- In what way was this story been personal for you?
- Oh god, everyway.
It's the only reason why I made the movie.
The one thing I knew, I mean I waited until I was 42,
if I didn't have something to say
there was no reason to make the movie.
And I just wanted to investigate relationships,
particularly between and a man and a woman in love,
and what happens when something happens
to you when you're a child and whether you have the means
to deal with that, or you have the community
that can help you and if that doesn't happen,
how does that inform the rest of your life?
And then also, the idea of finding your voice in this world.
I mean, really, it was a great platform
for me to examine a lot of the different things
I've been thinking about, cinematically, for years.
- What about directing surprised you?
- I think I had the great luck to have been working
for years as an actor with directors
who have been very collaborative
and it felt like a seamless transition.
I think it's because I love filmmaking.
I love cinema.
I grew up, these movies changed my life
and people around this table.
Do the right thing, I didn't even know how to,
I couldn't even talk after I saw that movie.
- Look at Spike.
- No, but I, it's the truth.
- And, I'm appreciative-- It's the truth.
I didn't even know what to, it's like having a child,
it's like, oh this is a new emotion
I've never even experienced.
That's what films have done for me.
To be able to be a student of it for decades,
I think allowed me the tools to be able to do it myself--
- But what did you not expect?
- For it to be as joyful as it was.
It really was joyful.
I felt like I was in exactly the place
that I was supposed to be, in that moment.
- The whole time?
- Not during prep.
Not during prep, not during, terrified of prep.
When you can't see the light at the end
of the tunnel at prep, you just got to go down in the cave
everyday and hope that one day you're going to see the light.
But once you see the light, and the light gets
bigger and bigger and bigger
then it becomes fun.
- Do you take things to directors
that you developed as an actor?
- Oh yeah, American Sniper was a book
that I asked if Warner Brothers would acquire
and then I went to Steven Spielberg,
who was going to do it for awhile,
and then he dropped out and then Clint Eastwood.
- Why did Steven drop out?
- You'd have to ask him.
- Okay.
- Were you tempted to jump in--
- Smart answer.
- Were you tempted to jump in at that point
and direct? - No, but it's the truth.
- What's that?
- Were you tempted to jump in and direct Sniper?
- It's so funny you say that.
I just was too scared.
But I did have a point of view, yeah.
- What were too scared?
- I just wasn't ready.
It's the one benefit that I have had,
to have waited so long, the older you get
the more, I don't know what you all think,
but you tend to sort of know when you're ready for something.
- What made you know you were ready now?
- Oh, 'cause I knew that if I waited anymore
it was going to get too long.
I think just, you know, mortality.
Yeah, it was just--
- Mortality.
- I just knew it, yeah.
- I thought, you know what it is, It's not that I knew it,
I knew if I don't do it, I'd rather fail at it
that having tried than not ever do it.
That's basically the point that I got to.
But American Sniper was the first movie
that I felt like I had a point of view to direct.
But back to the writer thing, if I have to ask the writer
what they meant by this, I'm screwed.
I'm not a good enough director
to be able to direct somebody else's writing right now.
Hopefully someday, if I keep getting to direct.
I sort of liken it to acting.
I spent about a decade just trying to be myself
and talk to you and breath and be present.
And it wasn't until I found
that after maybe 12 years of that,
okay, I can do that.
Now I can play different human beings,
like completely different human beings.
And it kind of feels like, if I'm lucky enough
as a director, maybe I can have some piece
of content and then be able
to have a point of view about it.
But right now, it has to come from here.
- If you could have been with another director,
living or dead, who would it be?
- I would like to talk to Mike Nichols.
- Oh, did you ever meet him?
- Never, no.
I saw and interview with him, it was like
two weeks before I was going to shoot.
I think it was one of the last interviews he did
and they were talking about
how he approaches, first of all, his first movie is
Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf
which was kind of incredible, you know.
- That's crazy.
I love Carnal Knowledge and The Graduate.
But he said he approaches directing
the way he approaches acting
which is he prepares, prepares, prepares
and he shows up on the day and he throws it all away.
And that really gave me the courage to direct
the way I knew that I would be at my best.
'Cause, as an actor, I've watched directors
that have made different types of process.
But I knew that was, he gave me
the courage to embrace that,
so I would have loved to just meet him.