One of the things I enjoyed about your company 10 years ago was that you actually looked forward to taking heat for your films. You were waiting for Rex Reed’s take on The Brothers Bloom.
[laughs]
Do you think that’s another reason why you’ve survived because you took a lot of heat for The Last Jedi even though the movie was a critical hit and made money hand over fist?
The majority of what I got for The Last Jedi was love. I know that it’s fun to write about all the bad stuff. It’s fun to paint the picture like that. The truth is the last two years 95 percent of my interactions with fans, even online and even on Twitter have been absolutely lovely. That’s not to say all of them liked the movie, but they’ve all been wonderful and engaged on a level that you pray to God is with the stuff you make.
“The majority of what I got for The Last Jedi was love.”
It’s a glorious start and a space where people are passionate, and I know, unfortunately, the trolls and some of the bad stuff that’s really fun to write about and get clicks but I always feel like I have to stand up for the fan base and keep repeating, “Please don’t characterize the entire Star Wars fan base based on this very small section.”
You’ve also succeeded with another franchise, Breaking Bad.
With Breaking Bad, you’re dealing with the writing that is just phenomenal, and you’re dealing with actors who are just at the top of their game. I was gonna say, it’s hard to mess that up [laughs].
For me, the pressure I felt was just living up to the material, coming in and trying to get [Vince Gilligan‘s] vision up on that screen as powerfully as possible. But for me, that was just a joy. That really felt like I got to show up and just do the fun parts. I felt pretty lucky to be able to do that.
