Emilio Estevez's film The Way hits Blu-Ray and DVD on February 21st. It's a story about a father and son, about last wishes, and about learning to be comfortable with who we are. We recently had a chance to talk with Emilio about the film, and despite the extremely brief time, we still learned a lot.

Yo: So I know that you had your dad [Martin Sheen] star in this movie, and I was curious; what's it like to get to boss your dad around since you're the director? Did you get any payback for all those times when we was telling you what to do?

Emilio: Well, you know this is the third time I've directed him, and each time I'm a little tougher on him. No, in truth I adore working with him, I adore directing him, he's my favorite actor that I've worked with, and I think that he's a joy. And I think it's probably the best performance he's given in many, many years in a motion picture.

Yo: Why did you want to tell this story? What was it about it that made you say I want to make sure that story gets told?

Emilio: Well, I think it's for a couple of reasons. You know, my son and my father went to Spain in 2003 and my son was working as his assistant on The West Wing and it was between seasons three and four. And off they went to Spain to check out The Camino, because my dad had always wanted to see it. My son met a gal while he was there, fell in love, and ended up moving to Spain. They've been married since 2009. So, I figured if I want to spend some time with my son, I better figure out how to do a picture in Spain. So my dad kept giving me a little nudge and saying, "Hey how about we go over to Spain and make a movie?" You know, I'm all about trying to keep the jobs here. This idea of making a picture overseas was nothing I wanted to do. I wanted to make sure... the the film business, not only does it need to stay in the United States, but it also needs to stay in California if it can because there's so many technicians here out of work and the last thing in the world I wanted to do was go over to Spain and make a movie. But obviously this is the sort of film that couldn't be made anywhere but there. So we began to talk about a story, and talk about what the film would be about, and you know I just love this idea that we're all on a path. We're all on our own Camino, our own journey, and it's one of our first instincts; after breathing and eating, it's to get up on two feet and take that step and move forward. So I just loved the metaphor of that.

Yo: What do you hope people will take away from this movie? What do you want them to be thinking about?

Emilio: Well, I think the overall theme in the film is that we're not alone, we're not walking alone, we're walking in community. Whether you find that community in your church or in your family or in both. These are very strange and very interesting times. We're bombarded every day; you turn your TV and you watch, I don't know, an hour or two hours of TV and you're going to come away from watching TV feeling that there's a lot wrong with you. There are parts of your body that don't work, there are pains you didn't know you had, you better get your teeth whitened, you better go on that diet, you better take that pill to make you happier, and there's not enough messages that tell you that, hey man, you're beautifully imperfect. You're beautifully and wonderfully flawed, and that's what makes you human, and God loves you in your imperfections. There's not enough of those messages and I think the film really celebrates that. It celebrates our brokenness, it celebrates our flaws and our imperfections, and at the end of the film, all of these characters arrive at the place where they are fine and they are comfortable in their own skin.

Yo: I like that phrase, beautifully imperfect. I might have to steal that from you.

Emilio: Please do, man. It's not...I didn't invent it, but I'm living it.

Yo: (laughs) Yeah, you and me both. Hey, thanks so much for your time.

Emilio: Of course, thank you, thanks for having me.