I had wanted so much to make this a European film. Jonathan and I compared stories of our grandfathers. I wanted to show their survivors' sense of humor: If you believe your life is excrement then you either drown in it or transcend it with irony. That's a distinct Eastern European trait. |
I have a pathological memory problem and when he died I was very angry and worried that somehow I wouldn't remember him, |
I just couldn't think of anybody in show business with better eyes. |
I know I have the potential to care in the way that he did because of this film, |
I live with an 18-month-old Jack Russell named Chicken. He moved in about 15 months ago, and it was very hard at first because I work a lot and he doesn't. |
I loved the writing part of it, but the learning curve on the actual filmmaking was steeper than I thought, |
I manage to hide in my movies. |
I really don't think there is anybody in the business with better eyes than Elijah Wood. |
I really liked the idea of delivering an American character who defied some of the cultural cliches we have been exporting to the rest of the world. A character who was awkward, vulnerable, young, innocent, neurotic, somewhat alien, |
I spoke to (director/historian Peter) Bogdanovich, who knew him personally, |
I think that for me, I'm in a great place. I work all the time, I hang out in fancy hotels, and I do interviews all day, and I get free coffee. |
I want to forget what I've learned about the character, but the reality is that you can't, because you've absorbed it. It's there in that moment when you need it. The hard part is to trust it. |
I was a writer. I just wasn't a very good one. I was lucky enough to have a playwriting teacher who told me that I'd be a better actor than I would a playwright. |
I was out of my head. I was really frantic, ... I guess I was always under the misconception that a director makes the film, and it's not true. A director directs the people who make the film. |
If eyes are the portals of the soul, Elijah's got garage doors. |