In the film, you travel from Morocco to Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. What would a making-of doc be like - On the Road With Morgan?

MS: It was a nightmare. There were definitely things that happened to us that were funnier than what's on screen, but you can't put that in there. There were multiple times that somebody got some sort of stomach illness from the food that we were eating. I was laid up a couple of times. Our security advisor was laid up for three days when we were on the base in Kandahar from something we ate while we were out in one of the villages. I'll try anything, but our local fixers were saying, "You can't eat that," and I was like, "Why not? They eat it!" And you're eating this thing on a stick, and I'm asking, "What is it?" And the fixer says, "They said it's goat." And I whisper, "Is it goat?" And the fixer just looks at me as if to say, "That is not goat." Like it's some kind of wild Afghan dog. Don't ask, just eat it and nod, "Mmm, good!"



There must have been some scary situations too?

MS: Well, we were embedded with the troops, and those guys are targets every day. When we first got to Afghanistan we were staying in a guest hotel, and in the middle of the night somebody started banging on my room. This was just after our security advisor had told us that if someone knocks, don't answer your door, because people had been killed and kidnapped in that environment. So I was like, "Who is it?" And they just keep knocking. So I'm calling our security advisor on the radio, and there's no answer. Finally I picked up the heaviest object in the room, and I'm standing next to the door, and they keep knocking. And after about 20 minutes they went away. So the next morning we asked the employees, who said, "We have no idea. We didn't see anyone." It was scary, and that was my first night in Kabul. And then right before the film opened, just down the road from where we were staying, the Taliban ambushed a hotel and killed I don't know how many people. Actually, it's gotten more dangerous in Kabul than when we were there.

Did the experience change your view of America?

MS: Personally, I have this vision of how I want America to be. But you really get a sense of how untrue a lot of the things are when you get overseas, when you talk to people who live in "democracies" that are backed by the US, where the people are oppressed and tortured for speaking out against the government. These people say: "Isn't it democracy that your country's all about?" And it's a lot different hearing somebody say that on television when you can change the channel - enough of that guy, let's go watch something funny. But here you are in somebody's home, and you can't turn it off. You have to really listen to them explain everything that's happened to them and their families and their neighbours. And it does start to shift your perspective.



Did it change your opinion of Osama bin Laden himself?

MS: No, I think it changed my perspective in terms of what pushes people to follow someone like Osama bin Laden. Because here's this guy who has kind of manipulated religious teaching for his own political gain to push his agenda, and here are people who have bought into that for a lot of the wrong reasons. There's families that don't have any money and don't have a lot of opportunity. There's people who feel like they've been completely oppressed by their government, which has been backed by the United States. And you start to see the domino effect of what happens. So for me that was the real eye-opener. I think it will affect everything in my life from now on. You can't go on a trip like this and come home and put blinders back on and be unaffected. You can't just ignore it.

Does this mean your next film will be more political?

MS: I don't know. I grew up in a family of educators, so I think there's a fantastic movie to be made about the public education system. It would be nice to try and do something like that before my kid actually goes to school.

So your son is going to be the bookmark for your whole career.

MS: Yeah, it'll be like, "Dad, enough about me!"