I worked with the Groundlings, doing sketch comedy and improv at a theater here in L.A. It was my hobby, but I took classes and stayed passionate about it because it's what I wanted to do. It just fit. It takes a while before you can actually make money at it. I worked for years.
I definitely still have my hand in acting. I don't think I would be able to walk away from it. It's my passion.
The Majestic Theatre in San Antone is as good as it gets.
I was constantly involved in music and theatre all through middle school and high school.
To imagine myself in different ways comes from my beginnings in the theatre. People are more accepting when you go 'apparently', 'wildly' afield from who you are or where you were brought up.
I knew I wanted to be a performer, but I didn't know I would specifically be in film. I actually never thought I would be in film. I always envisioned being on the stage.
I was always a performer kid - like, annoyingly so. I would put on shows for my family and direct my friends in little plays, and my little sister, I'd make up dances with her. But when I was 12, that was when I started taking it seriously, and my mom for some reason believed in me and helped me find an agent in Cleveland, which did nothing for me.
I was always the guy who made jokes and ribbed people at parties. After I went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts I got sidetracked into clubs and started doing comedy.
Theatre is done largely for the love of the craft. Television makes you famous. And films immortalize you. That's the relationship between the three.
I have to say as an actor I have been inspired by so many British actors throughout the years.
Broadway was weird.
You'd need to polish your skills as you only get one chance. In cinema, retakes are possible but in theatre, there are none.
When I was a kid, I wanted to be an actor in classics like Shaw and Shakespeare and Chekov and Ibsen.
Acting for me is not that quid pro quo.
My background is on the stage, so when I'd write movies, they'd be a lot like plays.
I began coming to Paris in the 1960s when I was told audiences here liked my work. More than 20 of my plays have been produced in Paris, and several have had long runs and have returned in revivals.
We're not doing brain surgery. We're not saving lives... Even if you're doing Shakespeare, it's still entertainment. We're just entertaining people. We're just doing the stuff that comes on in between the ads.
Acting was something that I grew up just doing. I certainly never thought about it.
Every actor tries to come to Broadway be it Richard Burton, Marlon Brando or Liz Taylor or Shirley McClain.
I'd worked with Sam Barnett before in 'The History Boys' and he's a dear friend of mine.
I'd done acting at a local drama school on Saturdays. I just enjoyed it. It never entered my mind I could possibly do it for a career.
When I was in film institute, stage plays were compulsory part of our training.
That's what I've wanted to do my whole life, just act. When I was younger, I loved to entertain people. I always used to make up dance routines, do little plays. I love to perform, basically.
I'd love to do a drama.
In my heart of hearts, I love theatre. It's the joy and terror of putting a play on, the creativity of it. It is infinitely harder than film and television and more tiring. Your performance is heightened in the way it isn't with film.
