Those three years on Loving were instrumental in helping me move through the next few years of work, where it was hit or miss. I was on series that would get canceled, then I would be a movie that wouldnt come out or do as well as I hoped. You learn that you have to just keep plugging away and never take anything for granted.

Soaps taught me the fundamentals of the game. You know, how to show up, hit your mark, how to be on time. That soap opera world is a microcosm of the entertainment culture.

I've been really lucky to work with some really great film people in the past, but television works on a much quicker schedule, and it's the TV directors I've worked with that I looked to and became a big fan of.

When I moved to New York to act I was no good at working restaurants - hosting, waiting, bussing, dishwashing - I wasnt good at any aspect. But I did have a guitar. So I would sing Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard, but you would only hear the chorus because the train comes by every 30 seconds.

My wife, Bojana, is a doctor; we both work intense hours and have months when we barely see each other. It isnt easy, but we realize nobody said it was supposed to be!

I am blood type O-positive, which I remember by staying 'optimistic positive.'

But that was my very first time on a set and they said, you know, you have to stand on a mark. That little piece of tape that you stand on is called a mark. I kept correcting them and telling them that my name was Michael and not Mark. They said, 'No, no honey.' I was a little green.