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.

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

You think like a boxer and behave like a boxer, and you try to live your life that way, being in the gym all the time and being careful to push the plate away at the dinner table. You don't need dessert. When you're out having fun, you ask for agua instead of vodka. It's very important.

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.

I love boxing, and boxing has always been my favorite sport. I was always into it, and I boxed recreationally all of my life.

Not all television scripts are created equal. And the process is ridiculous. They send you a script and want you in the next morning. That's not how acting works. You can do anything to me as an actor; I'm a very resilient guy. Just don't rush me. If you ask me to do it immediately with no time to prepare, I know you have contempt for actors.

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.