My freshman year of college, 'The Hunger Games' movie adaptation came out, and I was really excited about it. This was maybe 2011. I loved it, but there was a lot of hateful backlash against the black characters in the film.
I've done a good job putting some meat on my bones since my freshman year of college. It's taken a lot of work. I was just under 200 pounds my freshman year; I was 6'8' and 198 pounds.
Every time a militant Islamist terrorist shoots somebody up, what does Barack Obama do and the Democrats? They come out and they demand that there be no backlash against Muslims. So any time a police officer shoots a black suspect - without knowing why, without knowing the circumstances - why doesn't Obama stand up and warn against a backlash against cops? If we are to guard against backlash against Muslim shooters, where is the sameness?
The cool thing is, I was a little nervous about how they were going to handle Black Panther in his own movie, but then when I saw 'Civil War' and just the perfect way they handled him in that movie, it made me even more excited about a Black Panther film.
[On the racial backlash about Hunger Games casting]: "People should have ignored the five racist idiots.
And once I was in college, about - maybe the end of my first semester of my sophomore year, I realized that college just was not my jam and that I felt like I was learning more when is actually on set. And I think a lot of that had to do with - I was working while I was in college. I was on "227," so I didn't get a chance to really be immersed in the culture of my school.
We did the original 'Stargate' as an independent movie. It was a surprise success. Shortly before the movie came out, the financiers who were frightened the movie might not do well sold the film to MGM. When the film came out, it was a hit and spawned TV shows.
One of the biggest inspirations before I started shooting came from my brother, when he texted me and said, 'Hey, fatty, it's called 'The Hunger Games', not 'The Eating Games'. So I started working out a lot more and eating a lot less.
I've always felt like the most improvement you can make is from year 1 to year 2, much like a college freshman who the most improvement he can make in an entire one year of college football is going from year 1 freshman year to his sophomore year. Like a pro football player going from his rookie season to his second season. There's a window there that will never come again that you have a chance to making your biggest strides.
I have to admit, between the Seahawks games and the Blazer games and playoffs games, we're talking about close to 100 games a year, so I don't really follow other sports a lot.
I had been pulling my groins in college a lot and missed my whole freshman year of college because of groin pulls. It was chronic, and I couldn't figure it out. I went to the doctor, and he told me I had hip dysplasia. So I knew my hockey days were sorta limited at that point.
I wrote a screenplay for a 'Sweet Valley High' adaptation, and it's really amazing to me how many women who are my age have responded to the idea and are excited about the movie.
I've just had the opportunity to see the finished film of 'The Hunger Games.' I'm really happy with how it turned out. I feel like the book and the film are individual yet complementary pieces that enhance one another.
In the evolution of the [The Hunger Games] movie, Gary [Ross] and I talked a lot about tonal bandwidth and making sure that the look and feel and style and choices of the movie stayed within a certain consistent bandwidth.
It probably wasn't until I was a freshman in high school and I met the people who became my gaming group that I finally found people who were weird like I was: that loved reading and playing games and not just watching a science fiction or fantasy movie but talking all about it.
I was supremely fortunate to do several projects that I'm really excited about. So within all that, there's a lot going on this year. I'm excited about 2016.
I'm excited to see a new age of rom-coms, and especially teen romantic comedies, because when I was younger, I was watching 'Harry Potter' and 'Hunger Games' and stuff like that. I loved those movies, but they are a little bit heavy. We didn't really get to have the lighthearted love stories.