Of course my goal at Duke was to win the national championship, but we were shorthanded, and lost one of our big guys that was very important to the team. By the end of the season we only played about six guys. But we tried our hardest and did our best and overall had a successful season.
I did a movie called ‘Quicksand No Escape’ with Donald Sutherland and Tim Matheson. I think I was maybe 5. I was really little. Yeah, it was fun. And actually, Felicity Huffman played my mom.
Throughout his amazing life, my father played important roles in shaping U.S. policy towards China.
I had played sports all my life, and I thought that was going to be the way. But I saw where the potential in football was going to end. When it comes to decision-making, I just follow my gut at the end of the day. And if I don’t, I get in trouble. I wanted to become a filmmaker.
When I was a boy, I had a baseball team of my own. We played on a vacant lot between Ninetieth and Ninety-second streets. I had a little menagerie of my own, some pigeons, guinea pigs, and so on. On Saturday mornings, I had to take my music lesson. Then the members of my team used to come see my menagerie.
‘Gaana Bajana’ gave me an opportunity to experiment with my looks. I played a tomboy in that film, a role that I hadn’t essayed before. I have no regrets for having done the film.
I don’t understand labels. I don’t need anybody to tell me I’m Latina or black or anything else. I’ve played characters that were written for Caucasian females, I just want to be given the same consideration as everybody else, and so far that has been happening.
Racism is ignorant. And it’s stupid. And it’s old. And it’s played out. So beat it already with that, you know what I mean? ‘Let’s all get along’ – I’m so tired of that damn sentence, but it’s true.
The fact I’m blind has been a great help to my career. If I’d been sighted I’d have played baseball and got into trouble like all other kids on my block.
When I played ‘Annie’ in the seventh grade, I knew from then on that I wanted to be an actor.
I played wide receiver in high school; then I went to college at Ball State and played safety.
I want my songs to be enjoyed by those who travel in a town bus and they should be played repeatedly in a tea shop.
I have played many negative roles in films, and television gives me an opportunity to break through this image and portray another side to me.
If I’m playing a real-life person, I would take notes, I think that’s important. For instance, when I played Rosemary Clooney, I was lucky enough to meet her; thankfully, she was still with us. And I talked with her and read her book, so when it’s a real person, I want to find out everything I can.
I had to choose between American and British actors, and it didn’t take me more than a second to decide: Russians are Europeans and should be played by other Europeans.
Toys are put on this Earth to be played with by a child.
I played pretend games as a kid, army, whatever, but I never wanted to be an actor.
I grew up on 23, country music highway, which is a stretch of road where Ricky Skaggs and Dwight Yoakam and Loretta Lynn played. Driving up and down that on the way to school – to baseball games, to anywhere – you see all these signs commemorating these artists. It was a point of pride for my area growing up.
I never played sports or got into the whole guy camaraderie of, like, ‘I love you, man! Seniors forever!’ So suddenly being in the military with these guys who were under these very heightened circumstances, isolated from their families, living this very kind of Greek lifestyle, it changed my life in a really big way.
I played piano, I learned a lot about music.
After having played serious drama for so long, I needed to scratch the itch of versatility.
The best team I played in was the Brazilian one in 2002; we felt that we could always score. It was a team without any vanity – or individuals.
I mean, I think I liked every band I ever played in because each band was different, each band had a different concept, and each band leader was different… different personalities and musical tastes.
I was shortly again at the castle, and the Princess gave me her hand to kiss and then brought her children, the young princes and princesses, and we played together, as if we had known each other for years.
When I played Hope in ‘Booksmart,’ I was like, ‘I could see myself with a woman.’ Because, literally, I was seeing myself with a woman.
My guitar is a mutation between a classic Fender Stratocaster guitar, which I played for years, and a Gibson solid-body like an SG or a Les Paul. It contains all sounds of the basic classic rock n’ roll guitars. It does what I want it to do.
When you fall in love, you genuinely hear violin being played in the background. You genuinely feel that clouds are bursting and you look at every small thing as really beautiful.
I’ve never played on my gender.
Steeler was a good start for my career. They didn’t play anything dangerous – everything was formulaic – but I played all this crazy stuff on top of it, and that turned out to be an interesting combination. But by the time ‘Steeler’ came out, I was already out of the band.
I played Mary at the age of seven in my first nativity play, and I loved it – there is something so fascinating about embodying someone else.
I have played against the big England players – Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, Ashley Cole. I never like to point out somebody because they are all great players with experience.
Virtue is not photogenic, so I liked playing bad guys. But, whenever I played a bad guy, I tried to find something good in him, and that kept my contact with the audience.
In 2005, I played Count Fosco in ‘The Woman In White’ on Broadway. It was a disaster. I was physically run down and terribly homesick and I just knew I had to leave. I lasted three months before the producers released me.
