I never felt cool growing up. I was a bit of an outsider, but I discovered theatre very early on, which got me through.

My wife is a real camper; it's a nice way to bond.

The things had been made a half a dozen times from silent pictures through the '30s and '40s. In fact, I think there's a version in the '50s. And then, of course, Spielberg eventually did a version of The Lost World, but this [filming] was '91, I think. And we shot it in Zimbabwe.

I grew up on M*A*S*H and All In The Family and Cheers. And then around this time, this would have been '95, '96, I was so into Friends and Mad About You, the idea of being on a sitcom became a very real thing that I wanted. It was not so much a relief. It was really exciting. It's an amazing thing to be in front of an audience.

I was going to be the hero of the movie [The Lost World]. I had to speak up and be like, "Shouldn't I be the one doing that?

I have accomplished a lot, but it didn't happen overnight for me. I was 35 when I got the show, and had been working professionally for 15 years. It would be a lot weirder if I were in my early 20s and stumbled into it.

As a television actor, there's a power you're given to use your image to do something valuable. As a parent, these messages are particularly important to me.