I'm trying to figure out a way to find comfort in my life as a human. I'm trying to be good at being a human being. You get chopped up. Someone breaks your heart, you lose your job, you get disappointed, someone dies in your family. Life chops you up, and you have to go on.

When I came up with the concept of 'The Dream,' on the surface he just seemed like another creepy bad man or villain. It had to be played by someone larger than life, but not malicious. And Keanu Reeves is that person to me, and he was The Dream like I wanted The Dream.

The history and baggage of certain actors and characters - it goes into the movie and becomes part of it. If Keanu Reeves wasn't Keanu with all the things that make him Keanu, it wouldn't be the same for him to come in and become his Bad Batch character The Dream. It's kind of meta or next-level interesting for me.

I do feel that in modern society that still is the best way to survive. Whatever it is, just keep doing something, because complete stillness or inactivity is more like death than death.

As an artist, and for me personally, my biggest fear is categorization. I hate the idea that I would become someone who says that "this is what I do and now that's what I am." What I really feel like is an explorer. I want to continue exploring my brain cave and see what's there, you know? And I don't want to just stay in one cave.

I believe that every character I create is in their own film, that happens to overlap with the main film. There are complete and real characters, even though we only spend only a little time with them. In the approach to what those entities are, that always appeals to an actor. What are they, since they are going to embody this character?

Works like 'Brave New World' and 'The Handmaiden's Tale' develop their atmosphere from a movement or a revolution, as if the world has ended and has come out to this other side. When I wrote 'The Bad Batch,' I thought that the world outside the gates that confine the 'bad' characters is simply our world today.