Gareth Evans

“All of my consumption of films when I was a child was on VHS. I saw films in the wrong aspect ratio, with mono sound, on a tiny, square television, with a terrible side speaker, and I was still totally immersed in films like 'Evil Dead 2' and 'The Godfather.'”

“Sometimes the best television for me is when you see a character do something that you morally disagree with, but you love them so much that you wish you could climb into the TV and stop them from doing it.”

“I've known a lot of different martial arts before I came to know Silat.”

“I'm not interested in big-budget films, I'm interested in something a little more personal.”

“I used to run a Japanese review website way back in the day, around about 2003, 2004. It was just my own little personal thing, because I was just obsessed with Japanese cinema.”

“Whenever we have a set piece in like 'The Raid' or 'The Raid 2,' it was about getting the audience along for the visceral ride of it.”

“I've always loved the films where it's like you're building up to something, you're getting a drip feed of mystery and tension and suspense, and then all of a sudden you flick the first domino and it just free-wheels until the climax of it. That was something I've always been drawn to.”

“I had made an independent film - 'Footsteps' - in the U.K. that hadn't really done anything, so my wife suggested we head to Indonesia and film a documentary about the indigenous martial art Silat.”

“For me, 'The Raid' was survival horror. It had thriller elements, tension elements, gunfire, martial arts, and action - throw all of those things together and see if they can fit well. All of those things played a part.”

“I know 'The Godfather II' there are elements that you can get away with watching without watching the first one, but you wouldn't get the full experience of it. There would be a lot of stuff that would be completely confusing to you.”

“There's nothing more frustrating then when you have someone who's a little bit stiff and you have to ease them into the shoot. When you're dealing with large groups of people, like if you have a fight with 18-20 people and like 5 of those are a little bit stiff, that process of trying to ease them in and be patient and encourage them is hard.”

“There were a lot of Indonesian films made in the Seventies and Eighties that had silat and karate built into them, but most had these mystical elements. People jumping into trees and turning into jaguars, that kind of thing. They were fun movies but not great movies.”

“If I try to make something that appeals to everyone it will appeal to no one.”

“Basically, when it came to 'Apostle' there were a number of factors that led me to make it.”

“I want to make sure that whatever I do is the right thing and something I believe in.”

“I'll always end up coming back to Jakarta because I got given my career by being here. I want to be able to come back and keep making movies here.”

“Indonesia's been good to me. It's given me my career.”

“It sounds weird now, but I was doing web videos to teach people the Welsh language.”

“Yes, part of me was like - 'The Raid 1' and '2' were amazing for me, incredible for me, but I didn't want to just be doing 'The Raid' films all the time.”

“I'd always wanted to be in the film industry in the U.K. but I didn't really push myself to get myself noticed.”