I love motion-capture, because you're just free. It's like when you're a little kid, and you say, "Okay, we're the army men. We're going over the mountain." Or, in this case, "We're walking through the swamp" or "Walking through the casino." And it's just a blank room.
I love the rehearsal, as long as it's not over-rehearsed. I love it when the actors can rehearse until we feel really comfortable, and then the crew come in and shoot it. I'm not especially a big fan of rehearsing with the crew and the crew rehearsing and, "Let's rehearse this tracking dolly shot 25 times until it's just right." Television has to be shot a certain way to have a certain look. And sometimes the tried-and-true method is the best.
For some reason as a kid growing up in Lubbock, Texas, I always thought I was going to go to UCLA. I think it was because they had such great sports teams, and it was in California, where the actors were. But even though I was talking about being an actor when I was young, I was first going to be a football player. My dream was "I'm going to go to UCLA and be a football player."
There's been a lot of stage combat over the years, and I've loved it. Started in college with William Shakespeare. I've always liked the active things.
Having been a theater person first, you have the whole character, and you see the arc of the character in a play. And then when you do a movie, you have the whole character - or, if it's a small role, there's not much arc, but you see what the whole part is.
