Sean Penn, for his acting as well as his writing and directing. There are so many actors I respect, but his reach is so wide.
I actually moved to upstate New York to the country.
You don't really have to dress a ton of actors. You don't really have to spend a bunch of money lining up extras to look the time period.
I saw an amazing film when I was 16 called 'Slam'. It's about a spoken-word poet. Saul Williams is in it.
With 'Little Accidents', I spent probably three months working with a physical therapist, just understanding, starting from square one, about the neurological makeup of what happens when you have a stroke or what carbon monoxide poisoning does to your body.
I was working in Lexington when I recognized this actor, Michael Shannon, and I was like, 'What do you do?' He told me to get into a theater company, so I got into a theater company near my hometown. I was a carpenter there. And then I slowly got some work.
