I was involved in theater a lot in high school and then at college I did a lot of theater went to the Yale Drama School. So that was something I was really interested in films were something for entertainment and my interest started to spark as I began to think, wow, this is a wonderful way of expressing myself and as a director. Up to that point I had thought, well, I'm going to be an actor but I was realizing, oh, I'm not a very good actor. I don't think I should be trying to make a living doing this. I should be maybe doing something else. And the joke is you know, sitting in the drama school and seeing this guy coming down the hall followed by all these cute girls. You go, who's that? Oh, that's the director. You go, oh, that's the job for me. Somehow it's never worked out like that but anyway, it was a nice thought. It probably comes out of a theater background where you know, one week we're doing Edward Albee in the next week doing Shakespeare and then Ibsen and then Ianesco, all of these different playwrights that have such different tones and it becomes an exciting challenge. And of course, what an exciting thing to be able to do say Saturday Night Fever which is sort of a musical to something as disparate as whose life is it anyway which is which started as a play but is a very kind of heavy drama and then go to war games or Blue Thunder. I mean these are just exciting challenges and I kind of approach them like a documentary in Wood going into a strange third world country where you go, I don't know much about disco. I don't know much if anything about Brooklyn but I do know these characters and what does it look like here in Brooklyn? What did you know what kind of chorus do people drive? What are the kids behave like and looking at it like a documentary and so that I mean that's the way we approach Saturday Night Fever. But war games in a different sense, you know, computers I didn't know how to plug a computer in when I started on that film and it's just it's an invitation to just dive into you know learning about something and now I know too much about computers and so that's been an exciting thing. It's one of the joys of directing is how many things you get to learn about and you need to learn about. I mean there's almost no course that I've ever taken or my time in the military in the army in basic training and learning rifle and first aid and all kinds of things that I haven't used in my directing career you know. All this knowledge comes in, comes in handy and I'm still having to you know study and learn and find out about new things because everything keeps changing. Wow what a challenge. Actors are really a director's creative partner they're not meet they're not puppets they're something there are people that can bring something to every single scene that you do every single shot and and they can bring something that you never thought of and and you're a fool if you don't take advantage of what even a a beginning actor can possibly bring to you and and because everybody has different training, Strasburg, Meisner the neighborhood playhouse I just picked it up from my mom or I just learned in front of the mirror. You never know how people were trained if they were trained and yet you're having to work with them and find the buttons that work the best for them. How can you how can you communicate with them what it what an exciting challenge. Creative people are unusual creative people are different if they if they were not they would not be creative you know people that just do the same thing all the time you know that don't think in a creative way are very compliant but creativity also means you're going to get unusual things you're going to get things you didn't expect it's just not creative and always in the same nice way you're going to get wacky things and and you know it attracts people who have a kind of free spirit so you better be used to it you better be ready to accept it and and get odd ideas and try to help that person down the line that you want to take your film to go. It's always a learning experience and I always come out of it I might be kicking myself for not handling it you know as well as I thought I could or saying well that worked out nicely but I always learned something from it and come come away saying okay I'm this is going to help me dealing dealing with the next person.