I Just Wanted To Be An Ordinary

I Don't Really See A Conflict Between The Church And The Movies, The Sacred And The Profane...there Are Major Differences, But I Could Also See Great Similarities...both Are Places For People To Come Together And Share.

I'm Often Asked By Younger Filmmakers, 'why Do I Need To Look At Old Movies?' I've Made A Number Of Pictures In The Last 20 Years And The Response I Have To Give Them Is That I Still Consider Myself A Student. The More Pictures I've Made In 20 Years, The More I Realize I Really Don't Know. And I'm Always Looking For Something Or Someone That I Could Learn From. I Tell The Younger Filmmakers, And The Young Students, That Do It Like Painters Used To Do—that Painters Do—study The Old Masters, Enrich Your Palette, Expand The Canvas. There's Always So Much More To Learn.

And So You Try Your Best. Sometimes You Go In With One Thing, With One Desire And Come Out With Something Else. In The Case Of 'the Aviator' It Was To Create A Hollywood Spectacle, But By About The Second Or Third Week Of Shooting You Just Want To Literally Survive It. Because Don't Forget, I Also Go Through The Editing Process Too, And When The Film Is Released I Have To Talk About It. So, I Take All Of That Very Seriously.

When I Was Growing Up In The Mid-'50s, The Roaring Twenties Were A Huge Part Of The Culture. There Were A Number Of Films And A Bunch Of Television Shows That Dealt With The Mythology Of The Underworld From That Period.

Being Independent... Is Being Innovative Out Of Inspiration As Well As Necessity.