I can safely say that I had an incredibly difficult and trying past growing up and trying to be an artist and standing up as who I am in this world.

My personal life is a source of incredible happiness for me, but it's personal and it's not for me to hock, or shop around to the highest bidder. Plus, it could never live up to the amazing mythology that everyone online has created for me, so I'll keep mum about it.

Everybody thinks that equality comes from identifying people, and that's not where equality comes from.

I very comprehensively studied Irving Thalberg and his biographies. He's who [Scott] Fitzgerald roughly modeled the character after. He worked for him, as a writer, when he was at MGM. And, of course, I revisited the novel and the politics of MGM and the studio system at the time and familiarized myself with the world. There was a great deal of physical and literary work that went into it.

I pretty much got busted for everything, but I definitely stretched out my boundaries as a kid, as well.

I look at a pilot and go, "I see the landscape. I see the characters. I see the direction and the potential of the story." And I also go, "That didn't work. I could change that. Maybe that works. I don't know. We'll see." For me, I look at it, as an actor, as what can I improve upon? So, to have it out there and judged solely on its own merit is really a unique experience for me.

I like not to know, unless it's something that I need to know, specifically, for how I color a performance.