. >> gavin: the producers of this are the ones that did juneau, john malkovich. he said something interesting he said do the tough take, don't do a romantic take, what demean by that? >> we were at dinner and john said he's very sweet. he says, your script has real heart if you have real heart you don't need sentiment. you are a guy from pittsburgh, direct the move like that. get the tough take. what it means is you know, if the movie, in the book, deal with a lot of tough issues, but it's not an issue yous movie. you know, i wanted to do a movie about young people that respected the hard things they went through but at the same time celebrated, you know, the first kisses and first crushes and the perfect drives and the perfect songs. the tough take meant always play against sentiment. respect the experience. and don't try to portray it through rose-colored glasses basically. >> gavin: why did it take you all of these years to do a movie? it was a phenomenal success early on. why so many years? >> you know, i have asked myself that question meantimes. and i needed