What goes on between a father and a son, which is usually such a private matter, is that they are able to be honest with each other, and be honest with me, as a director. It's just remarkable.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I tend to project my father figure onto any director that I'm working with, or mother, if I'm working with a female, or it can be confused.
When you're shooting a film, you really don't get to be a dad, and you don't really get to be a husband. You don't really exist at all. But I do drag my family with me on location whenever I can.
My father was a director and producer, so when I was a little kid, he would take me to movies and show me what's good and what's not good and why, and often that would take me to a conversation about directing.
Being the son of a filmmaker, you are aware of a career as a director. You don't think of it as just movies, but as a life.
Growing up the son of a director has made me very aware of the various turns that a directing career can take. Sometimes your films turn out exactly as you want. Sometimes they don't. I spent a lot of my childhood on sets. I think as a joke, my father gave me a line of dialogue in each of his films during the worst moments of my puberty.
All directors are control freaks and very obsessive. I get the feeling that directors as kids, they all have had a childhood with not too much contact with other kids. They constructed their own reality and they continue to do it. It's a funny breed, directors.
My father is my father, and I am me. I have the advantage of this honest comparison, quiet, and the opportunity to share in his profession.
Working with my dad was such a gas. We approached the work in a similar way. We only made two films together when I was an adult, Tucker, and Blown Away, but it was so much fun to play with your parent like that.
It's become a habit to make films where the father is absent. My father impresses me, but the father figure does not.
Anyone who reads my work will see that there are often difficult relationships between fathers and sons.