And today, 20 years and 35 films later, it is still the film people approach me about the most to tell me how much they loved it, how much it moved them, how it’s their favorite movie.
I feel lucky that my first experience of releasing a film was initially such a disaster by all standard measures.
I learned early that my meaning had to be from the experience of making the film and the possibility of connecting with individuals rather than the foremost trophies in my industry:
financial and critical success.
And also those initial reactions could be false predictors of your work’s ultimate legacy.
I started choosing only jobs I was passionate about and from which I knew I could glean meaningful experiences.
This thoroughly confused everyone around me: agents, producers, and audiences alike.
I made Gotya’s Ghost, a foreign independent film and study our history visiting the Prado everyday for 4 months as I read about Goya and the Spanish Inquisition.
I made V for Vendetta, studio action movie for which I learned everything I could about freedom fighters whom otherwise may be called terrorists.
From Menachem Begin to The Weather Underground, I made Your Highness, a pothead comedy with Danny McBride and laughed for 3 months straight.