I always hated high-school shows and high-school movies, because they were always about the cool kids. It was always about dating and sex, and all the popular kids, and the good-looking kids. And the nerds were super-nerdy cartoons, with tape on their glasses. I never saw ‘my people’ portrayed accurately.
In all, I was in 16 movies, including ‘The Bishop’s Wife’ with Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven; I was in ‘Rio Grande’ with John Wayne, ‘Albuquerque’ with Randall Scott, ‘Blue Skies’ with Bing Crosby and ‘Hans Christian Anderson’ with Danny Kaye.
I’m trying to build a Disney. Not only as a creator, but also be able to create universes where then that content can go into toys, and live on multimedia platforms, whether it’s apps, books, movies, cartoons. It’s like building a whole world, which takes a lot of money.
I can’t stand on a podium and beat my chest saying I’m the best. I just think I’ve been the luckiest of all. Yes, I’m talented. The movies that I’ve chosen and the way they’ve fared have also helped. I’ve always done films I would love to watch. I have stayed away from films which I thought were depressing.
When I did ‘Bird,’ it was a surprise to some people, first because I wasn’t in it and second because most of the films I’d been doing were cop movies or westerns or adventure films, so to be doing one about Charlie Parker, who was a great influence on American music, was a great thrill for me.
Most filmmakers’ entire body of knowledge is of other movies. When they describe things, they describe them in relation to other movies. That’s why we have so many cyclical movies that look like other movies. But I’m not cynical. I even go to some of those movies.
Sometimes you just work, you work, you work, and you have no life, no boyfriend, you have no more friends, no more nothing, you just make movies, and you’re tired, and you don’t know why. Then everybody says, ‘Oh you are so lucky, you are working!’ And you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, oh yeah, it’s so great!’
Being sensitive to the problem of women is just another symptom of the quality of movies: I don’t think you can do anything that’s very sensitive. Everything’s sort of broad strokes and big gestures – adventure things that boys, guys want to see.
Movies don’t look hard, but figuring it out, getting the shape of it, getting everybody’s character right and having it be funny, make sense and be romantic, it’s creating a puzzle. Yes, having been a writer for so long, I have an awareness of when things are going awry, but it doesn’t mean I know how to fix them.
When somebody who makes movies for a living – either as an actor, writer, producer or director – lives to be a certain age, you have to admire them. It is an act of courage to make a film – a courage for which you are not prepared in the rest of life. It is very hard and very destructive. But we do it because we love it.
Minimalism seems closest to the sophisticated storytelling of movies. Movies have really educated contemporary audiences to be the most intelligent, sophisticated audiences in history. We don’t any longer need to have the relationship between one scene and the next explained. We will figure it out ourselves.
‘Tomorrowland’ is very much the dream role for me. I’ve always wanted to do a movie like this. Movies like this aren’t made anymore, and it’s so cool that I get to be a part of it. I get to do something new and crazy every day, and my character goes through so many different things. I get to do all of it. It’s awesome.
I’ve had nine of my books adapted to film, and almost all were enjoyable. I’ve been very lucky with Hollywood, and look forward to more movies being adapted. But I don’t get involved in that process. I know nothing about making movies and I stay away from it and hope for the best.
Some of the top grossing movies now are children’s animated features, they’re making more money than action movies. And you’d never find a Hollywood A-lister years ago doing voice-overs for those films and they do now. You know why? Because everybody’s got a price.
I have very vivid dreams – almost always action-adventure. I’m often on the run. I’ve always had dreams. When I was little, I’d go to sleep with my head on my hands, which were in fists like I was looking through a camera. I felt like sleep was the movies – just drifting off to the movies.
I walk into a restaurant, and people stare as though I’ve just landed from another planet. Every time I walk out in public, it’s like the alien freak show has arrived. It does have its advantages. I hardly ever get bothered by the paparazzi, probably because of some of the more edgy characters I’ve played in movies.
I feel like movies are presents, and credits and fonts are bows and wrapping paper. I like everything to feel like it was given a lot of time. I hate it when I watch movies, and it seems like they just went and picked a font and, like, called it a day.
Yeah, there’s probably been times when I’m watching cable and seeing there’s like three movies that Jack’s in and I’m sitting hogging a bag of Cheetos in my underwear and I think ‘God, what happened to me? Why can’t I be something special like Jack?’
A role I grew up with and always loved was James Bond. I’d even say, in some ways, that he served as a creative role model for me as a kid in terms of roles I would want to play. I watched all of the movies growing up with my dad, so to be Bond himself would, without a doubt, be my dream role.
Quite honestly, I never thought it would be possible for Asians to make it in the States. But now I feel like it’s totally changing. You see so many Asian celebrities now, and more and more of them are taking bigger roles in movies. I feel like everything has changed.
It’s like, if you can’t focus on a movie for 90 minutes without looking at your phone, then don’t go to the movies! You’ve got some issues, so you should probably stay home and work on those issues, and not distract everyone with lights, and sounds, oh my gosh, the tapping on the screens, it makes me crazy!
I have a little bit of a pet peeve about how the middle class is depicted in movies. I feel like they tend to be either depicted in a very sentimental way, where everybody has a heart of gold except for the villains you’re supposed to hiss at, or there’s a sort of indie-style version… When it’s done well, it’s brilliant, it’s ‘Blue Velvet.’
At the time I came along, Hollywood’s idea of teen movies meant there had to be a lot of nudity, usually involving boys in pursuit of sex, and pretty gross overall. Either that or a horror movie. And the last thing Hollywood wanted in their teen movies was teenagers!
Sometimes, the smaller roles in movies can be the most interesting. If you only take the stance that you’ll only play central characters in movies, you’ll find yourself not being able to indulge in that morally grey terrain that makes support characters so rich and interesting.
What’s interesting about the shift from an industrial age to a technological age is that we keep inventing new media: movies, records, radio, television, the Internet, and now ebooks – and one of the things that’s most interesting about the invention of a new medium is watching it reinvent itself as it penetrates the culture.
