There's a writing adage that says, 'Write yourself into a corner.' My brother and I have always loved that adage.
The one thing Marvel does is think outside the box, going all the way back to Ang Lee directing the first 'Hulk.' They like to go outside the genre.
Even if you have the best intentions, there may sometimes be a price or a cost or a pushback against what you're doing.
In a way, Captain America is the most grounded of the main Marvel superheroes. He is basically just a man, only more so. He doesn't fly across the sky like Iron Man. He isn't from another world like Thor. He doesn't turn into a green monster.
We basically got a call from our agent that said we were on the list of directors that Marvel was interested in talking to about 'Captain America 2.' First of all, that was thrilling, having not lobbied for the job.
We were film geeks. We devoured everything: really obscure art films, foreign films. We were the kind of guys that lived at the Cinematheque. But at the end of the day, your favorite movies are like everybody else's favorite movies. Because those are the movies that become a touch point where you can connect to other people.
Everything's always got to be character-based. We know we can't, if we're sitting in the editing room, watch the sequence for more than 20 seconds without a character having a point of view or moving the action forward; my brain just shuts down, or I start thinking about my laundry.
We have a lot of respect for the fact that you can't make movies without money and that when money comes to the table, that money deserves to have a place in the process as much as anything else in the film-making equation.
In general, just as a framing, we always thought about 'Winter Soldier' very specifically as a political thriller.
Among directing teams, you find a high percentage of brothers. You need the ability to compromise. With siblings, you've grown up with a pattern that, yeah, every once in a while you have to give in for the greater good, for the family collective.
We like movies that are going to have a great sense of fun and thrill to them while at the same time remain very grounded in relatable human emotions and conflicts that the audiences can get behind and root for and empathise with.
'Community' gets to be the indie movie, while a 'Modern Family' gets to be the big blockbuster release. They service that big massive audience, and we service a smaller audience. But we get a lot of creative freedom.
The one thing you know we won't do is, literally, 'Modern Warfare 2.'
People always say, 'Oh, I'd love to work with my sibling,' or 'My God, I could never work with my sibling.' It was just a natural process for us. We started collaborating on our first films and it evolved. We have a passion for film that we shared as we were growing up.
There is a worst part, and it is this: we spend more time with each other than we do with our wives and children, and we work very long hours - we work non-stop - so when we need to shut off, we need to be separate, or else we - or else we just slip into our work mode.
The thing I always loved about the movie business is it is really a cowboy industry in the sense that there's no prescribed road into it or through it.
The second we started talking about doing the 'Civil War' storyline with Marvel, we brought up Spider-Man. Right away, Kevin Feige hinted to us there might be a possibility of them being able to work that out, and that's all we needed - he was in the movie the second we heard that.
We saw 'Swiss Army Man' and fell in love with the Daniels, who are adventurous filmmakers and radical storytellers, pushing the boundaries.
What Joe and I love about the film industry, it's like the wild West. We're two guys who grew up a million miles away from the film business; it doesn't matter where you come from or where you go to school. All that matters is, can you find a way to practice the craft and express yourself in a way that people respond to.
