California is an island, and New York's an island. Maybe it's time for me to change islands.
Even when I begin with a situation that's basically funny or sad, I like to keep poking around in it. I like to get into the middle of a relationship, to explore the subtle places.
I don't like movies that are morally simple.
I don't think I have it in me to make a movie in which all the situations and relationships are black and white. I get into the gray areas.
I wish in my own mind I were more definite - that I was absolutely convinced I'd never direct someone else's script, but I keep reading scripts, because I might find something.
I wonder if that's hurt me at the box office. Maybe audiences these days want to know exactly what to expect when they go into a movie, and my movies are hard to explain in just one way.
McQueen doesn't look conventional.
One thing I know is that I don't want to be a director for hire, making genre films.
Right now, for example, I'm between pictures and I have a couple of ideas and a few scenes written down and, basically, I'm just fiddling.
Some of the New York reviews criticized me for using such an unconventional looking actor as Lenny Baker for my lead. Well, hell, who is conventional? Of the big stars, only Redford and Newman.
The one thing that's closest to my story is the thing about trying out for the juvenile delinquent role and getting it. That was the start of my acting career ... which I've resumed, by the way.
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