I love stories about two people who are doing illegal things, who we really enjoy watching despite the fact that we know they are doomed in some way.
The big stars I felt a kinship with were never the romantic leads. It wasn't Steve McQueen or Robert Redford - it was people like Walter Matthau and Anthony Quinn. My big hero was Tommy Cooper.
My dad was always interested in characters he didn't understand - he was such a great bad guy in movies. And that is really the thing that calls me to the material often: something I struggle to understand in human behaviour.
I tend to like writing characters that are not typical heroes.
Super villains and bad guys win in real life.
Yeah, I think people are drawn to characters that break the rules.
I really enjoy those characters like 'Profit.' With those elements that are shady and dark, you're not responsible for being a likable character. Like some of Jack Nicholson's characters, you remember them for so long.
I like movies that make you semi fall in love with the villain so you have sympathy for him.
I'm a fan of Louis C.K., I'm a fan of Lena Dunham. I love shows about people that other people would consider unlikable, or, like, the work of Woody Allen and Albert Brooks.
You can't really say that Bushmaster or Mariah Dillard is a bigger bad, because they both do some pretty heinous things.
The best characters are always wretchedly flawed
I have a problem with the term 'leading man.' It's so limiting; it involves not upsetting anyone. Obviously, we have anti-heroes now, but if we're talking about the two tropes - character actor and leading man - I would so rather be a character actor. That's why I have a career.
To us, being the bad guys is cool, because we always root for the bad guys in the movies.
I find that the most interestingly written parts happen to be the bad guys.
I don't believe in anti-heroes. Duke Wayne played a mean guy but never an anti-hero.
I'm more fascinated by anti-heroes, and Gambit is one of those.
The go-to reflex all over Hollywood is still likeability. I've always had a problem with it because I think I have a weird barometer in the sense that some of the characters I've cared about the most in movies are characters that are often thought of as despicable.
One of the things about the '70s films I love - the films 'Nightcrawler' is being compared to, like, 'Taxi Driver' - is that they never put their flawed characters into any one box.
Hollywood can't stand heroes who aren't sympathetic.
I'm interested in flawed protagonists. I was raised on them.
I went to film school so I have a writing and directing background, and I think a lot of the material I'm interested in writing and getting out there is stories about anti-heroes and people you should just not ordinarily root for - trying to figure out a way of appealing to people they wouldn't normally appeal to.
I think I've made a career out of making despicable people likable.
I'm not necessarily interested in telling the story of people who are super likable.
The myth of Good Guys and Bad Guys is one of the most pervasive we own, and morally grey anti-heroes are simply one of modern fiction's attempts to shake off that mythology and replace it with something a bit more honest.
I am a huge fan of shows like 'Breaking Bad,' 'Dexter,' 'The Mentalist.'
