I bet few people realize that you actually started out your career as an actor and a dancer, in such films as Grease...

I did. I went to USC in the theater department. Just on a lark, I went to an open call of Grease. And I didn't even know what Grease was! But I had dreams of being the next Gene Kelly. And I got in the movie. The next thing I know, I'm dancing with John and Olivia, and next door is Warren Beatty and Julie Christie doing Heaven Can Wait, and I'm like, "Wow, I'm in the movies!"

You make it sound so easy! How did you eventually move into writing and directing?

I always loved writing, and I took some film classes while at USC. But I'm really happy that I stayed in theater. And along the way there was some strike so I made a short film, which was eventually seen by Amblin (famous Steven Spielberg production company) and the people at The Wonder Years. Next thing I knew, I was writing a movie for Universal and directing The Wonder Years. I really loved it, and realized I was having so much fun.

Have you ever dreamt of directing a musical? Chicago's really hot right now...

I have been approached about doing a musical now, which I'm mulling over. I haven't seen Chicago, which I hear is really great. But I love the form although they are really tough to do. There's a lot of razzle dazzle in Chicago that a lot of these other projects didn't have, so you wonder, "Is it the form or the energy?" that people respond to. And I never thought Chicago was a great musical. I saw it on the stage and went, "Yeah, OK."

What's exciting about Chicago is that its success may open the door for a return of the genre...

I'd love that. I hope for everyone's sake it does. I think there are a lot of great musicals out there that can be done.

Looking at your past work, one could trace some very consistent themes running them all. Ever After, Anna and the King and now Sweet Home Alabama are all centered around a female protagonist. All also could be considered fairy tales in some ways, if only as wish-fulfillment romantic fantasies. Do you think this is coincidental, or are you specifically attracted to such elements?

I don't know about the fairy tale part, I do know that by design I am definitely drawn to female characters, but I'm also drawn to the clash of cultures. In every movie that I've done, for the most part they'd had people coming at life and love from two different cultures and two different points of view. That was certainly the case in Anna but in Sweet Home Alabama as well. It was about the south and the north. Ever After was about rich and poor. Fools Rush In was about Mexican-Americans. That I find interesting, because in the world that we live in, it is so amazing to me to see the intolerance and lack of global awareness of how other people view the world that I'm endlessly fascinating

Your last film, Anna and the King, was a huge in scope. Did you consciously choose Sweet Home Alabama because it was smaller in scope?

Sweet Home Alabama was the catering budget of Anna and the King! I needed to laugh. I was ready to not take myself so seriously. I was just looking for something fun and light. And I had a great time, just a ball.

Having yourself grown up in the Midwest, did you use any of those experiences to help shape the small-town milieu of Sweet Home Alabama?

Oh, god yeah, My partner (C. Jay Cox) and I did a fairly substantial rewrite on the movie. For example, the lightning strike at the beginning on the dunes actually happened to my dad. The cat story is right out of my family history. The glass factory, a lot of the stuff is ultimately out of my life and my writing partner's life. But more importantly out of everyone's life. You can recognize a certain of small-town quirkiness that isn't just indigenous to the south.

Were you worried any old childhood pals might sue you for using their stories?

(laughs) No, no, I'm so guilty of it myself, that if I can expose myself I'm not too worried.