I've certainly played those leading man or male juvenile roles, where you're not supposed to make people laugh.
I don't want to only play the leading man for the rest of my career.
In the years since I worked with John Hughes, there were many years where I literally had hundred of doors slammed in my face because I wasn't that kid anymore, and I wasn't a character actor, and I wasn't a leading man, and I wasn't whatever Hollywood was looking for.
My first Hindi film as a leading man was Mahesh Bhatt's 'Saaransh,' which immediately established me as someone who knows the craft.
Whether it's being a leading man, making TV shows, being with my family, I've learned a lot.
Actually, you have to be a little bit in love with your leading man and vice versa. If you're going to portray love, you have to feel it. You can't do it any other way. But you don't carry it beyond the set.
I always knew I'd be more of a character actor than a leading man, and I always wanted to take that and run with it.
When I first got out to Hollywood, they were pushing me for sitcoms, and I didn't really have an interest in them. I wanted to do films and slowly worked that way. And then it became, I guess, this curse of the leading man.
I was supposed to be a romancer, either wooing the leading lady or competing with the leading man for her.
Every year, Hollywood is looking for that new, white leading man and new white starlet that audiences fall in love with. But they're not looking for the next Denzel Washington, Will Smith or Sidney Poitier.
