I think there's only one or two films where I've had all the financial support I needed. All the rest, I wish I'd had the money to shoot another ten days.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I lost a year or two in there, trying to get films financed that I didn't know would never get financing.
Every film is hard to fund.
It's not a great feeling for a film to suffer financially, but you can't sit and mope about it. You just have to just move on to next project - I try to always be working on a new project when my last one hits the theaters.
I did 75 films. I didn't take a break; I didn't spend my money. I have my savings, so when you're not working for money anymore, then you should find things that are meaningful and not just be like, 'OK, that's another day gone.'
I gladly, I voluntarily gave up the kind of commercial film career I had going as soon as I had enough money to finance my own films.
For most of my films, I've had to go out and start shooting before I could get the rest of the funding. That was the case with 'Hoop Dreams,' 'Stevie' and 'The Interrupters:' We started them quietly out of Kartemquin Films, only really going to funders once we had something to show and a firm idea of what the film might be.
In troubled times the last thing you want to do is to stick your money into a film. It's such a gamble.
I could not finance a movie on my own. Frankly, I could not even afford to take a year off. I, like most people in America, need to keep making money.
Films were never in my budget. Didn't occur to me till much later. I hoped for a long, good life, which I've had and I'm having as an actor. I didn't expect the rest.
Well, I was getting a lot of money then, and I wasn't getting any Hollywood films, so I just did those. I'd always do a play in between. Whenever I ran low on funds, I'd always rush off to do a movie somewhere.