For AXE to take a chance on me and to help me, you know, collaborating with them was just a really, really big deal for me. It shows that they bought into me and vice versa so it's a good relationship.

I'm extremely blessed. There's a lot of people trying to exactly what I'm doing, but I'm a part of that 9.1 percent that's actually having their dream come true. I just don't take that for granted.

As human beings, why does it take somebody to feel like they're close to us for us to see their humanity? Why can't we see the humanity in people that are distant from us?

Sometimes when you grieve, you grieve at a time where you don't really expect it. You might hear a song or you might smell something or see something that might trigger something, and all of a sudden you get hit with this rush of emotion.

If somebody comes up and they're African American as Mike is, and they're extremely talented as Mike is, they say, "Oh, yeah, he's the next ..." I think that it points to disparity.

For me, with me, making a film is always about humanity.

Sometimes you gotta go with your first instinct. You gotta go with your gut. That's kind of how I live my life, you gotta go with your gut.