I thought 'Borat' was a breakthrough comedy because it was really funny. It wasn't some studio-produced script with 14 writers.
We must oppose programs that would take food from the mouths of younger generations to buy prescription drugs for old people and we must do it... for the children.
I heard about the project over a year before we began. My American agent said 'Oh you might want to read 'In Cold Blood' because they're talking about you for Capote but the script's with Johnny Depp and Sean Penn at the moment.' So these things take their time to dribble down the food chain.
Food during my early years was a very difficult issue for me. I grew up in an addictive family. My mother had serious problems with alcohol and prescription drugs. I was an overweight kid. I can remember back in those days there weren't the strategies that there are today to deal with those issues.
In Australia they set up a special fund to kick films off. It was quite an enlightened sort of move. You could go to this government bureau with scripts and and get finance for films.
I have come close to producing films. But generally by the time they hit the screen there's about 50 people with producer credits so what's the point. I usually find scripts I like with no money attached and take them to producers that I know and try to raise finance.
There's so many things I want to do. I want to work with great filmmakers great actors great scripts. And there's no reason for me to do anything short of that because I'm 24 I don't have a family I don't need to make tons of money and I'm not dying to get famous.
I'm not famous for my back story investigations I'm lucky that I work with good writers and it's usually in the script.
They needed someone to write a script of The Great Gatsby very quickly for the movie they were making. I took this job so I'd be sure to have some dough to support my family.
My mother at least twice cancelled our family's subscription to the newspaper I was working on because she was so mad about its treatment of my father.