I come from a protected environment of a Juhu house, and I wasn't exposed to life as shown in 'Highway'. It's not that I'm a snob, but I was cocooned from the reality of life. The film made me aware of life and myself.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I developed a sense of self before moving to crazy Hollywood, which was really important.
I always viewed life as material for a movie.
My films are always a reflection of where I am in my life.
Doors opened for me because of who I am. But the downside is, there is way way too much expectation from me, much more than there would have been if I were from outside the film industry.
There's more to life than being an actor in a Hollywood movie. I'm not going to adapt my life after that existence, where a lot of people do. And they get the publicist, and they get all that stuff, and it becomes them. I think it's a stupid way to live your life. A really dumb way to live your life.
I take nothing away from my existence in the 'hood, because it sharpened my instincts. We had a different way of living that developed our survival instincts, and I use those to this day when I make films. You can't buy that.
It still amazes me when I look at some of the films I've been a part of, and some of the people I've gotten to meet and work with. I also look back sometimes and realize that I was lucky to have lived through them and even to have survived them, at times.
I've never made a film that I didn't believe in, you know? However the picture turns out, I've always given everything to it. That's kind of how I approach life. I can't help it. There's no part-way with me on anything in any area of my life.
It doesn't matter that the way of life shown by Hollywood was phony. It helped you hope.
I'm always surprised when some director says, 'When I saw this film, that changed my life.' I don't have that.