I became a real Shell Motor Oil expert, and I did this 25-minute film. It turned out really well and, as a result, they offered me more work and lots of commercials to direct.

I feel like I learned very early on that your heroes are only as powerful as your villains. And I'm attracted to intelligent villains.

I decided that, somehow, I had to get out of there and go to Hollywood. I had never been to America.

Eventually, in '84, we made a film for a little over a million dollars - with American actors that was shot in English - that was shown in Finland A little action film called Born American.

Ford Fairlane was one of those movies that was so much fun to make that it was bound not to be a big hit.

Several times we were stranded in strange places without any money and with our credit cards cancelled - trapped in a hotel that we couldn't check out of because we had no money to check out.

When I make decisions based on other circumstances, things don't necessarily go so well. So sometimes, even if something seems commercially tempting, I've learned that if it's not what's in your heart, it's probably not what you should do.