I think great acting is about inhabiting a skin and transforming yourself.

I'm all about real drama, real performance, and real people, so my twist on this is: I'm creating a family, a brotherhood here. I'm creating a very real chemistry and I have this incredible ensemble of actors led by Will Smith, who are basically playing dimensional characters with lives and souls.

As a writer, you have to be willing to kill your darlings, and I'm a writer first. As a director, I've got no problem cutting the scenes.

The hardest thing, as a director, is that it's never right. Nothing you do is ever right. It's never exactly how you envision it. Making a movie is about making it better.

I'm one of those big believers that the movie comes together in the way it's supposed to be and that movies are fated to become what they become.

Actors are insanely competitive and they hold back on each other. They are like magicians and none of them want to show their tricks.

The most terrifying thing in my life is a blank sheet of paper.