It's a weird feeling when people are defining you, and you haven't even defined yourself.

To play a repressed gay man, I had to explore what life was like in an era of sexual repression.

People always ask, 'Was it fun? Was it fun working on a movie?' I don't know if that's the operative word. It is challenging and interesting and all those other things, but fun isn't always.

I lived in Hollywood and, ironically, I didn't know you could just go out and get an agent and go on auditions and try and become an actor, I thought it was like a Masonic thing, like a blood line you had to belong to – until I was 13. Then I realised what you had to do. It is the one thing I know I want to do for the rest of my life.

As a little kid growing up in Hollywood, I was called 'a little crazy'. And now I guess I'm still that way.

People want you to be a crazy, out-of-control teen brat. They want you miserable, just like them. They don't want heroes; what they want is to see you fall.

The last thing I want to turn into is a fat Hollywood jerk. I was brought up without much money and I was happy. I don’t think that I will strive for money or success and end up greedy or big-headed. That only leads to unhappiness. I can still be down-to-earth and do this job as long as I enjoy it.