What is ultimately motivating the character?

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

What we really have to do is stop the adjective before the job title — whether it's 'black actor,' a 'gay actor' or 'anything actor,' Everybody thinks that equality comes from identifying people, and that's not where equality comes from. Equality comes from treating everybody the same regardless of who they are. I hope the media and the press catches on to that because it's time to move out of 1992.

In that Freak Show environment, I got to spend time with so many of the actors who were part of that world. I just had the best time ever.

I like strong opinions - I'll take that any day over someone who agrees with everything.

I'm completely happy and fulfilled in my personal life.