I always wanted to be an actor, ever since I was really little. I did all the plays in school up through high school, even competed at a national level in oratory but then I got a job at Blockbuster video and started watching a lot of movies. They had this tiny section called Sundance Selects or something like that with independent American cinema. Jim Jarmusch, Spike Lee, Abel Ferrara, Kevin Smith, Alex Cox, David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Robert Rodriguez and Tarantino, this is just a small list of filmmakers in that section. It opened my eyes to another world beyond the big Hollywood films I was used to, coming from Virginia where we only had big multiplex cinemas with no indie or art film. And I liked the way these guys put their own unique stamp on their films. So that inspired me to start shooting movies with my friends.