BRIAN J. SMITH

When I was a first year student at Julliard, I wasn't happy, not sure about this acting thing.

Gosh, for me, when I was 15 or 16 years old, I was just starting to understand ideas and film and things like that. And then, you go see a movie like 'The Matrix' that absolutely blows your mind. It's not just trying to entertain you, but it's also trying to explore something about human nature and ask some really deep questions.

Nothing changes if we keep playing it safe.

Juilliard. It was a brutal and beautiful experience.

I wonder if Louis Ferreira would be interested in directing.

First season of 'Survivor' - Richard Hatch was fascinating.

Anything by D. H. Lawrence or Jean Genet - 'Zen Mind,' 'Beginner's Mind' is my daily go to for non-fiction.

In the wake of such bad news, it was heartening to know that what 'Sense8' stood for meant so much to so many people.

When you have 12 hours of storytelling, the cool thing about it is that you get to really leave people with question marks, but hopefully wanting to come back.

I've been doing sci-fi for two years, and there is always something big going on. The stakes are always huge. You're fighting for your life, or you're dealing with personal stuff. It has really high stakes attached to it, and there are green screen and explosions. You're going out on these really cool locations.

I try not to read acting books any more, but they set a high bar for me very early on.

I think David Hewlett is a comedic genius. I think he's great.

Nothing changes if we keep playing it safe.

Juilliard. It was a brutal and beautiful experience.

I wonder if Louis Ferreira would be interested in directing.

You're not supposed to do a television series that takes place in nine cities all over the globe. Everyone will tell you that that's undoable.

People aren't making as many movies as they used to, so youve got a lot of really big-name actors who are coming in, and they want to do pilots, so things kind of disappear for those of us who kind of have to still get in the room and audition and read for it.

I saw a production of 'The Seagull' at Dallas Theatre Center when I was in high school, and it really did a number on me.

I've been doing sci-fi for two years, and there is always something big going on. The stakes are always huge. You're fighting for your life, or you're dealing with personal stuff. It has really high stakes attached to it, and there are green screen and explosions. You're going out on these really cool locations.

In the wake of such bad news, it was heartening to know that what 'Sense8' stood for meant so much to so many people.

When you have 12 hours of storytelling, the cool thing about it is that you get to really leave people with question marks, but hopefully wanting to come back.

When I was a first year student at Julliard, I wasn't happy, not sure about this acting thing.

You get so close, a lot of close calls, and then it just doesn't happen. That's just the way the industry is. It's very difficult.

What is it like to get in someone's head and hunt them from inside their eyes? That's so freaky to me.

Directing a television episode is no joke, and it's incredibly difficult and especially when you're acting in it as well.

When you think someone really has the upper hand, you realize that someone has been played the entire time, and there's a whole other layer where you think the person who is doing the playing has also been played.

Gosh, for me, when I was 15 or 16 years old, I was just starting to understand ideas and film and things like that. And then, you go see a movie like 'The Matrix' that absolutely blows your mind. It's not just trying to entertain you, but it's also trying to explore something about human nature and ask some really deep questions.

Anything by D. H. Lawrence or Jean Genet - 'Zen Mind,' 'Beginner's Mind' is my daily go to for non-fiction.

You'll get, like, 10 pages of sides the night before, and you have to go in and just wing it. For someone like me, I came from the theater, and I don't like putting anything up in front of anybody until it's really, really ready, so it can be very frustrating.

My favorite singer is Ella Fitzgerald.

First season of 'Survivor' - Richard Hatch was fascinating.

I will say, I quite enjoyed 'SG-1'. I'm a very big fan of 'SG-1'. I especially love Ben Browder. I thought he did fantastic work in that.

As storytellers, we tend to want to force-feed everything and have everybody understand everything right away, and we freak out if they don't.

I loved the idea that acting was something you could develop into slowly; something you could study.