I was very combative as a creative person at that time [while The Ben Stiller Show]. I didn't understand how to play politics with the studios. I didn't know how to creatively collaborate with the people who were paying the bills, and that came up all the time on every project I was doing, and it took me a really long time to figure out how to collaborate in a healthy way.
Whilst the Internet is amazing, someone with a laptop can make something amazing and send it out, but you grow up creatively in a very public way.
I've always wanted to collaborate with Shawn Mendes, he's an amazing artist, but the thing with Shawn is that I won't collaborate... me just sending some beats. It has to be in the studio where we'd both be there recording together.
Whether it's a song that might deviate from an artists' usual sound or even if it's still very much in their world, I think the more people opening themselves up creatively to collaborate with others, the better.
It's such a thrill in a relationship to be able to collaborate creatively. It's very romantic, and I like it.
You gotta improvise in life. You gotta improv if the police pull you over.
It's so much fun to be able to collaborate creatively with someone you grew up watching.
Drake is a lyrical genius, and he's great with melodies, and Pharrell is an amazing producer and songwriter.
I think it's amazing that I'm 45 and it is the most creatively successful year of my life.
I'm the type to have a bullet-proof condom and still gotta pull out.
I would let my fans and people looking from the outside looking in dictate that. But, in my mind I gotta treat myself like I'm the best and gotta strive to be better than what I am. So of course my work ethic and the way I think as a person and an artist I'll feel that way. But on a boasting level, you would never hear that come out my mouth.
I gotta defend, I gotta protect the rim, I gotta rebound, I gotta set good picks for the guys, finish on offense, and I think that is not going to change much.
When I was a teenager, I used to come to Selfridges, and it was very swanky and overwhelming, and I'd think, 'Wow, this is amazing.' I would never have imaged having my own area in the beauty hall! It's incredible.
I have a pathetic urge at some stage in my life to be able to pull out my wallet and pull out a little card on which it would say, 'Kenneth Branagh, artistic director.'
I'm extremely proud I was born and raised in the Bay Area and loved representing Oakland. I started recording in the Bay Area and worked with a lot of different producers. But I always wanted to collaborate with different writers and get different perspectives.
Once you've lived in Del Mar or the San Diego area, why would you want to live anyplace else? It's the neatest place, whether it's the culture or the small-town atmosphere the whole San Diego area has.