I'm usually trying to react to what the actors are coming up with. And then the environment, and then the story.

The area of teenage life is not necessarily rarefied; we've all gone through that period. It's not as rarefied as a western or a space adventure or a gangster film, but it has its own dynamic.

I think over the course of 14 films, I'm returning to a place that I know to tell a story... the same way Spielberg returned to fantasy, Lucas returned to the 'Star Wars' saga, or John Ford returned to the western.

If you put up posters around town for high-school kids, high-school kids will come. If you're casting politicians, you can't put up posters and have politicians come down.

It was wrenching to read about the brutality of Assad every morning, to see images of family homes reduced to rubble. I felt we had to do something in Syria.

Because my parents were illegal, they couldn't trust anybody. They were always nervous. A neighbor could be like, 'These people are making too much noise, their children are making too much noise,' and the cops could knock at our door and ask for our papers, and that's it. It's that simple. So you're always a little closed.

All Asian parents are into your children having a respectable, decent stable job. Acting was unimaginable to my parents.

Let's be honest: the label of model-daughter-of-celebrity mother is... you know, I don't want to have that label. It's not who I am. It's not my values to go off someone else's name and to be pigeonholed as that. So in a way, that has really pushed me to be more independent.