I have six siblings but grew up an only child. I was adopted by my aunt and uncle.
A free and democratic society is not the norm. When you look to the history books, world history was not based on great democratic societies but on imperialism, absolute rule, kings, queens, monarchs, dictators.
As an actor, you can believe that you are the reason for a show's success, but these things are a brand name now. They're like Coca-Cola. It's like, with or without you, people are still gonna drink it.
As an actor, you get into makeup, you get into hair, you come out of your trailer, and you hit your mark. As a director, you're the first one there and the last one to leave.
I always love the holiday episodes, because you really get to see everybody at their best.
You can play yourself and make a very good career out of it. Do the same type of role, the daring, good-looking, dashing kind of guy. I mean, there's a role for that guy in television, films, whatever. But people who are able to shape-shift and go from drama to comedy to whatever, there's an art to it. Especially in Hollywood.
I think 'director' is a very broad term. I like to think of myself as the head collaborator, not the director, because I think, for a lot of people, 'director' connotes giving orders and telling people what to do.
When movies work or a TV series, when they really work, it's because of the collaborative effort. Competition is the death knell for anything, in my opinion. Especially in Hollywood. When actors are competing against each other, or when directors are competing against actors, it's usually the beginning of the end.
My first live performance was the lead in 'Peter Pan.'
When you love somebody, and they go through a real adversity, you don't back away from that relationship. You don't say, 'When you're better, call me.' The opposite happens. Your bond strengthens, and you become even more vested.
I went from a sitcom to a hospital drama, feature films. I've kind of been living the actor's dream. I'm not associated with one role or one medium. You're lucky if you're associated with one hit show.
There are always going to be hospital dramas because if you're sitting in an emergency room for two hours, I guarantee you you are going to see something that makes you gasp. That's where drama comes from.
It was 1995, the year Ben Crenshaw won the Masters. I was watching on TV, and I remember watching him sink his final putt on the 18th hole. He broke down in tears because his coach, Harvey Penick, had just died. I sat there watching with a box of Kleenex, wiping tears from my eyes and going, 'OK, this is crazy - I'm crying over golf!'
I think Mercutio in 'Romeo and Juliet' would be my favorite role. I've never played it, but I would love to do it.
Actors on stage, you can go from playing a myriad of roles, from Shakespeare to a Eugene O'Neil drama, and it's the norm. I came up in a world where you're supposed to be able to do three things very well. Act, sing, dance, paint, do something. The emphasis was on versatility.
Theater is such a collaborative art. Hollywood is a competitive sport.
We kind of forget because what television tends to do with these professions like lawyers and doctors and police officers, we create them on such a heroic level that you kind of forget that these are really people.
I never wanted to become an actor to be famous. I just wanted to be a good actor. It served me pretty well.
When I was a kid growing up, there might be 10 shows on the air that had been on for ten seasons or eleven seasons. 'Gunsmoke' ran for over twenty years.
My first venture into TV was a half-hour sitcom on Fox called 'Roc.'
