When I made 'Vicky Donor,' people said it's not a family drama, it is for youngsters. But families also went and watched the film. Same happened with 'Piku' and 'October.'
I love 'Drake and Josh.' It's supposed to have a demographic of ages 9-14, but really, it's 9-84. There is no demographic.
I've been lucky. I've had this history of having an appeal to more than one type of audience.
You don't have to patronize your audience, and you can mix art and commerce in a profound way. You can simultaneously play to the sophisticated, 60-year-old theatergoers and to 4-year-olds.
If you've been fortunate enough to do a film that appeals to the entire family, that's the audience that's probably going to come back to you in something else.
The fact is, 'Billy Elliot' is an incredible show, for any age and any gender. 'Degrassi' fans would absolutely fall in love with 'Billy Elliot.'
With 'The Librarians,' we want to be a smart, fun, crazy, genre show, but we also want to be something that people of all ages can watch and enjoy. That, to me, does seem to be increasingly harder to find.
The weirdest thing I've been fascinated with nowadays is the new contemporary country music, which to me sounds like very strange '70s pop, and sometimes like rock music. But some of the themes in there - maybe it's because I know how the songs were written, but it really does sound like it was written by two or three people, with the idea to appeal to the most general audience.
We certainly are proud of our punk-rock heritage, but when people who like other kinds of music are into your band, it's flattering.
My fans saw 'Roll Bounce,' but also that older crowd who might not have been familiar with me on the music tip saw 'Roll Bounce' and loved it. 'Roll Bounce' opened up that door for me to have older people love Bow Wow and opened up that door so all of the kids would love Bow Wow. My fan base is really diverse; it's all ages and all colors.
