If it's getting badly reviewed and no one's going to see it, it's something you have to accept, you know, is a reaction to what you've made and it can't always be good.

I'm Sean Fennesy, Editor-in-Chief of The Ringer, and this is the big picture, a conversation show with some of the most interesting filmmakers in the world.

17 movies. 33 years. Two Oscar nominations.

Box office hits and a spot in the Art House Hall of Fame. There isn't much that Gus Vansant hasn't accomplished in this filmmaking career.

From his early independent triumphs like Drugstore Cowboy and my own private Idaho, to mainstream successes like Goodwill Hunting and Milk, Vansant has made modest but powerful movies about outsiders living on the fringes of society that have become etched into the culture.

His latest, Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot, tells the story of the cartoonist John Callahan.

Joaquin Phoenix, who got his big break from Vansant in 1995 into Die 4, reunites with him to play Callahan, an alcoholic who has rendered quadriplegic after a car accident at 21 years old.

Vansant's movie traces Callahan's simple but amazing story. I talked to the writer director about reteaming with Phoenix, the role his late friend Robin Williams played in the film, and where to go after you've accomplished so much. Here's Gus Vansant.

The film is a great film.

Since you're honored to be joined by Gus Vansant, thanks for coming in.

Thanks.

Gus, this is your 17th film, and I'm wondering what it takes for you to decide to choose a project at this stage of your career.

So why this movie? Why now?

I think probably all of them are chosen because there are things I don't know about, things that I'm like sort of,

there are worlds that exist as worlds that I haven't ever been in them.

So I sort of, in this case, the world of John Callahan, his quadriplegic, his alcoholism, his cartooning, the 12 steps, were all sort of things that were mysterious and interesting at the same time.

Do you think of them as an opportunity to just dive in deep and then do a lot of research into those worlds? Is that why you choose them?

Yeah.

And so what goes into that? What do you do? Where do you start?

Or that you're building the world from scratch because you don't really know about it.

So you're following leads, and you know, like sometimes the person next to you knows all about it.

So you're listening to people talk about it and creating that is really faithful to that?

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