I Dyed My Hair For Photo Tests...

We Wanted To Show People What It Was Like In One Of Those Neighbourhoods That They Would Never Have Access To, In Bars That They Would Be Too Scared To Go Into, And A World That They Would Never Get To See. All Of That Is Something Really Unusual And Rare And Kind Of Fascinating. And The Only Way To Do That And To Make It Really Worthwhile Was That It Had To Be Authentic. We Dedicated A Lot Of Time And Energy To Making That Right And Real. So We Found Basically The Worst Locations That We Could.

You Have To Pay People Real Money.

To Answer The Question, Though: I Didn't Always Want To Direct. I Just Liked The Idea Of It. If A Friend Was Making A Short And Needed Someone Who Knew Screen Direction, I Would Jump In. It Would Be Horrible, But It Led To A Short, Then Another, And Another. It Was Like Student Films.

I'm Sure I Can Make A Movie That Doesn't Feel Like A Seventies Movie! But The Truth Is, That's My Favorite Era In American Filmmaking. To Me, Those Were The Great Years.

I Try To Cast Really Good Actors And Give Them A Chance To Do Their Very Best Work, Give Them As Much Time And Space As They Need.