What's "Ken Park" about?

It's about parents and children. You're gonna meet the parents and learn as much about them as you do about the kids. It's really a good film. I'm very proud of it. But one baby at a time, you know?

Bobby Kent -- the bully in "Bully" -- was a real bruiser in reality, what we expect a bully to look like. Why did you choose Nick Stahl, who's pretty thin and not that buff, to portray him?

I was originally looking for an ethnic actor, because Bobby is Persian. But I couldn't make that work. I met Nick, and I said, "Gee, this kid's got something. I bet he could pull this off." Nobody else thought so. You wouldn't believe the heat I got from everyone involved in the project. But I wanted Nick. Not only is he effective as a bully and menacing, but he humanizes him. You're hating this kid and thinking that whatever he gets he deserves. But when it happens, Nick turns it around, and you feel for him. Nick makes Bobby a real person.

You also leave things ambiguous when it comes to the central relationship between Bobby and Marty (Brad Renfro). Why?

I don't think anyone knows completely what was going on, and Bobby and Marty's relationship was so strange. They were doing all these different things together. They had been best friends since they were 5 years old. They were out hustling gays in the clubs, making gay porn with some of the people they picked up -- ostensibly to sell it and make money. They posed as a gay couple, with Marty doing gay phone sex and dancing in these clubs. No one saw them have sex, but there was certainly some kind of sexual tension there. But they also had sex with girls, group sex -- all kinds of stuff.

Did you speak to any of the actual kids involved?

No, they're all in the penitentiary. And once you're in the penitentiary for seven or eight years, you change so much. You're just trying to get out. And they've all got their stories down -- they think they didn't do anything wrong.

Is the generation gap you portray in the film unbridgeable? You have two teenage children -- how do you know what they're doing? Or do you want to know?

I do want to know who they're hanging with, what they're doing and what they're thinking about. I just try to open up that communication and talk to them about everything. That's what needs to be done. You don't want to blame everything on bad parenting. But that's probably the core of it right there.

What is it about youth that intrigues you?

It's such an important part of our lives. It forms us and is so key to later in life. All my early work was about me and those years. It's interesting to see the differences between how kids grow up today vs. when I was a kid. The information these kids have at an early age is totally unlike the way I was brought up, where you weren't told anything. That fascinates me. I guess I've been doing it for a while now. I seem to be not bad at it.

How do you know you're getting it right?

I'm not sure I am. I'm trying the best I can. I talk to people that age and ask them if I'm getting it right. And if I'm not, you know, maybe I'll do better next time.

Well, you know, because of "Kids" you're a huge hero to members of that generation.

With "Kids" I thought I got it right. I worked hard on the film. I hung out with kids all the time. I got the idea and the story for the film from hanging out with kids. Then I found a kid to write the dialogue. And I learned so much from "Bully" that there's another film I want to make now about being ethnic and growing up in America. I wasn't really able to explore that in this film -- being first-generation American with immigrant parents.

In "Bully," the actors you use may be older, but they're portraying teenagers having sex. How do you respond to those who would label that borderline child pornography?

I wouldn't know what to say to them. I think they're crazy. The actors are all of age in the movie. What about "Romeo and Juliet"? Aren't they 14 years old or something? They should go after that film. Didn't they have sex in that movie? So go after Shakespeare. It's ridiculous!

Recent Stories