Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonzeis an American director, producer, screenwriter and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television. He started his feature film directing career with Being John Malkovichand Adaptation, both written by Charlie Kaufman, and then started movies with screenplays of his own with Where the Wild Things Areand Her...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth22 October 1969
CityRockville, MD
CountryUnited States of America
I think if something's emotionally real - and I'm not even talking about in movies or in art, but in life - you can't really argue with that, even if your intellectual mind might know differently.
A lot of times, you have an idea, and all the things you are thinking about might fuel it. But that's not where the idea came from.
'Where The Wild Things Are,' I think I could have written on my own. When I brought Dave Eggers on, I already had 60 pages of notes. I technically could have, but I don't think I was ready to. I needed him to be there and help me.
When I'm making stuff, the thing that excites me most is not the result, but the process and trying to do something I've never done before.
I worked at this bike shop called Rockville BMX, and I started going on this summer tour with this one company. One summer, we ended up in California, and I got to hang out with the guys who made 'Freestylin' - Andy Jenkins and Mark Lewman.
I think the way Win Butler writes, I really identify with it. He writes very emotionally and very cinematically, and I just connect with his sensibility.
I think there's a knee-jerk reaction to things from parents.
I think there is something about... unless you come from a really evolved family that allowed you to talk about your feelings and felt like a safe environment, then you aren't really prepared to do that when you grow up.
I think the thing that is meaningful is when I can tell that someone's been affected by the movie or by anything I made.
Johnny Knoxville went from struggling to pay his rent to being on the cover of 'Rolling Stone' in the course of, like, a month.
I'm hesitant to make grand statements because I feel like that it's not exactly what I'm writing about.
Some of the best ideas come from sheer discovery, and not by some masterminded, preconceived genius.
I was only going to go to college because that's what I thought you were supposed to do.
Is an audience open to seeing a film that isn't what they expect when they see a film that's been adapted from a children's book?