After college, I was an intern at the New York Theater Workshop. In the mornings, I would build sets and hang lights, and in the afternoon, I would be the reader for auditions.

My parents met when they were 16 and bonded over the antiwar movement.

I was not into B-movies. A lot of it is sloppy.

Good writing is everything.

If I could grill for breakfast, I would.

It's funny; I'm in some ways hopelessly masculine, but I don't fish, I don't hunt, I'm not that into sports. I can't fix a car. I think it's my point of view and the way I see the world.

When you're in a theater, it's about reaching the back rows. When you have a camera in your face, it's just about knowing the size of the room.

I made a choice in my career to not get hair plugs and not hide the fact that I was balding, and I've managed to play all sorts of characters who have shaved heads.

In some ways, it's easier to be the lead. Week after week, scene after scene, the rhythms of filming force you to peel away a certain amount of artifice. When you're on set that much, there's a license to let the character emerge from the work itself.

It's a challenge to turn a book series into a television series; you need to keep people on their toes, but you also want to be true to the source material.