Joseph Nichol

I felt a particular attachment, naturally, to the Superman character and really dug deep, but at the same time, I am a passionate fan, be it Star Wars, be it the entire Marvel catalog, be it the DC catalog, or the original thinking at Pixar. I'm a fan first, so I'm always curious to see the way people express themselves and how it's being done.

If you look at what Ben Affleck has gone on to do, as an actor and as a director, it's extraordinary. But if you look back at his career, I don't think it's surprising. From Good Will Hunting on down, the guy is a monster talent, and I think talent wins out, in the end. There's always the ebb and flow of any career, but I think talent wins out, in the end.

I do my best when I'm surrounded by women. I enjoyed that on the Charlie's Angels experience.

I love stories of female empowerment. I love stories of, \'Hey, I'm an ordinary person.\' \'No, you're not!\' I love stories about not knowing you have it in you, but when called to task, you rise and you find out who you are.

Sometimes when you have an abundance of time and money, it's less conducive to the creative process. I like the urgency of the television schedule and the television price point. It's fluid. You figure it out on the day, and I love the challenge of problem-solving.

What's better these days, television or film? It's a dead heat. In fact, one could argue for television with more regularity.

It's a world creation show [Shadowhunters], so we've gotta work hard in the physical production capacity with the visual effects, the sets and everything. It's not just the real world with two people chatting in a diner. That's tough on a television budget.

TV show is always challenging. It's challenging when you have all of the time and money in the world, and it's more challenging when you have less money.

You set up the look, the visual effects and the sets, and that's awesome, but I enjoy the casting most of all. That's where you really get to define the show.

For me, casting is critical. It's nice that social media and the passionate fans really corroborated choices and embraced kids to be characters.

I just think we live in a world where people are so excited about the hot new thing, but you can't necessarily tell a story in one movie. With this platform, we can really dive deep and go for it.

As a filmmaker, I've had films that over-achieved and I've had films that under-achieved. You always go in trying to do your very best.

When you're a kid going on being an adult, everything radiates so deeply and resonates so passionately, and I like the opportunity to tell those stories.

I like youth, and I like stories about feeling things intensely and about transitional moments in human life. I reflect on my life and that's just a moment when I felt things probably the most intensely.

I'm old enough to remember the advent of CD. You thought, \'What's this piece of space age technology that's in front of me?\' Now I ask, \'When's the last time you bought a CD?\' You see things come and you see things go, and you have to be on your toes and be nimble and stay with it, or you die. It's exciting. I love technology.

If you look at Hollywood today, compared to five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago or 30 years ago, the change from moment to moment has always been extraordinary. It never stops moving.

I just think it's ridiculous to be dogmatic and be caught in the past. You have to be open, aware, nimble and flexible about changes in the world.

I think I wanted to be a storyteller because I had a very active dream life. My life was boring, and I dreamed about a life bigger than my own. I've always just been that person, from my earliest memories at age 2.

It's always fun watching new actors and new voices come out.

Actors can become very involved in a role, but for a director or producer, that's your life for many years.

Actors can make five movies a year. A director can make one movie, every two years. It's a whole different level of commitment and of sweat equity, and therefore there's a direct correlation to passion.

When you're an actor, you show up and it's wonderful because you're in the world of make-believe.

When you're a producer or director, there's so much sweat that goes into any given project.

Sometimes you do things that are fundamentally built to touch the world, and you feel good when you're successful doing it, and you're disappeared when the world fails to respond, which also happens.

Sometimes you do things for personal reasons. I made a very personal movie in We Are Marshall. I was afraid of flying, for a long time, and that's a movie about a plane crash.

I don't really think about film or television or going directly to the internet. I just think about doing something that people are going to get excited about.

It's really fun to create something that touches the world.

A lot of the content that goes directly to the internet, or is web-created content, is very hand-held video where you can watch this woman fall off the coffee table, or see a funny little gag, or is interview-style stuff, which is great. I love that. I consume it like crazy. But, this is designed to be reminiscent of what you would see during primetime, and reminiscent of what you would see in a movie theater, on any given weekend, and in that regard, it's brand new.

Kids don't even know what it means that you have to watch a show on Thursday night at 9 o'clock, on any given network. You just put it on your DVR, or queue it up on your computer, and it's an on-demand and instant access world.

The days of holding the audience captive to watching television at times that programmers tell them they have to watch it are coming to an end. It's a new world, where the viewer and fan wants to watch whatever they want to watch, whenever they want to watch it.