I really want to be a part of those movies that say something good to a lot of people.

I had the opportunity to learn more about what life is like for a soldier [in The Yellow Birds].

What's exciting to me now is the idea in participating in a landscape of moviemaking that's completely different - the way you can make a movie with a 5D or something and what's going to come out of that. Especially the generation under us who grew up with the internet. When they are making films in the next ten years, they're gonna be so different from what we've seen before because their whole worldview is so different.

Warren [Beatty] was very adamant and very encouraging of me to direct. It's definitely something that I'd like to pursue more in the future.

[ Being director] is really reassuring to me that it's just about who is right for that role and less about if you ace the audition. It's just about getting to know people, not about who's a better actor a lot of the time. It's about who fits that particular suit, you know?

I remember pretending to be the characters in the movies when I was a little kid.

Even though I grew up in L.A., no one in my family was in the movie industry.