We did monologues and scenes, and New York I did a scene from Amadeus and a monologue from Pounding Nails in the Floor With My Forehead by Eric Bogosian, and then in L.A. I switched the scene to This is Our Youth and did the same monologue. I was spiky-haired, super skinny. A lot of people were like, "You should come here and do a sitcom." That was the feedback that I got. Obviously it was quite a different journey than the one I've actually had, but I just listened to people.

I remember [Patrick J. Adams] being in a particularly disillusioned place and really wanting your ambitions to be met with opportunity and not feeling like they were. It's all the more reason that I feel grateful to be able to stay connected and be in each other's lives. Obviously now you're in a very different place, and it's really nice to be able to look back on that and be reminded of how far we've come, at least in the opportunity aspect. The mental state aspect of it is a different story, I'm sure, but I always knew you would work.

My return to the theater in New York was so specific. I didn't want it to be about leveraging my exposure or my fame, so the first show I did in New York was an ensemble piece at an Off-Broadway theater, and I wanted to make sure that it was just about the play and about the experience.

I think it's always good when you're able to, as an actor, allow your work to be some kind of a conduit for social discourse, and an examination of where we are, as a society.

But when I found out that Jamey Rodemeyer had made an It Gets Better video only months before taking his own life, I felt indescribable despair.

I don't immerse myself in the Internet chatter because it opens you up to a whole source of danger.

[Edward Snoden] has said many times that he's willing to come back and face trial if he can be guaranteed a fair trial, but the likelihood of that is so slim.