There's a big difference between the independent film world and the Hollywood film world, and I don't know that I understood that until I got into certain rooms, and people's faces go blank when you talk about Sundance.
Indie movies got co-opted by the studio system. The studios insisted that only stars could make movies successful.
I love indie movies - I feel they can really allow you to develop a character.
People don't wish to watch masala films of the '50s any more. Audiences do not want loud films at all. They are watching Netflix and Amazon that have fresh ideas.
The environment on the sets of the movies I make, it's usually all friends and people that know each other, because no one's getting rich or making money, so it's always about, hopefully, that everyone's on the same page.
I'm a New Wave baby, so I got very stimulated by foreign film.
The lifeblood of my career has been independent film.
The films that I really liked and the ones that really blew my mind when I was younger were independent films. They're like great records to me.
There are always at least five good films at the end of the year to get nominated, but generally speaking nowadays, it's more of the independent films that are recognized.
Based on the name value I had, I went to L.A. and got involved in independent movies.
I don't even watch many huge films. I don't go to the cinema every weekend. I watch selective cinema and want to make my kind of films.
Hollywood... that's not going to be my niche at all. If anyone is going wants to work with me, I would think it's going to be independent films. I'm not 22!
I remember being inspired myself when smaller films, whether it's 'Beasts' or 'Winter's Bone,' wound up in the Oscars lineup.
I would be perfectly happy doing an indie film that had some really cool creative ideas.
I don't want to say no to anything. If I did a blockbuster, it would probably be fun. But who knows? Maybe I would connect to something. But definitely, indie movies are the ones I register with, for sure.
Sundance is like a genre.
Korean films have always been distributed to international audiences as arthouse films.
I'm no longer interested in being in big commercial films.
I do sort of gravitate towards smaller, indie-type movies.
I had done a lot of indie movies before I realized that acting could be a way for me to get my family out of poverty. It was at that point that I decided to take acting seriously.
So many of the indie movies that get made are not about topics that touch millions and millions of people.
I actually didn't think I was going to do TV because I don't really watch TV. I'm a little bit pretentious, and I do these little indie movies, so I envisioned that more as the path for myself.
I've done a lot of independent films that not a lot of people have seen.
I handed out flyers in malls, candies in gasoline stations; helped set up tarpaulins in bars. I played bit roles in several indie movies. Looking back, I can say it has definitely been a long journey.
I love going to theatres and seeing honest little indie films I know nothing about... being surprised by a beautiful film I had no expectations about but just got lost in. I'd like to do more well-written indies. I don't know exactly what my dream role will be yet, but it's somewhere within that realm.
