What most people do is they make terrific films, one in three if you're very lucky, maybe one in five. So you just have to keep on, you have to get through the bad bits.
I'm in the process of working out an arrangement to make some very, very, very small films in the midst of all these films and maybe that will help. But you get tired of talking. You just want to do it.
When people censor themselves they're just as likely to get rid of the good bits as the bad bits.
I've just been so lucky. I don't know if you're really able to take advantage of your full potential until you're older. There are a few people who are incredibly gifted and make it when they are very young, but I didn't. With women it takes longer. You just keep working and when you finally get it, it feels very, very nice.
Sometimes people are surprised to learn that most of the films I've made don't work. They've been released but nobody has ever seen them. Maybe 40 percent of them are very successful. That's a very high percentage; most people have maybe 10 or 15 percent of their films work.
I'm not in a situation where you get a thousand scripts. You want to make a living, you want to put your kids through school. I'd rather do three bad films that pay well than do one good film every three years that doesn't pay well. ... To me, if you can get a steady check in this business, you're doing okay.
Some films, you're lucky enough to get some rehearsal, which is just basic going through the scene, and, 'These are my questions, and this is what I'm trying to achieve,' and you work things out, and maybe a few line changes here or there.
Most people don't really understand what it takes to get a film made, and the struggles. I think anyone who makes a film goes through their own set of struggles. People go to extraordinary lengths to get films made. I hope it's of interest to people. One would think that it would be very easy, with an iconic character like James Bond, to keep making the films, but it hasn't been. But, it sure has been entertaining and rewarding.
I drink protein shakes nonstop - three or four a day - and I run a lot, so you get rid of the bad carbs and keep the rest so you have the energy to make it through.
I try to be active five to six times a week, and I keep very healthy, but I don't beat myself up on a bad day. If you're working fourteen hours on a set and you need to eat five protein bars, then you just do that. I keep it a regular and normal part of my life as [much as] I can.
I didn't see films when I was young. I was stupid and naïve. Maybe I wouldn't have made films if I had seen lots of others; maybe it would have stopped me. I started totally free and crazy and innocent. Now I've seen many films, and many beautiful films. And I try to keep a certain level of quality of my films. I don't do commercials, I don't do films pre-prepared by other people, I don't do star system. So I do my own little thing.
I have done 'Mumbai Meri Jaan,' 'Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!;' they are not comedy. But those roles didn't stick with people. Comedy films run, even though some of them are bad films. So people see these more.
I'd been in Hollywood for five years before I started writing 'The Guild.' I worked enough to pay all my bills. So I was very lucky in that respect. Most people don't make a living acting.
I've had some bad experiences, but I've also been lucky and I just feel so privileged to be able to even make films.
People think bigger movies are bad, and that's just not true - there's bad big films, and there's bad little ones. The bad big ones have to make their money back, so they'll push them down your throat, but the little ones just disappear if they're bad.
The hardest bits of my book to read were the easiest bits to write because they were the most immediate. Probably because I had never stopped thinking about them on some level. Those bits I was just channelling and those were the most exciting writing days. The bits I found harder were the bits that happen in between, you know, the rest of living. There were whole years, whole houses, that I just got rid of.
The older I get, the more I'm drawn to the smaller films, but I still hope to keep bigger films in my repertoire. It's just maybe going to be a shift in focus, but I'll definitely still hopefully be kicking around in those.