For me, casting is critical. It's nice that social media and the passionate fans really corroborated choices and embraced kids to be characters.

As a filmmaker, I've had films that over-achieved and I've had films that under-achieved. You always go in trying to do your very best.

It's a world creation show [Shadowhunters], so we've gotta work hard in the physical production capacity with the visual effects, the sets and everything. It's not just the real world with two people chatting in a diner. That's tough on a television budget.

I enjoy that the most powerful person in Hollywood is indeed a Black woman in Oprah Winfrey. I'm hoping to just transcend beyond that.

What's better these days, television or film? It's a dead heat. In fact, one could argue for television with more regularity.

I like youth, and I like stories about feeling things intensely and about transitional moments in human life. I reflect on my life and that's just a moment when I felt things probably the most intensely.

Actors can become very involved in a role, but for a director or producer, that's your life for many years.