“Am I being just as brave as I was when I defined myself?”

Jon Favreau (Part 1), Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show

~ 50:38 mark

Context
Kevin and Jon are discussing the indie scene and naturally, they land on the topic of Swingers and its cultural impact.

But how do you return to making indies after mega-hits like Elf, Iron Man, & Iron Man 2 launch you into a different stratosphere as a director? How do you have the courage to go back to your roots and not do what society tells us to do (which is bigger is always better)?

Favreau:
And what’s nice is that I’ve had, recently, the same experience for the first time since then (Swingers) or Made of writing something with no outline and I didn’t realize how scared I was of it…

but life’s different now - it’s easier - but you have to say no to other big things with guaranteed big box office returns, great actors you can work with, nice salary, but at the end of the day, you gotta…

Pollak:
Yea, where are you with that “mega-table” that you are able to sit at? Because one of things I noticed about all the giant movie stars I’ve worked with over the years, no matter how high up the mountain you climb, there’s still looking over their shoulder at the next guy.

Favreau:
I dunno if it’s that for me… I find that people, at a certain point, their struggle is no longer “who’s coming” (at me), it’s not the gunfighter syndrome, it’s more like… am I doing what I should be doing now?

Am I living my life in a way where I’m being a slave to a pattern?

Or a slave to an insecurity?

Or am I being just as brave as I was when I defined myself?

Because it’s so easy to… get a comfortable life, a family, an income… and you have to force yourself to take chances and do other things.

And sometimes those chances are the big movie because you’ve never played this kind of game but you gotta step outside of your comfort zone and see what that voice in your head that got you here is telling you to do…

And turn down opportunities that might not seem, to the rational part of your brain, like the smart thing to do. You have to follow that muse.