Riley Stearns

“I was questioning what it means to be a man. I didn't feel as masculine as I thought I should. I was out of shape, slightly depressed, inactive, and didn't feel like I belonged to something. I started thinking about what the definition of a man is, and realized they're all these archaic tropes.”

“The script for 'The Art of Self-Defense,' to be fair, I knew going into it that it was going to be a hard movie to get made.”

“I lost ten pounds while shooting 'Faults' somehow and by the end of the shoot people were basically handing me stuff to eat in between takes.”

“To think that there's one version of a man is ridiculous.”

“Specifically for 'Faults,' the three films I mention most as inspiration are 'Dogtooth,' 'Fargo' and 'Punch-Drunk Love.'”

“I really like films that don't let the score influence the tone too much.”

“As long as you're a good person and you're doing things that don't hurt other people, whoever you are, just embrace that.”

“I have always been fascinated by cults and mind control, and specifically deprogramming from the cult.”

“I would say the biggest challenge on any film is always time.”

“It would be crazy to write a movie - which, I've seen these movies before - where someone is a beginner, has their training montage, and all of a sudden, they're an expert.”

“I think it's so cool that the younger generation is so much more fluid in this regard. You don't have to be a certain type of person if you're a man, or just because you're a man, or vice versa for a woman.”

“When I was nineteen, I moved to L.A.”

“I do like to have a clean slate, especially when you're in indie film.”

“It just makes me laugh, when you talk to people who are 'typical' men, masculine, they watch sports and they can armchair quarterback, but they don't do anything themselves and they judge your masculinity.”

“I've always been fascinated by cults even as a kid.”