Which is the best moment on set?
Seeing things flow without the constant tweaking of equipment, personnel, or performance. Things don't always go as planned but when they do, it's magic. The most important part of a production is hiring the right people to do the right things and for performers to know and feel comfortable with what they're doing and saying.
Did anyone ever tell you, you weren't good enough?
Not in those exact words but yeah. They'd mostly talk about how hard it was to do this or that or how many years of experience you needed to do this or that or no one is going to pay you for this or that. I listened until I got to a point where I got tired of listening; especially after I looked at the people's lives who was giving me this information. They were mostly people who hadn't done it and didn't know how to do it or it was people who had done it, failed, and didn't learn from the failure. They quit and they wanted me to quit before I even got started.
How can you stay focused on your goal?
#1 Imagine the end result, the outcome. It's no guarantee you'll get there but the imagining keeps you going. #2 Do something every day towards it. I write a list of 3 to 5 things I must complete before the day is over and I work towards completing that task. #3 Put your goal in your face every day in the form of a dream board or a daily mantra. Doing this will keep you from hoping, wishing, and praying for a miracle you're not presently pursuing. It reminds me of the joke I think I heard in a sermon, A woman was praying to God every night to win the lottery. It went on for a year. One day God spoke saying "You can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket" meaning God is willing to help you but you're required to do your part. At least buy the ticket.
Have you ever had a breakdown because of your Job?
No. I read this book called "Don't Sweat The Small Stuff (and it's all small stuff)" and this is my way of living. I alway's believe there is something better on the other side. When things get bad in a certain situation, this more than likely my cue for it's time to leave. Change is constant. The people who don't roll with the change get rolled over. I believe that the grass is greener on the other side, especially when it's brown on this side. Knowing when it time to leave is an art, skill, strategy, and feeling. That's always been the case in my life. I don't break down... I break up... I understand that there is darkness before the dawn, knowing this and working through the darkness helped me get to the light.
A brighter light then the one I just left.
Talent is a blessing or a curse?
It's only a curse if you don't use it. Chazz Palminteri said in a Bronx Tale "The saddest thing in life is wasted talent and the choices that you make will shape your life forever." Talent is a blessing! It's a child wanting to be born, it wants to be nurtured, and it wants to grow. It can only do that if you use it.
What would you like to improve about yourself as an actor/director/screenplayer?
I see myself as a writer/director more than an actor. As a writer, I'd like to improve my ability to get in the headspace of my characters. I'd like to know them more and give them a better fleshed-out life on the screen, but I also love that a skilled actor can read it and make it their own without my strict adherence to who they are. As a director, I would like to have a better sense of the various cinematic ways of creating a scene in my head that can be translated to the screen. Sometimes my vision is bigger than my ability, so now I'm working on an ability that will match my vision which will probably never come. Once I reach one level I have to reach the next.
What's the worst criticism you have received?
About 10 years or more I wrote and self-published a book called "Destination (Sowing and Reaping)" the overall praise for the book was great. I talked to hundreds of people who loved it. They'd say it changed their lives. One person out of all these people told me they got the book. I asked this person what they thought about it and they said "it was incomprehensible, there were too many characters to follow, and it jumped around too much." This one person's negative comments out of hundreds of praise left me feeling not so good. It stayed on my mind for years. It even affected the writing of my second book which didn't do as well as the first. I decided then, some people are going to like it, some won't, next.
If you weren't an actor/director/screenplayer what would you like to be?
A stock market investor on the level of a Warren Buffett. I've dipped and drived in and out of the market and read everything I can put my hands on concerning stock market investing. This is the kind of business where you have to know what you're doing by constantly studying the market, the Buffett Way, and it takes a lot of time. It would more then likely leave me no time for anything else.
If Cinema was a color what would it be?
Purple, which is the combination of blue and red, which is dreams and reality. Cinema is both of these things and much much more. You have to see it to be it. Seeing it starts as a dream you'd like to see become a reality. Doing the work is the mixing of the two colors to create another color, the royal color of purple. The thing you've been working on bringing to life.