You’ve had many successes in life…
Don’t flirt with me.
With all these successes, what would you consider to be the biggest failure in your life?
You know what? I haven’t failed yet (knocks on wood). Every dream I’ve ever had has come true — of being a director, of living with my grandparents. My dreams are bigger than my dreams. I didn’t know I was going to be making $200 million dollar movies or have this house or date beautiful supermodels. That wasn’t part of my dream. I only dreamed of making movies. I don’t rate failure based on box office. I don’t believe that it’s about one movie. It’s what you leave behind.
There’s nothing you wanted that you didn’t get?
Probably my relationships. I think I would like my personal life to be as successful. Not that I haven’t met amazing, wonderful girls. I love kids. I really want to have a family.
You actually didn’t get into NYU film school the first time you applied.
I was told that there was no way I was getting in because I had the worst grades and that I should go to a community college and get straight As for two years and then maybe they would let me in. I was crying. My life was over. [But then] something came over me. I thought, “I can’t let this person ruin my future; I’m going to the dean’s office.” That was a defining moment in my life because I ended up convincing the dean that he had to let me in. I probably would have ended up a director, but it would have been a much longer path.
Were there other defining moments in your life like that?
I was going out with Rebecca Gayheart, for 13 years. I remember falling in love with her when I was 15, and we had broken up right before I’d started [The Family Man]. The movie is about how some choices you make will affect the rest of your life. At the time I thought, “Am I making the right choice? Should I beg her back and just marry her?”
Are you still friends?
I am best friends with every girl — well, I’m very close with every girl I’ve ever dated. I wouldn’t say I’m “best friends” with Serena [Williams], but we’re friends.
What ’s your relationship like with other young people in Hollywood like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan?
They’re my friends. I’m not judgmental of people as long as it’s not hurting me or my family or friends. I’ll stand next to somebody if she’s a drug addict lesbian. I don’t care. I’m not ashamed to stand next to somebody who is doing those things that are not part of what society establishes as moral.
Is winning an Oscar important to you?
It’s really not. Would it be amazing? It’d be insane. But it’s not going to change who I am.
The movies that you like to make definitely lean towards the moneymaking side of Ho llywod rather than the artistic side. Do these two qualities ever conflict with each other in your work?
No, because my sensibilities and instincts are what people like. I just happen to be in the zeitgeist and know what people want to see. I don’t alienate myself from the rest of the world. I actually go out and talk to people. I’m interested in what young people do, in pop culture. Some directors live in their own world, and you can tell when you watch movies and people don’t talk like that, what the fuck?! I feel like I’m still in touch. That makes it commercial, but it doesn’t make it not art.
By Janice Jann
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