Harry [ Hannigan] and Chris [Ellis] are sitting there while we're doing [ Fresh Hell], and Chris is directing, obviously, but if we start fooling around a little bit, Harry comes in, and he's got some addition that makes it even funnier. But we start with a complete script.

I don't know you could do a whole film about Dr. Okun from Independence Day.

And, you know, when you are a kid, everybody wants to be an actor. I think that everybody wants to be in show business, frankly.

I really enjoyed doing that [Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2004) - "Graham Barnes"]. I got to work with Margaret Colin, who was a blast to work with, and a wonderful actress, and Taylor Roberts. She was fantastic. And getting to work with Vincent D'Onofrio, who's amazing. But I loved the characters of the parents, these sick psychiatrists.

I had a fantastic teacher in high school. I had one of those guys you dream of having, who molds your life and inspires you to go in a particular direction, and he was quite brilliant. His name was Cecil Pickett, and a lot of the kids from my high-school drama class are in professional show business and have done quite well.

I don't think everybody wanted to be on [new Star Trek series] . I certainly didn't.

Dr. Okun. Who's named after a special-effects guy named Jeff Okun, who had done Stargate for Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, who did Independence Day. But "Brakish" just came up one day when Jeff Goldblum and I were improvising, and he told me his character's name and I told him mine.