In the military, you learn the essence of people. You see so many examples of self-sacrifice and moral courage. In the rest of life you don't get that many opportunities to be sure of your friends.
If I'm not doing something or working on something, I literally just sit in the room and think, which I don't think is productive. I won't go outside for days.
I'm not an acting monk or anything. I'm not, like, the most well-adjusted actor.
I'm conflicted with theater in the city because you want to reach a diverse audience, and that audience doesn't typically go to the theater.
I was born in California. When I was six, we moved to a small town in northern Indiana called Mishawaka.
I used to eat a whole chicken every day, for lunch. I did that for four years. But it got tiring - go to the store, buy it, eat it. It’s a mess.
I think it's possible to be free in a big production. It's the eye of the director and the actor and the story.
I originally passed on 'Girls' because I thought TV was evil.
I mean, I did plays in high school, but I was convinced you couldn't make a living doing it.
I loved being in the Marine Corps, I loved my job in the Marine Corps, and I loved the people I served with. It's one of the best things I've had a chance to do.
I have a control problem. I hate the feeling of not being in control.
I feel like I'll never get over red carpets. They're so bizarre and awkward.
I don't understand technology, and I'm very scared of it.
I don't have cable. I just never watched a lot of TV.
I always found something strangely paternal about the director-actor relationship. Actors want so much approval.
Girls' feels very active and stirring a conversation and controversial, and you can't really ask for more as an actor.
For me, becoming a man had a lot to do with learning communication, and I learned about that by acting.
Emphasis in the Marine Corps isn't on talking about your feelings.
Acting, to me, has been many things: It's a business, and it's a craft, and it's a political act - it's whatever adjective is most applicable.
Acting is really about having the courage to fail in front of people.
Acting is a business and a political act and a craft, but I also feel like it's a service - specifically, for a military audience.
At the end of whatever we're doing, I always feel like I want to go back and start over again because now I have a better sense of what it is. I feel that with everything. Like, if you're doing like a long run of a play and you're doing it seven shows a week, at the end of it, I want to go back and start from the beginning.
I actually run a non-profit where one of the main objectives is to branch out and get a new audience for the theater. Just because the writing is so good and nothing is more effective than seeing something live and happening right in front of your face, so I definitely want to continue to pursue that.
I always think back to the original movies and to those quieter moments where Luke is out in A New Hope, and there are the two suns setting. It is the equivalent, basically, of a farm boy dying to get out of his small town and do something bigger. It's those kinds of universal themes that ground this whole thing in space.
I think people are willing to take more of a risk on an indie film, about character, etc...but at the same time, when I work on projects that are substantially bigger, in a way they do feel small. Even though the catering is way better and we actually have someone shooting with real film.... The budgets are bigger but the story still feels small, like an indie film.
