Biography

Filmmaking is like combat, it's 90 percent boredom, 5 percent panic and 5 percent terror. Especially on an Abel Ferrara project.

Platoon? That's simplistic. Every scumbag in one unit? When I look at Platoon, my reaction is, I never saw that in Special Forces. Everyone I served with was brilliant. They weren't these archetypical, out-of-control maniacs. Sure, they may have had a homicidal bent to their thinking, but think about this: There were guys in there who had an enormous amount of money, and yet, they kept coming back. Because they believed in it.They continued to do what they thought had to be done.

Well, Freddie Francis, he had the right way of looking at it. That's how I live. Don't trap the actors in the bars of what you do light, make sure you have a reason for putting a light up other than exposure. Put the camera on your shoulder, be unfiltered, unfettered, and go out there and do what has to be done.

Bedrich Batka[Marketa Lazarová (1967), The Golden Fern] was my cinematography professor, but even though I learned the most from him, we didn't get along. Look, I was a young, hard, ass-kickin, 197 pounds of rompin'-stompin' inboard death. I certainly wasn't gonna take any shit from some fucking college professor.