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I'll work with a director if I think I'm going to get into a comfortable situation, and if it's someone I respect and who respects me, even if they're not so well known. Movies are hard to make, and you have to work toward a common ethic and do your best.

It's great when a director like Cameron Crowe can take what you do and fit it into what he's doing. If someone's a fan of you already, they can take what you do and make it work for what they're doing. You don't know their vision, and you're thinking, 'How is this guy going to take what I do and make it work in this movie?'

When you agree to work with a filmmaker, it's important that you accept their world. It's an adventure. I like that. I throw myself into the director's arms, into their universe.

Being open to what's happening in front of you is the most important thing about being a director. To allow the magic to exist and to be light enough on your feet to harness it as it's happening. That's what makes cinema interesting.

Ultimately when I throw myself behind a movie, I have to really believe in that director's vision.

Whatever it takes, the job of the director is to be the leader and to get your actors where they need to go. That's a philosophy that I have.

The movies I like to make are very rich and full of passion. Some people see me as an action director, but action is not the only thing in my movies. I always like to show human nature - something deep inside the heart.

I became a director just for the love of movies, because of the power of cinema.

I look for the role that excites me and work with whoever that director happens to be, wherever he wants to shoot the film.

As a director, you see something in someone; you know it's there, you just got to go get it. You do that with any actor. That's your job.