My closest friend is canine. I have precious few close friends, and most of them are not actors

The movie that's had the most effect on me is Jaws. To this day when I'm in the ocean, I'm hearing that music.

When I was in college, all the pretty women were in the theatre, so I auditioned for a play.

There was no one really like John Bender at my high school.

It's more like the inner workings of John Bender. He feels like he's been given a short shrift, he's not been provided the opportunities that maybe these other kids have. So he feels like he begins in a hole. And instead of trying to raise himself up, he wants to bring all of them down. That's a dynamic that's pretty universal. And so that was the real foothold on that. It wasn't like, "Oh, my high school experience is like John Bender's [in St. Elmo's Fire]."

My first love is acting on stage. A sitcom is a hybrid of stage and film.

I put less stock in others' opinions than my own. No one else's opinions could derail me.