Paul Haggis

Had a heart attack during the filming of Crash (Colisión) (2004), yet refused to let anyone else finish directing it. He returned to directing 2 weeks after the event.
Quit the Church of Scientology in 2009--after 34 years--because he disagreed with the organization about its support of Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex marriage in California. His public break with the church was profiled in a long piece by Lawrence Wright in the February 14, 2011, issue of "The New Yorker"; the article was unusual in that it shed light on some of the inner workings and controversies of the normally secretive Church of Scientology. In the profile Haggis estimated that he spent more than $100,000 on courses and auditing, and $300,000 on various Scientology initiatives.
On March 5, 2006 became the first person in Oscar history to have written back-to-back best picture winners.
He was originally going to direct Million Dollar Baby (2004). He was in the middle of directing Crash (Colisión) (2004) when Clint Eastwood asked to direct the film after being offered the lead. Haggis agreed.
Produced two Best Picture winners in a row: Million Dollar Baby (2004) and Crash (Colisión) (2004).

I agreed to write the pilot because I thought it would just go away, but it became this huge hit and I remember waking up at 3 or 4 in the morning in a cold sweat, dripping wet. I mean, I was drenched. I just pictured my tombstone and it said: "Paul Haggis: Creator of Walker, Texas Ranger (1993)." So the impetus for making these movies is really just to wipe that image from my mind. (on his decision to move from television to films like Crash (Colisión) (2004))
A lot of films made me love the movies, everything from Hitchcock (Alfred Hitchcock) to Godard (Jean-Luc Godard). But the ones that really grabbed me were Costa-Gavras' films like Z (1969) and Estado de sitio (1972).
The worst thing you can do to a filmmaker is to walk out of his film and go, "That was a nice movie." But if you can cause people to walk out and then argue about the film on the sidewalk ... I think we're all seeking dissension, and we love to affect an audience.
Artists need to be outsiders in order to really view what's going on. That little bit of detachment has been great for me being down here. I look like everyone else; I almost sound like everyone else, except for the odd time I say chesterfield or serviette. But I am different. And I am proud to be a Canadian.
As artists, we have to be brave. If we aren't brave, we aren't artists.