When you have love in a story, it gives you the freedom to really take the characters to very interesting places.

Our lives are not just measured in years. They are measured in the lives we touch around us.

If you're directing and acting, I feel like they both suffer, to some extent. There are so many elements to it. If you do acting and directing, at the same time, it's not going to be as good, I believe, as if you focus on one or the other.

As far as what I'm afraid of, I hate spiders. I'm pretty good at being not afraid of almost anything, except for spiders.

I've learned a lot about how people have to fight through their whole lives just to be themselves.

I think the brutality is important to convey as part of the story, to see how brutal it is to have these kids in battle with one another.

Growing up in the acting world, you have a lot of opportunities to change who you are and what you believe in based on how people treat you. I never wanted to do that.