Audiences can tell when you're being fake and they will eat you alive. But if you're doing something authentic they will connect to it and that can lead to commercial success.

Sundance is a really special place. They're very protective of movies, especially lower-budget movies.

Earnestness can ferment into sentimentality.

I think that the dramas that you find in TV are actually a lot more interesting, typically, than what you find in cinema.

I think it's really important, when you're redefining a character [ Spider-Man], for the audience to experience things that they haven't experienced, from the ground up. I wanted to build a character. I feel like point of view is a really crucial thing in the story, and that you need to build up the emotional building blocks, so that you can experience all the other emotions in a very specific way, rather than just experiencing it in an intellectual way.

There's a punk rock quality to Peter Parker, that I identified with when I read the comics [Spider-Man], and that I really liked. He has this chip on his shoulder.

I was a Marvel guy. I started reading comics when I was a kid.