Photo: Alan Markfield/FOX

In his first interview since leaving his Star Wars spinoff, Josh Trank underlined endlessly to the L.A. Times that most of the rumors you may or may not have heard about him and his departure are false. Trank wants to make clear that he wasn’t fired, he’s not a part of any feuds, and his dogs did not damage that house. “Everybody wanted to go out there and say, ‘Josh has lost his mind,’” Trank told the Times. “It’s just been an avalanche of things.” Trank even compared his life to that of a Paddy Chayefsky script, noting that every misconception that could possibly be made about him or his current circumstances has been made. Here, according to Trank, is the truth:

On why he really left Star Wars:

I knew that this was going to be questioned and it was going to come under skepticism as to why I left Star Wars. … And it was hard. It was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make in my life. … I want to do something original after [Fantastic Four] because I’ve been living under public scrutiny, as you’ve seen, for the last four years of my life. … And it’s not healthy for me right now in my life. I want to do something that’s below the radar.

On rumors of bad behavior on the Fantastic Four set:

If you ask anybody by name who I’ve worked with, from Simon to [producer] Hutch [Parker] or my crew or anybody else, they’d be like, We’ve been working really hard on this movie and we’ve had an excellent time working together. … It’s been a challenging movie — for all of the right reasons.

On the dog drama:

Please – it’s crazy and it’s not true. … I have three pugs and a little Boston terrier — that’s all I’m saying. They’re fine. I’ve been living in another house for over a year now and there’s literally no problem. I love my landlord.

For what it’s worth, Trank says he still gets along well with the people at Lucasfilm as well as Fantastic Four’s Simon Kinberg. (Read the rest of this interview here.) He’d like no more rumors, please.