Quotes from Lexi Alexander

I think in industries riddled with bias, you tend to hire women only if their previous work is very masculine, which is hilarious given that this is not how male directors are chosen.

If women choose guerilla style filmmaking or new media productions, etc., all power to them. But if they're there because 'Big Hollywood' won't let them in, then we're moving further and further away from equality.

I think we need to stop looking at the file-sharing community with disgust and instead ask ourselves what we can learn from them.

One thing I get from competitive sports is that I am fiercely ambitious.

When I first arrived here, after spending years as a competitive fighter and training U.S. Marines in hand-to-hand combat, Hollywood is the last place I would have expected to find such blatant bias and discrimination.

I love hand-to-hand, and I love putting on these fights; that's the background I come from.

Although I'm aware of how under-represented we are, I sometimes forget how desperately Arabs who aren't in the film business wish for better stories about us.

There was a choice of being a director who's more familiar with the technicality of doing a movie, like learning about the camera and filters and setup, or being a director who can actually talk to actors. And I always wanted to be an actor's director.

When I first made 'Green Street' and I was considered a hot director, I pitched everybody, but there was always this feeling that I was being underestimated in the room. I pitch TV, and nobody underestimates me. They literally think you could be the next whoever, and that is a very cool thing.

Women in Hollywood have no male allies. There are some who pretend to be on our side, but yeah, not really. They may say the right thing because, after all, they're liberals, and that's a public image they'd like to keep up.

Maybe the biggest award show of the largest entertainment importer in the world needs an economic incentive to embrace diversity. Indeed, maybe we should boycott the show and pressure advertisers to do the same. Or maybe the Academy should learn the lesson of history and change because it's the right thing to do.

Bottom line - American history tells us that where there is a will, there will always be a way to achieve quick and fast inclusion.

Truth: I loathe the idea of being hired because of my gender, and I shudder at the thought that one day I show up on set, and half of the crew thinks, 'Here comes the quota hire.'

The criminalization of file sharing is pathetic. It's so pathetic, it's almost funny. Imagine if the radio people would have lobbied for a federal law enforcement agency to raid all homes for illegal transmissions of moving picture experiments in order to stop the invention of television. It's ludicrous.

It's almost comical how un-liberal liberal Hollywood is when it comes to fighting gender and racial bias.

I knew I needed to make a studio film - not for any financial reason, but because, as a filmmaker, and especially as a female filmmaker, you have to break through the glass ceiling.

Joel Schumacher fired me from 'Batman & Robin.' I don't think anybody knows that. I was having trouble with these contact lenses that were supposed to make your eyes glow under blacklight.

My equality rants have been out there so much that people must be getting sick of it, and frankly, so am I, but if a writer wants to do another story about it, then go for it, because the cause is a good one.

While I was able to pass as white as soon as I came to America, this was not really possible while I was growing up, as it was pretty obvious that I wasn't 'all German.' So my privilege was that in America, I could conveniently withhold one of my bloodlines and avoid racism and discrimination. That is not a privilege most people of color have.

I think I have a responsibility as a film-maker to bring not only controversial subject matter to the screen but also to inspire a thought process.

The only reason I was offered 'Punisher' was because I had made an indie film that was rated R for violence and was filled with fight scenes.

A lot of the guys that work for Warners and make these big films there all come from the same film school. Like Michael Bay, Zack Snyder, Tarsem Singh - they all went to Art Center in the College of Design. And there's a certain expectation when these guys graduate.

The great thing about a reboot is, you can learn from the past if you care enough.

2015 was an interesting year for me. After finally getting back behind the camera at the end of the summer to shoot the CW's 'Arrow,' I found myself a couple of months later in a federal building in downtown Los Angeles, trying to convince half a dozen security guards to let me make my EEOC appointment despite my expired driver's license.