I just hope that people come out of the theatre really debating, discussing, and exchanging ideas about what they've seen 
A quintessentially New York filmmaker, Spike Lee is perhaps best known for tackling issues of race and urban living in such films as Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Clockers, and Malcolm X. However, last year saw him in a rather more meditative mood, exploring the American psyche post 9/11 in 25th Hour. With his latest project, She Hate Me, Spike indulges in a little Bush-bashing, while examining the intersection of sex, politics, and big business.
What made you want to tackle the issue of big business?
The inspiration for this film was Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Adelphia... You know, all these big, big corporations and the people who run them, who are just stealing money left and right.
How do you see sex and procreation connecting with what's happening in corporate America?
We see the whole thing on different levels. One story is on a bigger scale, and the other one is on a more personal level. But it's still all about how people deal with their own personal ethics and morals and scruples - their value systems. I know this may sound redundant but I want to make this clear, that the ethical, moral dilemma that Jack Armstrong [Anthony Mackie] finds himself in, is not the fact that he impregnates lesbians - those women could have been heterosexuals - it's the fact that he's brought 19 kids into the world. That's the dilemma he has. That's what he's struggling with.
You make blunt references to President Bush in the film, so how do you see him fitting into the process of moral decline in American society?
I just don't think it's a coincidence that, once Bush got into office, all these scandals started to happen. Bush was supportive of... I mean he is big business. People forget that the Bushes are oil barons. As soon as Bush was elected he started deregulating business, the FCC [Federal Communications Commission], he tried to dismantle and weaken various environmental organisations. He just started drilling anywhere for oil and endangering wildlife and stuff like that. He's just a menace to mankind in general. I'm sorry, a menace to humankind in general.
If sex and ethics are tied together as closely as you suggest with this film, you could just as easily poke fun at Bill Clinton, couldn't you?
I know. Maybe Senator Hilary Clinton would disagree, or maybe his daughter Chelsea, but what Clinton did with Monica Lewinsky does not add up to Bush lying to the world, saying "Let's invade Iraq because they've got weapons of mass destruction". It just doesn't add up, I'm sorry. The man cheated on his wife, but nobody died. Americans are not coming home in body bags because of that.
Like Jack Armstrong, did you ever reach a crossroads in your career where you had to choose between money and morals?
All the time. I get offered to do stuff where the money's nice but it's not something I want to do - I get offered a lot of commercials too.
You filmed lots of Nike commercials earlier in you career. Would you do that again?
Yeah, I would like to do that again if there was an opportunity, but I don't have a contract with them anymore.
Even though Nike is a big corporation that was found to be exploiting cheap labour in the Third World?
But all that controversy with Nike happened on the tail end of my stuff. Also, they have really worked hard since then to make amends for their hiring practices overseas.
There's a lot of darkness in this film, and a lot of broadly comic moments. How do you go about balancing those two things without one undermining the other?
That's a very good question and I say to you, you have to be a neurosurgeon! But we've done this before and I like balancing those two things. Billy Wilder was great at including humour in films that had a very serious subject matter, so I like to do that. And I've done it before in films like Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, even Malcolm X. Yes, it's a very difficult thing to do because you're walking a tightrope and one step this way, or that way, and it can topple you. It starts in the writing but it's something you have to be mindful of all the way through making the film.
What's the conversation you're hoping people will have after seeing this film?
Oh, I just hope that people talk. There's a lot of stuff to chew on with this movie and it's been pretty evident so far that people come out of the theatre really debating, discussing, and exchanging ideas about what they've seen.
Aren't you worried that the rather unusual ending will detract from the core issues of the film?
Well, people are going to focus on whatever they're going to focus on. I'll say this though; I think that the hardline lesbians are not going to like those last scenes at all.
She Hate Me is released in UK cinemas on Friday 24th September 2004.
