I’ve always wanted to be a fighter pilot. But I don’t want to kill people. I’d hate to.
‘Leave It To Beaver’ is a fairly famous show in America, but I don’t think it travelled. It was one of those typical ’50s family comedies. I was in the pilot episode as sort of the dark presence: my character was called Eddie Haskill.
Observe, orient, decide, act. It’s fighter pilot terminology. If you have the faster OODA loop in a dogfight, you live. The other person dies. In Silicon Valley, the OODA loop of your decision-making is effectively what differentiates your ability to succeed.
Richard Kerry not only was a pilot in World War II, but was a civil servant. He did not come from money.
I grew up thinking that I would become a fighter pilot and was fascinated by aircrafts as I had grown up around that. But my father encouraged me to not become an Air Force person, given the varied interests I had, be it books, movies, sports or fighter flying.
As an actor, and as you get to a certain level… and it’s pilot season and you read the trades, you could have a nervous breakdown. ‘So-and-so’s signed for a pilot. Why aren’t I?’
I enjoy the writing process and producing; I enjoy seeing an idea come to fruition. I’m driven by very complex characters. You look at the pilot of ‘Breaking Bad,’ where there’s so much depth to the character, you can’t help but be invested when you watch.
As a child, my sister and I had very fruitful imaginations, and I would think that I wanted to be one profession or I’d want to have this experience in life. I realized it’s not because I actually wanted to be a Coast Guard helicopter rescue pilot or something like that – I just enjoyed the idea of playing it.
The obviously inexperienced pilot is the game the scientific air-fighter goes after, and the majority of victories are won that way. But, on the other hand, it is the novice usually who gets the famous ace by doing at some moment the unexpected thing.
I had seen a Pfizer’s pilot plant in 1965 and decided that, ‘I’ll build a Pfizer.’ If not Pfizer, I have built Dr Reddy’s, which is no less respectable.
Jimmy Van Heusen was a top security test pilot in World War II as well as being a great songwriter. He was absolutely incredible. Van Heusen inspired me to write music.
I’m doing this pilot called ‘Demon.’ Kevin Smith is directing it. It’s a comedy drama. I play a guy who rises up from Hell.
‘Dexter,’ while the pilot shares moments with the novel that created the character of Dexter, they completely abandoned the book from that moment on.
What I saw when I was a child was my father who was a pilot, and because of circumstances was thrown into the political system, and all I saw when was small after my grandmother died was my father in constant – constant combat with the system in India, and then I saw him die, actually.
My brother is my inspiration. From being a star student in school, to the perfect boy next door – he was adored by everyone and I always looked up to him. We all shared a dream that he would become a pilot someday.
After Hurricane Katrina, over New Orleans, my helicopter crashed and the pilot and I were only saved because we fell on the roof of a flooded house that absorbed the shock. When the helicopter was spiraling downward out of control, I didn’t expect to survive at all.
You know, it’s scary when you sign onto a pilot of a series because, as much as you want the series to go, you also want it to be a character that you’d be interested in playing for a long time.
