I think sport in general affects what people see in movies. I always try to explain to people in Hollywood that we have to make movies more like sport because, in sport, everything can happen and it's so much better than movies in some ways.

Through that story we tell how the plays written by the Earl of Oxford ended up labelled 'William Shakespeare. Acknowledging what he was told were flaws with Godzilla Emmerich admitted he regretted having agreed to direct it. When accused of resorting too often to scenes of cities being subjected to epic disasters Emmerich says that it is a justified way of increasing awareness about both global warming and the lack of a government preparation plan for a global doomsday scenario in the cases of The Day After Tomorrow and 2012 respectively.

He is also a campaigner for an awareness of global warming and equal rights. His films most of which are Hollywood productions filmed in English have grossed more than $3 billion worldwide more than those of any other European directors. His films have grossed just over $1 billion in the United States making him the country's 14th-highest grossing director of all time.