Film Courage: John, why do you love character-driven films?
John Gray, Writer, Director, Producer: I think it goes back to when I was a kid and I would watch movies in theaters or sometimes even things I saw on television and I would get so involved with these characters. I grew up in Brooklyn in a working-class neighborhood. Any opportunity that I had to be transported out of that into a different world with people I didn’t know anything about, I was always very interested in that. The most important thing that inspired me most was those moments in the theater where I would sit there and recognize something in a character that I recognized from myself and I realized I’m not alone. That to me was the single most powerful thing that bonded me to storytelling and to movies. Very early on I thought to myself I would love to make someone feel that way. I would love to tell a story that someone sits there and goes Oh wow, that’s me! That’s my family. I’m Okay there’s nothing wrong with me. I’m not a misfit there’s, there’s somebody else. That’s really why I love it so much and I’ve always tried to make sure it’s informed with interesting characters and some depth and an arc of somewhere to go.
Film Courage: Do you remember those first few movies that you watched wherever you were in New York?
John: I do, I’m embarrassed to admit it but the first movie I saw my mother took me to at the Loew’s Oriental Theatre in Brooklyn and it was called…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
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