If you're going to play a champion athlete, people expect you to look a certain way, and you also have to have the stamina to be able to continue to perform.

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.

If you're going to play a champion athlete, people expect you to look a certain way, and you also have to have the stamina to be able to continue to perform.

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

You make choices, as a young man. I knew I wanted to be an actor, so I pursued that, but the desire to compete still stayed with me.

When I do a movie, I have the script. I know how it begins and how it ends. I know what my character does and where he's going. If I have ideas I want to express or changes I want to make, there's one guy: the director. It's different in television.

I would say that one of the really special gifts about playing an athlete is that it's the best motivation you'll ever have to get in top shape and stay in top shape because you know that you're going to be expected to deliver.