Spike Lee doesn't sleep. At least that's what it looks like when the prolific director-producer-writer takes a short break at a Manhattan editing facility, where he's finishing Inside Man, which he calls an "intelligent heist film" starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, and Jodie Foster. Though Lee's bespectacled eyes might be bleary, his vision ain't. Twenty years ago, Lee debuted with the no-budget She's Gotta Have It, then blew up three years later with the incendiary classic Do The Right Thing. Since then Lee has released a new film almost every year, but he's sometimes known more for his unadulterated opinions. Controversy aside, the 48-year-old filmmaker remains at the top of his game. But he still doesn't always see eye to eye with the powers that be.

You've released 19 theatrical feature films in the last 20 years. Are you a workaholic or do you just work fast?

Spike Lee: Well, when you're of small stature growing up in Brooklyn and playing sports, the guys are bigger than you. So you got to make up for what you ain't got. You got to be quicker, faster. My mother was really the one that instilled in me my very strong work ethic. If I got an A, she would say, "Why did you get an A? Those Jewish kids in your class, I know they get A-Pluses." You talk to any successful African-American and they will tell you that their parents told them at a very early age that you have to be at least 10 times better than your white counterpart because you are starting so far behind. And that's something I'm instilling in my children.

Hollywood is predominantly white. You don't see too many people of color behind the scenes.

Spike Lee: You don't. You go to any studio, the black guy you are going to see is the guy at the gate. In Hollywood, there is not one African-American who is an executive that has a gatekeeper position that could green-light a picture. And you talk about apartheid; it's really the studios. They'll make a film with Denzel and Jamie and Eddie, but only because they can make money off them. But when you look at how they are staffed, there is no diversity. They might think there's diversity because four white women run studios.

When Jamie Foxx and Morgan Freeman won Oscars on the same night last year, some people thought, Oh, black people have made it.

Spike Lee: Look, we are all happy that Denzel won the same night as Halle, the same night as Sidney Poitier was being given the Lifetime Achievement Oscar. And last year with Jamie and Morgan. But the landscape of Hollywood did not change the next day. And until people of color get in that rarefied air of the decision-making positions, it's going to be the same old thing. They make African-American films now, but it's ghettoized. There's always exceptions, but for the most part, you got your hip-hop, shoot-'em-up drug films, like Get Rich Or Die Tryin', or comedies like The Honeymooners, and that's about it. Home // CELEBRITIES // THE SHOTCALLER // Spike Lee