Kevin Feige and I have very smart people who work for us, who make sure that we see everything. And that we actually see everything. They see everything, tell us about it, we see it. You have to have people who work with you, who say 'you have to look at this film'. And then you look at it. You really have to look at it. You have to look at movies all the time.

It's astonishing how many people who direct action don't know how to tell a story.

The top stars like Angelina, Cameron (Diaz), Sandra Bullock and probably now Jennifer Lawrence probably gets paid the same as their male counterparts. The problem is the averages. Because there are not enough parts for women to star in and get paid. So when you look at the total amount women make as compared to men it's paltry.

The truth is, that what women have to do is not work for less money. They have to walk away.

For a woman to direct a movie in Hollywood, she has to go through so many layers of rejection by the powers that be - I suppose including myself - that it is harder to get to that point. So you can't just create something. And I think there is a whole unconscious mountain.

Richard Donner made great movies. Seminal movies. The Academy, though, and we have to be careful here, should recognize popular films. Popular films are what make it all work. There was a time when popular movies were commercial movies, and they were good movies, and they had to be good movies. There was no segregation between good independent films and popular movies.

Dawn Steel was the person who told me I could never wear shoes like this! She and Nora Ephron told me 'you can't wear those crappy shoes, nobody would ever take you seriously'. I've been wearing them ever since then!