Being from Orange County is in a lot ways very much like being from the Midwest.

For me, getting comfortable with being famous was hard - that whole side of it, the loss of anonymity, the loss of privacy. Giving up that part of your life and not having control of it.

When I first started out, I said to myself, if this doesn't happen there will be something else that I can do. That seemed possible because I knew how to do so many different kinds of jobs.

Somewhere along the line I made the switch and was able to look at the bright side rather than the dark sida all the time. Now I look at everything I have and think how lucky I am.

Where I came from, the idea of going into show business was just ridiculous; in fact I didn't tell anybody because I knew people would laugh at me. So I sort of snuck around and got some pictures and got a resume together and, of course, lied and said I did all kinds of things I didn't do.

I act for free, but I demand a huge salary as compensation for all the annoyance of being a public personality. In that sense, I earn every dime I make.

De Niro is a classic example of somebody who is iconic and who sort of effortlessly puts actors at ease the moment you meet him. I think it's also just something that he innately does with people.