While it looked on the surface,
and for a lot of people seemed utterly irrational,
it was for me profoundly logical at a level that was deeper than logic.
It was deeply powerful.
Terrifying. Moving.
And it was truthful.
You can't recreate it. It comes from someplace that's very deep.
And I couldn't believe it when I saw it on television.
It was a show where the first season, it was just an explosion of television.
And then, you know, the problem with it
was it was totally counter to what television was about.
It was miraculous that it lasted as long as it did.
Doing what it did which was flying directly
in the face of what was Western Civilization,
I think, was really all about which is:
And this is not even about this. It's about something pagan, almost.
Which is to me very subversive and it was a...
A joy to be a participant in.
My biggest feeling when I directed it
was that I wanted to just hang with every one of the actors.
Every one of them was doing something interesting.
I mean, David had cast it so well.
Some of them were really, really, good actors.
Some of them were kind of not so great
but wonderfully, sort of, like,
they kind of implied soap opera in a way.
And that became... Some of them were brilliant actors.
And the whole sort of juxtaposition of these different types of people
that I almost think that it was like, here's this thing bubbling underneath
which is David's mind, and what David's in touch with.
And then people at the surface of all that are all these different people.
Some of whom could really access deeper parts of it,
some of whom were utterly lost.
They were lost on the set and they were lost, you know...
There was one actor in particular, who will remain nameless
who I could not stand,
who was vain and weird and I was just enraged at him.
And he's great in it
because he's just got that quality in the piece.
Sometimes something just happens when you're doing something.
I don't know what it is.
But it just is right somehow.
And it is, I think, being fueled by the unconscious.
I mean I do... Again, there's a weird area to talk about.
Gotta be really careful.
I was talking about that Fellini piece about the bucket on the head.
You gotta bring the bucket
and dump it on your head with water and say he's full of shit.
But nonetheless, you wanna walk into that area
and say that at the same time
that there's something going on in the universe
that's a whole lot more complicated than selling soap.
I'm so grateful to David for his courage,
his creativity and his sense of humor in the face of all this stuff.
But you know, there have been people in my life
who have guided me into some awareness.
Film and television, certain television.
Cinema, whether it's on television or in the movie theaters.
The magic, the mystery of all of it, have guided me.
Have given me some awareness of how to go.
And I think I've either consciously or unconsciously passed it on to my kids
and you can see sort of what that does.
You know, my reference to the buckets is Federico Fellini
who had a profound effect on me.
I think probably on David too. These are just people.
Living their lives, being honest
and, you know, fucking around with it.
Being relaxed and not feeling like drones
who have given me, you know, so much.
And, you know, my kids have grown up to make a bunch more movies
and hopefully be able to pass it on to other people too.