Director McG – previously of the Charlie’s Angels movies and Terminator: Salvation – has never shied away from big talk.

And it’s a quality he brought with him while promoting his latest, This Means War, an action movie/romantic-comedy hybrid about two CIA agents (Tom Hardy and Chris Pine) battling it out over the same girl (Reese Witherspoon).

Here’s a look at some of his more eyebrow-raising statements about his film.

On toning down the film for a PG-13 rating:

“It’s funny because it’s the prudish, uptight MPAA that’s fine with the violent components, but anything that has to do with sexuality – like I had to open up my vein and bleed.

But ‘You need to be a bigger liar because your boyfriend’s penis is so big that he’s getting a penile reduction and every time it lands in my urethra it’s like a poltergeist’ – who thinks that way? [Cast member] Chelsea [Handler] is out of her f—ing mind and that’s why we love her.

“The MPAA was trying to take out all that stuff. We got it back in, but we got to take out a few things. But we retained the authentic comedic stylings of Chelsea Handler.”

On a lack of diversity in This Means War:

“Listen, that’s a huge concern for me, you know? And I can answer that in good faith because I put Lucy Liu in Charlie’s Angels.

“I don’t like lily-white movies with lily-white people bouncing around, but you also just got to do what you got to do. In the spirit of the Benetton ad rainbow coalition, you know, the most empowered character in the film is indeed a black woman [referring to Angela Bassett's CIA boss].

“I enjoy that the most powerful person in Hollywood is indeed a black woman – Oprah Winfrey.  I love ethnic diversity all over the place, but I’m hoping to just transcend beyond that.”

On online dating:

“The least you can say is, ‘Hey, I’m really into going to bed at 9 o’clock and I like zebras and, you know, role playing.’

“And then you can get after it in that regard and you can narrow it down to some degree.”

On leading lady Reese Witherspoon:

“She’s fearless. She’s given birth twice, she can do anything.”

On finding the right ending for the movie:

“We wanted to have flexibility. We even talked about having two endings and releasing it – if it were on 3,000 screens, 1,500 would have this one, and 1,500 would have that one – and just not say anything.

“There’s even an ending where the two boys end up in each other’s arms. A homoerotic finish.

“I pussed out on the ending of Terminator 4. I should have gone with the dark ending for that one, so maybe I’ll do the dark ending with this one.”