I've always wanted to entertain people, or make them smile, or tell a joke that would make them laugh. I don't think there was this deep down burning passion to be an actor.
I base my happiness on the relationships in my life. I would rather have the absolute worst acting career or, I don't know, whatever the worst job would be... picking up radioactive material? I would much rather have that and a good marriage than a horrible marriage and a brilliant career. That's just not a trade off I'd make.
Montreal's a unique city, very fascinating stories of architecture and history, and it's this sort of bizarre mixture of Europe and North America. It's not quite Canada and it's not quite America, and it's definitely got this very Euro feel to it. It's a very, very interesting city.
I try not to plan more than 24 hours ahead at any given point. If I've learned anything, it's that you just can't plan. Whatever you think is going to happen never does, and there's always the X factor that always comes up and surprises you.
I think every actor tries to put a little bit of themselves into each character, and I think if you watch very closely, every actor has a bit of himself in every role whether they want to admit it or not.
One of the great things about the longer you do a character, the more the writers start to understand your kind of character ticks and things that you like to do. The most exciting thing I think for a writer is when the characters just start speaking for themselves. You sit down at your keyboard and just stuff starts jumping out of their mouths. They just sort of wrote the scripts for themselves.
I always feel that it's weird that anyone else is watching one of my shows on any other TV than my own. It just seems bizarre that somehow it's being broadcast all over the world. I just feel really fortunate to be where I am, and really lucky to have the opportunity to do what I do, and I appreciate every single minute of it.
I always remind myself that whenever I see a good review or hear a good opinion of a role that I've done that it's just an opinion, and therefore it's technically neither right nor wrong; it can't be. It's not a fact, it's not solid, it's not something you can bet the house on.
I've always said and I'd be one of the first people to admit; I think there are literally thousands of actors out there more talented than I am by a country mile. I've just been fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time, and I guess I had the right look.
I really do think you lose the audition on the first ten seconds. I think you walk in, the casting directors and the producers and the directors have a real definite feeling of what they're going for, and if you don't look like it, it's pretty much done. Your acting is basically a bonus.
I think most actors probably enjoy playing the bad guy. I think it's the fact that most of the time, heroes aren't written with enough interesting qualities or flaws, and that leads to the bad guys being almost the runaway train, as far as being more interesting for the audience to watch.
Acting is attached to almost everyone in Los Angeles. Everyone has stars in their eyes when they come out here. I have an expression... it's like if you turn to the left and if you turn the right; if they're not an actor, you are. It's essentially true.
I don't even know if acting's something I want to do the rest of my life. There's a lot of other things I'm interested in, too. But as long as there are good roles out there and I'm enjoying myself, I wouldn't mind being some little octogenarian and continuing on the fight. But that's not really where I place my happiness, so acting to me is always a bonus. Acting is definitely a very pleasant bonus in my life, and I've enjoyed it completely.
