When I go through a project for a first-time filmmaker, or I hear the horror stories of European filmmakers that have gone to Hollywood and they come back and say they don't want to do a Hollywood movie, it's because there are still a lot of people in Hollywood in power positions who don't listen.

No is a very peculiar word. It's a word, as a filmmaker, that you have to learn to use and a word that the power people in Hollywood use very often but hear very little.

That's the lesson to be learned from Mimic - you have to say it. The pulse that can only be gained with experience is when to say it. If you say it too soon, it's useless. If you say it too late, it's useless. Better to say it, at some point, than never to say it. You have to be 300lbs and 42 years old at least to know exactly when!