The greatest gift that an actor can have is good scripts because then you're relieved of the responsibility of trying to elevate the material.

You have to really think about what kind of guy the character is and decide on a style that works, that complements my physicality and that's going to be believable, but also be compelling for the audience and for the camera.

You can get into a place in your life where you no longer are in control of events, and events are in control of you.

I watched tapes and became a historian of the sport, and tried to combine certain elements and find things in the gym and saw what worked for me.

Boxing is a place where, if you haven't done the training, that's going to be exposed very quickly.

I take my hat off to my friend, Mark Wahlberg, because I know that it took him a long time to make 'The Fighter,' and he overcame a lot of obstacles to do it, and now the film is an unqualified success.

As an actor, you very rarely have the experience of picking up a script and getting a few pages into it and realizing that what you're holding in your hands is not just a role on a TV show, but it's one of those special parts that comes along, once or twice in a career. If you're lucky, you get an opportunity to do something really memorable and to be part of one of those rare shows that passes into that special category.