I grew up in Brentwood, but I live now in Los Feliz. I grew up on the beach, now I live under the Hollywood sign.

I feel like a lot of my past career was going to film school, making a lot of different kinds of movies. I made a bunch of comedies, I made one drama and I made a couple musicals.

I actually had less time and the exact same budget on Hairspray, which was few years ago and this is a much bigger movie [then Rock of Ages]. That's the way studios do it now.

Reality also is that there are a lot of gaps, there are a lot of business in between the iconic things.

Mary J. Blige is the Queen Latifah character. Her voice in this movie [Rock of ages] is, she just gives it this incredible warmth, and she's just this person who blows out of the screen. She's just incredible.

There is no one who likes a challenge more than Tom Cruise. Believe me, there was never any discussion of lip syncing or another voice or anything like that, because if the guy's going to hang out on the top of the Burj, he's not going to let anybody do his singing for him.

I grew up looking at the Sunset Strip, literally. The things that I remember are the Rainbow Room, the Roxy, the Bizarries, Tower, I grew up my whole life going there, Filthy McNasty's and I said, I need these things and now fill it in with other iconic buildings.