I had this thing about hanging out in dark theaters. My family thought I grew out of a rock.

It's difficult to keep that perspective, I think, as a parent: to know your boundaries as to what's good parenting or just projecting your own expectations on your kids. That's the hardest.

You know, you never say never because before I did 'ER,' I always said 'I'll never do a TV series,' so that's what I said.

I had this thing about hanging out in dark theaters. My family thought I grew out of a rock.

'ER' was so huge that whatever I did coming back to television, I'd have to feel as strongly about.

I did tons of theater in school, and then when I was 16 and got my driver's license, I started driving to Los Angeles, along with my friend Eric Stoltz, who was a year ahead of me and was doing the same thing. So we had the same manager, and we started auditioning for things and doing commercials when we were 16.

I never dreamed about being on a hit television series. I've never really related my dreams to that specific of a work goal. I was always enjoying the moment. Acting, writing, looking for roles and getting involved with people and trying to create something that would be entertaining to people. With "E.R." we were all very lucky to get this combination of people together in the right story in the right way to take it to the level it has reached.