Tom [McCarthy] said to me, "Buddy, you got an Oscar nomination through that haircut! That's the real feat, man."

When people sit across from people - gay, straight, whatever - and they talk, they find out that people they may have been demonizing for their lifetime aren't the demons we've expected them to be.

I grew up on Lake Michigan during the PCB explosion, and I remember seeing the sick, dead fish with tumors, the weird deformed seagulls, the scum and the filth floating. We couldn't go swimming.

The working-class folks and the poor, and those normal people living their lives out in the world without the glitter and the fanfare. There is a lot to learn from them.

My first cut was three hours and 17 minutes. And then I just became very shrewd about the editing.

But in my heart of hearts, this is the kind of thing... this is what everyone is struggling with in their lives - relationships and family. To me, it's always an interesting area to mine. I'm drawn to it.

I remember riding my bike down the boardwalk with nowhere to go and looking at the girls. It was really innocent.