It makes sense that it's so different from film and television, because it's so in-depth. As actors, when we're in film or television, we can have transcendent moments and we get to work with really creative and incredible people, but it's such a small percentage of your time that's about your process.

I saw how vulnerable we all are and how exposed we all are and how this is an issue that affects everyone who owns a piece of technology. Which is certainly most people in this country.

Heroes' really changed the game for me in a way that nothing before it had.

My dad died when I was a kid, so I think it became a place for me to go where my mom knew that I was safe and taken care of and looked after.

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.

Again, as a gay man I look at that and say there's a hopelessness that surrounds it, but as a human being I look at it and say 'Why? Where's this disparity coming from, and why can't we as a culture and society dig deeper to examine that?' We're terrified of facing ourselves.

I've had some pretty stimulating conversations about where we are politically as a result of this movie [Snowden], but then there are a lot of questions just about that sensationalism of it.