A film goes through so many hands, that by the time it's done, it might not resemble what you thought you were making.
A lot of producers cookie cut movies one after another, but I'll be a little more careful, and have the opportunity to be, because I have the acting career to subsidize the producing.
And now I'm ready to work on my stuff, my career. I feel like everything's taken care of. I'm just in a really good place.
At 27, it's great to get to a place where I'm not an actor for hire anymore.
But I'm not particularly comfortable around guns.
But in a broader sense, when I have more control, I want to expose people to new ideas.
Granted, there are times when, for business reasons, you do something that's more mainstream. But even then, I try to find something that has a dark or subversive aspect.
Home life's great, man. The kids are great, happy and healthy. I've reached this sort of wonderful precipice.
I am miserable when I'm in a movie I'm not proud of and a movie that I don't want to do.
I grew up on the East Coast, so I'd heard of Studio 54, but I come from south of Philadelphia, so I was a little removed.
I grew up with no money. My kids will grow up with a lot of money and so it's really important to me, and it will always be a part of my parenting, to keep them conscientious and connected socially to other people.
I have three sisters - one older and two younger - so that gives you a certain standing.
I have three sisters and I've always wanted a brother, so I was really interested in that notion.
I know that when I grew up I was pretty sheltered, and didn't come to understand much about the world until I was in my really late teens and early twenties, and that process continues.
I learn so much more in an ensemble movie.
I really respond to diversity, a broader landscape, with actors of different ages and races and backgrounds.
I want to make movies that people talk about when they leave the theater, that aren't clear-cut, but effective and fulfilling in some sense.
I won't make a movie for money ever again.
I would show up for work and look at the pairs of tight, shiny shorts or jeans that made up our 54 wardrobe and wonder if we were making Showgirls.
I'm really interested in having a studio one day and being a filmmaker.
I've been in this business for a long time at my age, I've just turned 30, and I feel like my wife's career is going incredibly well, my kids are happy and healthy in schools, we've both been able to buy a house for our parents, respectively, in the places they live.
I've got about five projects in development, one based on a novel I optioned, White Boy Shuffle, and another on a news story.
I've written something and I would like to have my first film directed by the time I'm 30.
If people have more choices and start to spend money on things that mean a little bit more, the market might change.
It's nice that people want to compliment you in some superficial way, but I've never considered that that's how I might be categorized. I guess it's better than being called ugly.
LA can be a very open and accepting creative environment. But it is important, because there is this odd separation here, it is important to make your kids mindful of other people and other people's plight.
Look at music: I've always loved hiphop and rap, and now there's this whole progressive movement, with De La Soul and Mos Def, Common. It's some of the best stuff around.
My first film goes into production in October. It's called White Boy Shuffle and it's based on a novel about a young black kid and it's sort of reminiscent of Catcher in the Rye.
My sisters are my favorite people on earth.
People are sheepish when they approach me.
People often say that even if you're playing a character who's not redemptive, you have to like the character, which I disagree.
Tarantino's movies, I really enjoy, certainly, and when I was 19 and 20, I was really into them.
Tarantino's stuff in its inception was all about finding a way for him to break into Hollywood.
The film is set in 1979, which isn't that long ago, but it's a complete period piece. Things have changed so drastically socially since then.
The idea of doing something that you've seen a thousand times before doesn't appeal to me.
The point is to expand the scope of what a movie can possibly mean or be, to get people involved because they're artistic or understand the point of the material, not just because they fit a certain bill aesthetically.
There are a lot of good stories out there, but I haven't found too many great scripts.
There was a time - before I made movies - when I was more forgiving, but now that I've learned as much as I have, I want to do movies that I want to see, that have their own unique flavor.
There's always difficulties and challenges in every life, I don't care how much money you make, where you live... and that's something this film speaks to.
To be more involved and more aware is appealing to me.
To me, White Boy Shuffle is sort of like Catcher in the Rye, the story is so universal.
We have a great job where you get to put out something positive like this that might make people think, that might make people feel.
Well actually, some weeks they'll write that I'm jealous of living in her shadow. Then other weeks, they'll write that all I want to do is loaf around on her money! It's ridiculous!
What's more ludicrous is the whole idea of me being jealous and competitive.
Where you raise your children isn't as important as how you raise your children.
You know, social issue movies don't make a lot of money.
Ryan was in Outkast's Hey Ya music video.
Ryan was a presenter at the 2000 MTV Movie Awards.
In 1997, Ryan attended a party given for
Ryan was considered for a role in "The Patriot," but lost out to Heath Ledger.
In high school, Ryan attended New Castle Baptist Academy, he was on the soccer team and yearbook staff.
Ryan secretly sings Frank Sinatra in the shower.
Ryan packed on 25 pounds of muscle and stopped shaving for 3 months for his role as Parker in "The Way of the Gun."
Ryan runs a production company, Lucid Films.
Ryan played baseball and soccer in highschool.
Ryan turned down the role of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars, because of the age difference between Natalie Portman and himself.
Ryan has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
Ryan is 5' 9.
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