I’m a good listener. I think it’s the one characteristic that’s most important. I’ve always been that way. Not that I take all the advice, but you’ve got to listen to it and have the courage to make your own decision. Then I just go for it.
Where do I get my seriousness? You can’t help but grow up fast when your parents get divorced. You see your mother go to get food stamps and she’s making fifty dollars too much to get them, with four kids to support.
What I find sometimes that is tricky is if actors are using too much of their own life in a picture, in a scene, they get locked into a particular way to play the scene, and it lacks an immediacy.
I’ve been… chased by paparazzi, and they run lights, and they chase you and harass you the whole time. It happens all over the world, and it has certainly gotten worse. You don’t know what it’s like being chased by them.
I look at the Samurai because they were the artists of their time. What I think struck me when I read Bushido is compassion. ‘If there’s no one there to help, go out and find someone to help.’ That hit me, because I try to lead my life like that.
Every time I make a “Mission” movie or other films, people kind of look at me and go, “Well, now what? What’s next?” I think there’s always going to be another mountain. I think there’s something always in store.
