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.

I had always wanted to play a boxer, all of my life. I grew up watching great boxing films.

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 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 the whole world of boxing and the sense of community that exists there.

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.