When you have an opportunity to do something again, the money goes up and people get more conservative.
Studio films are driven by marketing. The currency is literally money. But in the indie world, the currency is passion.
Growing up, my parents had this little fish and chips restaurant in Anaheim in the shadows of Disneyland, and they didn't close until 9 P.M. As a family, we didn't eat dinner until 10 P.M., and we would watch the original Star Trek every night at 11.
As a filmmaker, if you want to write a script, all you need is some paper and a pen or a computer, that's it.
Cinema is actually very backward. When we see gay characters or people of color, they're always there for that reason. I'm personally kind of sick of that. I love to see characters who just live and breathe and are comfortable in that space.
For the longest time, the Asian-American community would talk about representation, but I think it's also about the freedom to really shape, create, and explore issues that are important to us, regardless of whether it's positive or negative, as long as it's three dimensional.
As soon as I saw 'Chinglish' on Broadway, I began to envision this smart and insightful cross-cultural comedy as a film.
I kind of approach action/non-action very much similarly. It has to be character-based and it has to kind of come off the theme and the overall arc.
I get that a lot of people love 'Star Wars' - and I could see that you can love both and they can coexist in our lives. But the DNA of 'Star Trek' is different in as far as it's human beings, it's us in the future.