It was very clear to me I wanted to be an actor when I got out into civilian life.

The Marine Corps is some of the best acting training you could have. Having that responsibility for people's lives, suddenly time becomes a really valuable commodity and you want to make the most of it. And for acting, you just have to do the work, just keep doing it.

Acting is really about having the courage to fail in front of people.

I always think back to the original movies and to those quieter moments where Luke is out in A New Hope, and there are the two suns setting. It is the equivalent, basically, of a farm boy dying to get out of his small town and do something bigger. It's those kinds of universal themes that ground this whole thing in space.

Acting is a business and a political act and a craft, but I also feel like it's a service - specifically, for a military audience.

I actually run a non-profit where one of the main objectives is to branch out and get a new audience for the theater. Just because the writing is so good and nothing is more effective than seeing something live and happening right in front of your face, so I definitely want to continue to pursue that.

If I'm not doing something or working on something, I literally just sit in the room and think, which I don't think is productive. I won't go outside for days.