In the comic-book lore, of course, you mutate post a traumatic event. You must have the mutant gene, but if something traumatic happens to you, usually at puberty, then that mutation manifests itself. Gavin Hood More Quotes by Gavin Hood More Quotes From Gavin Hood When you're used to looking through a stills lens and you have to capture an emotional moment, and that picture is not moving and yet it has to have impact, I think that's the first influence on my style. Gavin Hood looking moment you style The truth about filmmaking is you have all these ideas and you're trying to convince everybody that they should buy into this idea, but at two o'clock in the morning when you're all on your own you're going, 'Geez, I hope I know what I'm doing. I hope this idea is gonna work.' Gavin Hood truth hope work morning Part of what's so tricky in a film that's two hours long is how many themes can you effectively explore. Gavin Hood how you two long The reality is that art has often risen to greater heights than the people who created it. Many flawed artists have created great works of art. You have to decide if you are going to listen to Richard Wagner's music or not because he was very anti-Semitic. Gavin Hood you music people art For me, emotion comes first. If I have to change a scene, invent a scene, change dialogue, or put Graff by the lake in order to feel that dynamic, and the end results feels like 'Ender's Game,' then hopefully it works. Gavin Hood feel game me change My tools, my medium, include pictures and live actors. Gavin Hood medium pictures live tools The question I ask myself when adapting a book is how do I be true to the spirit and soul of the character? How would I describe this character in my medium? If you asked one person to do a painting of something and another to create a sculpture of it, you'll never ask, 'Why doesn't the painting look like the sculpture?' Gavin Hood myself you soul character 'Ender's Game' has fabulous opportunities for spectacle, where appropriate, but there's also a tremendous central character. It's a balance. Gavin Hood opportunities game balance character I was drafted when I was 17, and I spent two years, and I lost a friend in war. Gavin Hood friend lost war two I worked initially in very low-budget independent films that I often wrote. My early work was all written by myself, and then I adapted 'Tsotsi,' so I was used to the writing process being, in a way, integral to my directing. I felt it really prepared me. Gavin Hood myself me work way I learned a lot doing 'Wolverine,' and I was also very fortunate, in the sense that I got to do a huge number of visual effects shots. Gavin Hood sense visual doing fortunate In the early '90s, I was hired to write educational dramas about HIV and AIDS in the shantytowns. I did that for two and a half years, and then I was hired on other films. When 'Tsotsi' presented itself, I thought, 'This is not a world I grew up in, but I've spent a great deal of time writing about it and researching it in my past.' Gavin Hood great time past world When we watch stories, we learn empathy, we learn compassion, and hopefully we achieve some sort of understanding. Gavin Hood some empathy understanding compassion I don't know many South Africans who don't have their eyes wide open to what it's like to be exposed to some sort of violence. The question is whether we choose to be cynical about it or not. Gavin Hood choose eyes know violence