The violence you witness is Denzel doing it and we're taking some visual effects and doing some things and you see something happen it's happening in front of you as opposed to cutting away and doing a bunch of tricks. It's in front of you. So it's hard not to make it a hard "R" if you see a guy get punched and teeth wind up in someone's knuckles.

We're very good friends, we have a very honest relationship. He keeps me honest, I keep him honest. He's an incredible actor and when you have an actor like Denzel action becomes drama.

I'm a product of older filmmakers I guess, the past where you get to make movies and scenes are what they are.

So it's hard to be an artist and be true to the reality of the world you want to create and also make it entertaining and successful financially.

I believe in God, absolutely.

I became a director just for the love of movies, because of the power of cinema.

I'd seen too many shrines in South Central and thought it was worth asking where the first bullet came from that started all this violence.