David Ayer: My mantra is "Better is better".

[If] you want to learn something about somebody, get into a fistfight. You'll learn more in five minutes than you will in five weeks of conversations. It's basic.

David Ayer

week want conversation

To operate а tank as a crew, it's not about five individuals. It has to be one organism, composed of five people.

David Ayer

tanks individual people

I'm all about real drama, real performance, and real people, so my twist on this is: I'm creating a family, a brotherhood here. I'm creating a very real chemistry and I have this incredible ensemble of actors led by Will Smith, who are basically playing dimensional characters with lives and souls.

David Ayer

real character drama

I think a good director can embrace any genre and it's the kind of thing where you always want to do something different. You always want to challenge yourself.

David Ayer

challenges directors thinking

I like to do stuff real and practical and in camera, as much as possible. I like old school filmmaking.

David Ayer

cameras real school

I feel like, as a filmmaker, I'm at my strongest when I write the script and when it comes from me, out of whole cloth. My best work has always been self-generated.

David Ayer

scripts self writing

Well, as far as film, either you're making a film or you're making videos. Digital capture is always trying to emulate the range and look of film. I believe personally that film has more.

David Ayer

always-trying video believe

I'm one of those big believers that the movie comes together in the way it's supposed to be and that movies are fated to become what they become.

David Ayer

believer together

I'm a veteran, and I come from a family of veterans and people who served in that war. And the stories that I heard were a hell of a lot different than the movies that I was seeing, so I wanted to make a movie about the people that were really there.

David Ayer

different war people

Actors are like kids, they need to play a little bit. And that's the nature of their job, they need to shake off some energy and then you as the director get them back on track. When you do loosen up the reins, you get some amazing things, but you have to wring out the performances for every last good drop.

David Ayer

play jobs kids

It was a distortion, a mercenary decision to create this parallel history in order to drive the movie for an American audience, Both my grandparents were officers in World War Two, and I would be personally offended if somebody distorted their achieve.

David Ayer

war two order

Even the scrutiny is good because it lets you know the world cares about your movie, and there is interest in it.

David Ayer

interest care world

You hear again and again that audiences want to see movies that are different and critics say we [directors] make the same thing again and again in Hollywood, then you go and make something different and you get kicked in the gut for it.

David Ayer

hollywood want directors

Actors are insanely competitive and they hold back on each other. They are like magicians and none of them want to show their tricks.

David Ayer

tricks actors want

I'm not a film-school guy. I was a high-school dropout. I was on a nuclear submarine. I was an electrician. I was a house painter. So if you get in my face, I'm going to fight you.

David Ayer

guy fighting school

The movie has to be going somewhere. Other than that, you want it to be entertaining, but people usually disagree on what entertaining is and everybody has different tastes.

David Ayer

different want people

For me, directing is like writing with meat. I can write live, in real time, and change things and be confident that I'm helping the movie.

David Ayer

meat real writing

That's the world of policing. I've met some bad-ass female cops, who are very cool people.

David Ayer

bad-ass female people

When you put a movie together, you're continually screening it for yourself and you're screening it for other people. It's like a video game power meter. When the power bar starts going down, you've gotta look at what's going on.

David Ayer

games together people

You can't go back. Once it's done, it's done. I'm sure there will be things that I would love to change, in the future, but each movie is a snapshot of its time and the resources, and you do your best on it.

David Ayer

snapshots resources done