new kind of story or new kind of camera, it gets my creative wheels spinning.
I find children inspiring. The way they look at the world. The magical world they live in, to me, is inspiring.
Killing me won’t bring back your goddamn honey!
Halloween is a great holiday for any actor if you think about it. It’s all about dress-up and playing characters. So yeah, it’s always had a special place for me.