To be a lone filmmaker thousands of miles from home with nobody believing in me, that seems romantic.

I realize I am contradictory: I have an independent filmmaker's sensibility and a Hollywood director's short-attention span.

What I really found was that the one similarity between 'Covert Affairs' and 'Fair Game' is a deep love and admiration and fascination with the home life of a spy.

My dad couldn't connect to my wanting to be a filmmaker. He was very connected in entertainment, and through him I met Steven Spielberg and got rides on his private plane to California. I'd see Spielberg's people reading scripts. I was like, 'That's what I want to be when I grow up.'

I make movies for me and posterity. I'm more scared of history than I am of the studio.

I can't impress people with the pedigree of obscure French filmmakers that got me into film. It was Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg. I really thought I wanted to make dumb action movies.