I'm not at all competitive. I'd rather play Solitaire than ping-pong.

People are complicated; you put two of them together and it's generally a mess, but hopefully a beautiful mess.

There is that stereotype of a nerd with the high pants and pocket protector and that kind of thing. That can sustain comedy for maybe a movie - hence the 'Revenge of the Nerds' franchise - but not for hopefully years on the air. It's a sight gag, not a story.

Perhaps 'Big Bang' fans feel so protective of the show because it is, despite being a hit show on a big network, something of a word-of-mouth phenomenon.

It's that one thing that you're passionate about, that you end up developing tunnel vision for and everything else tends to fall by the wayside. Passion is appealing and universal.

I was a huge theater geek growing up, and that was not the easiest thing in the world, especially growing up in Chicago, where sports are really the norm. I was always off to the theater at night, from 7 years old on. Friends there in the Midwest who could talk to you about the idiosyncrasies of 'Pippin' were few and far between.

It's never been a priority for me to concentrate on the likability of the character.