I was really able to confirm something that I knew on some level before I'd made a film. The best actors know how to really relax. Because in film, a lot of the decisions are made in the editing room, so when you're trying to guide your performance too much - always it's a push and pull because you can't be too relaxed. Too relaxed and it's like, "What are you doing?" Too tense and it's not good either.

I took ballet for two years in high school and then in college on and off, and I went back into class. I'm nowhere near good enough to be a professional, but it's great to be in that environment. The discipline is so impressive.

I've always known that I wanted to be an actor. My family kind of was a theatrically inclined family. My father came to New York when he was a young man to be an actor and he, over a course, was in a couple Broadway musicals. I grew up in family where theater was always part of the vocabulary. By the time I was a teenager I was just totally obsessed, and it was the only thing I could imagine myself doing.

My parents are actually very hip. They're way hipper than me.

What's nice about writing and making films is that being able to see a film from the outside - from the inception through production and then completion - just informs what you're doing when you're an actor. And when you're an actor, it informs the decisions you make when you're making a film. It's using two different sides of your personality.

I did my friend's film - this guy Harrison Atkins who's a great filmmaker. He just makes movies with all his friends, and I think that's all what we're striving for - to feel like we're among friends and people who care about each other. I'd like to think that good work comes from that - from a sort of loving and friendly environment.

Seeing a movie you're in is nothing like seeing a movie you're not in.