Capitalism would have never let me be a filmmaker, living in Flint, Michigan with a high school education. I was going to have to make that happen myself.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Knowing what I do now, I don't know if I'd ever have the balls to go to film school, with no connections and no knowledge of the business side at all.
When I was young, my idea was to become a filmmaker.
I always wanted to be a feature filmmaker and tried to treat that experience as some sort of elite film school where I could learn the craft, and got paid to learn the craft.
Film school was a privilege I could not afford.
I decided to be a filmmaker when I was 12. I had utter clarity that this would be my life.
I thought I was going to be a filmmaker but at the same time I was an intellectual and I felt that I could make a contribution to some field, as yet, not invented.
I wouldn't take a directing job if I didn't think it was enriching life.
When I was 20 years old, I had no plans to ever be a filmmaker.
The thing that fascinates me is that the way I came to film and television is extinct. Then there were gatekeepers, it was prohibitively expensive to make a film, to be a director you had to be an entrepreneur to raise money.
I grew up right near Hollywood, and I wanted to be a filmmaker.