I don't like seeing talented storytellers ruled by fear.
— Lexi Alexander
I say this often, but 'Supergirl' is the best experience in my entire career.
The great thing about a reboot is, you can learn from the past if you care enough.
I'm not really the kind of girl that goes for action films.
My brother and sister and I were latchkey kids, with a singer mother and no relationship with our father, and being in a firm is often about filling a void at home. For me, it was like having 50 big brothers.
I focus every day on my career.
I'm not a very girlie girl.
People would go from village to village with their books in a time of poverty and disease. They would get people around them, and for an hour, these storytellers would change people's lives. I'd always thought I was a reincarnation of that. That's who I want to be.
2015 was an interesting year for me. After finally getting back behind the camera at the end of the summer to shoot the CW's 'Arrow,' I found myself a couple of months later in a federal building in downtown Los Angeles, trying to convince half a dozen security guards to let me make my EEOC appointment despite my expired driver's license.
If women choose guerilla style filmmaking or new media productions, etc., all power to them. But if they're there because 'Big Hollywood' won't let them in, then we're moving further and further away from equality.
Back-light is the cinematographer's friend.
I've pitched movies to all of the major studio heads in my time.
Truth: I loathe the idea of being hired because of my gender, and I shudder at the thought that one day I show up on set, and half of the crew thinks, 'Here comes the quota hire.'
You can be Michael Moore and make 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' but that's hitting people over the head, and a lot of Americans don't like to be hit over the head. I want to make films that make people walk out and say, 'Wow, I really question if this is all right.'
I always miss any kind of constant, especially now that I'm a film-maker who travels all the time. I'm always tempted to go to Catholic churches, although I despise the religion. But you want to go there just because it's the one thing in your life that's never changed.
There's something not right with a person's soul when they judge another human being to be less adequate because of their gender or skin color.
It's one of my obsessions to come up with ways to reimagine establishing shots in new, non-boring ways. Shots that have energy and excitement.
Being into comic books is definitely an Americana thing.
My dad is Arab. I'm not Muslim, but half of family is, so I see a lot of injustice happening in the portrayal of Muslims that they don't have any heroes.
Frank Castle knows only two sides: Good and Evil. There is no grey zone for him.
I knew I needed to make a studio film - not for any financial reason, but because, as a filmmaker, and especially as a female filmmaker, you have to break through the glass ceiling.
My brother took me to my first football match when I was five, and I quickly acquired a passion for it: once you've walked into a football ground, you know there's nothing comparable to it.
One thing I get from competitive sports is that I am fiercely ambitious.
Dominic West is one of the greatest actors.
One of my short films was about a boxer.
Women are underrepresented and neglected in all aspects of the entertainment industry, so naturally, those of us who want to make a change use any opportunity to shine a light on someone when we can.
Although I'm aware of how under-represented we are, I sometimes forget how desperately Arabs who aren't in the film business wish for better stories about us.
In terms of writing and developing, TV is very open because TV needs stories. They need new pitches, and they need new ideas. They don't always take the risk for new ideas, but they are certainly open to it. They can't have enough people come in and pitch to them. It doesn't matter how they look or what gender they are.
The thing about TV is that it's great work for directors because the responsibility is not ours at all. In a movie, you choose a movie, and everybody points his or her finger at you afterward. It doesn't matter how much influence you had on the script, how much decision you had, or the fact that you didn't have final cut.
Women in Hollywood have no male allies. There are some who pretend to be on our side, but yeah, not really. They may say the right thing because, after all, they're liberals, and that's a public image they'd like to keep up.
I think I have a responsibility as a film-maker to bring not only controversial subject matter to the screen but also to inspire a thought process.
Being half-Palestinian comes with its own challenges, especially after 9/11 and also, working in Hollywood. But denying my own father, the three siblings I have on my father's side, I would essentially be destroying my own essence. So I decided I'm going to be me.
When I first arrived here, after spending years as a competitive fighter and training U.S. Marines in hand-to-hand combat, Hollywood is the last place I would have expected to find such blatant bias and discrimination.
It never occurred to me that artists, of all people, have to be reminded that instinct is more important than tradition, but in our industry, people seem to forget that sometimes.
I really like Greg Rucka's work. I loved 'Lazarus,' and I loved 'Stumptown.'
'Deadpool' is massively successful because they made a very unique movie. That uniqueness and originality, try to imitate that. Not, 'How about let's try to do 'Deadpool' on a train.'
There was a choice of being a director who's more familiar with the technicality of doing a movie, like learning about the camera and filters and setup, or being a director who can actually talk to actors. And I always wanted to be an actor's director.
I look back now and think, what was I doing, moving to Hollywood with $2,000 and a duffel bag? But there is no money in martial arts competitions, and in Hollywood, there is an outlet for those skills. And I have always been pretty fearless.
I have heard of 'Green Street'-dedicated birthday parties, a website dedicated only to the clothing. It has no end. If you hashtag #greenstreet or #greenstreethooligans, you cannot go a day without people saying it's their favourite movie. It's frustrating because it's a massive hit, but nobody gives it credit.
You can't find jewelry on me.
Football is a great environment for a movie because there is such passion for it and so much adrenaline.
It's almost comical how un-liberal liberal Hollywood is when it comes to fighting gender and racial bias.
As someone who grew up in Europe, I don't look at TV and automatically think of a primetime network series, created by a staff of writers. I think of 90-minute movies that can break talents out or a three 90-minutes-an-episode mini series that can introduce a fantastic new series like 'The Blechtley Circle.'
I truly believe that if I would make a bad film, I might be walking into director's jail and never out. And that I think is probably a little more true because I'm a woman.
When I first made 'Green Street' and I was considered a hot director, I pitched everybody, but there was always this feeling that I was being underestimated in the room. I pitch TV, and nobody underestimates me. They literally think you could be the next whoever, and that is a very cool thing.
I thrive on impossible odds - always have.
There are only two kinds of people who are successful at this social media thing: those who are funny and those who get real.
Religion is all good, but we are almost back to medieval times now, where we are obsessed with going into religious wars and electing our politicians based on their religious statements.
While I was able to pass as white as soon as I came to America, this was not really possible while I was growing up, as it was pretty obvious that I wasn't 'all German.' So my privilege was that in America, I could conveniently withhold one of my bloodlines and avoid racism and discrimination. That is not a privilege most people of color have.
Hollywood is silly sometimes.
