I was a criminal science fanatic and went to study it in college as well and I think that helped me [on NCIS] because I was comfortable with the language, I had studied criminal science in school for years.

I love math. I have little secret number tattoos everywhere. I design them.

My life is about being a civil rights activist. That's my life. Whoever you are, everyone, we either have civil rights or we don't. It's for everyone.

In many ways, acting is really like a science to me to figure out the human behavior of any character that I'm playing.

I started out as a writer. Poetry and prose and also kind of satirical David Sedaris-esque stuff.

I always tell myself that when you're playing a character, pretend they're on trial and you're giving the best witness of their life. You really need to think about every element of the character and represent them properly, as if they were a real person. You want to give 100 percent of what they're worth and what they deserve as people.

I went to my first civil rights rally when I was 17 years old. I was a little skinny blond kid, scared to death, marching against the KKK in South Georgia. And I have never stopped marching in protests since. Not ever. I mean, LGBT rights, women's rights, the rights of people of color... I'm your guy. I'm going to be out there marching!