When I was a teen, I was never really into the captain of the football team or the student body president. The guys I liked were quirky and different: They listened to music I'd never heard of, never had lunch or gas money, and could always make you laugh.
I would get my student loans, get money, register and never really go. It was a system I thought would somehow pan out.
I just thought acting would be something to help out with my student loans, but my first year as an actress, I made more money than my parents. That's when I realized it could turn into a career. After that, I put everything I had into it.
I grew up in Communist China and never had much money to my name, and then, all of a sudden, I had giant student loans.
Studio films are driven by marketing. The currency is literally money. But in the indie world, the currency is passion.
I'm excited that 'The Good Guy' is getting distribution because indie movies they're not - people ran out of money and they're not making these movies anymore. It's all superhero movies or real obvious tent pole studio films.
It's the formulaic studio movies the make money, and when they do, the actors in them are automatically movie stars.
For the most part, studio movies have huge budgets. They don't do anything under 30 to 40 million. When you have that much money at stake, you have so many people breathing down your neck.
I don't see Hollywood as the big enemy, because this is where the money is, and not all of the companies are doing studio movies. I'm not tempted to sell out. If I'm going to become well known, I want it to be for something I'm proud of.
All studio movies are the middle of the Bell curve. The only way to do something is to do it yourself. And the only way to do that is to not take any money from anyone or take as little money as possible from anyone and that's it.
It's such a stupid thing to sign a band and then demand a hit right away to instantly recoup the money. The point is, you have to do it by building your own following, and that is not necessarily done by writing instant hits.
Look, I want to be able to make the stupidest movies ever, because they make people laugh and they make money. But that's not all I want to do. And I think I've proven to some people - the ones paying attention - that I can do more. Everybody else, well, they can wait and see and make up their mind.
Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason.
People don't realize how much money you have to spend: styling, publicity, a manager, and your agent. That's a chunk of change.
When I was younger, all of my family's money went into racing. We were never a stylish family. We never went shopping, because all the money went into buying tires and fuel and all of that.
Money is the last enemy that shall never be subdued. While there is flesh there is money or the want of money, but money is always on the brain so long as there is a brain in reasonable order.
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Instagram is a personal subscription. It's like your own personal magazine. It's like doing a photo shoot for no money, which is cool.
As long as I can make lots of money in other businesses, I'll continue to subsidize my own work.
I was on subsidized housing for many years before my financial situation changed. I quickly found myself in a new economic structure and, frankly, knew little about how to handle my money.
