Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker

Stay true to the spirit of a film.

[On Catch Me if You Can], we tried
to be as accurate as possible, and tried to stay true really, more
than anything, just to the spirit of what Frank Abagnale’s journey
was like. At the end of the day, Steven says right at the beginning
of the movie that it is “inspired” by this guy’s life, and I think
that was smart because, in the end, that’s really what we were trying
to do.

At least keep those banker’s hours.

I write every day. I sort of keep banker’s hours and
try to be as disciplined as possible. You really don’t have a choice.
Especially once the elements come aboard, there’s just so much work
to be done and only so much time. You really have to be disciplined.

Unfounded fears.

I was terrified of being fired every minute [on Catch
Me if You Can], because I had never met Steven Spielberg before.
The first thing I thought he would do is walk in the room, shake
my hand and say “Thank you for doing this. We’re going to bring
in somebody else now!” [laughing] So it was not only nice
that he let me continue writing, but he let me stay on the set and
be involved in post-production-he was very inclusive.

Be original.

I think that the key is to not try to copy what you
see and to always, always try to write something original.

Think independently.

Clearly, a lot of people think that the movies that
Hollywood makes are the only ones that will ever be made,
so they go off and write spec scripts that are kind of buddy comedies
or whatever. They don’t write stories that are personal to them
at all, and I think that Catch Me, at least for me, was a
way of sort of proving that anybody can walk into any room anytime
and have an idea for a movie. And if it comes out well, Hollywood
will definitely respond and rally around the material. I hope that
more writers will take more chances.