When I watch TV I can tell when someone is punching the joke and telling me when to laugh. I’ll decide when to laugh, thank you very much.
I’ll tell you what I really enjoy. We all go to the movies, we all watch television, we know what they’re about, how they work. When the main character is a cop or a spy, it’s very exciting, but I also very much enjoy when the main characters are nobodies – a trucker.
I’ll never look down on and I love running into actors who say ‘Oh yeah, I did a soap.’ I say ‘Tell me which one!’ It’s like being a member of a secret society.
I was shy. I was painfully shy, until fifth grade when I transferred to another school and befriended the class clown. And one day he was sick and I kinda stepped in for the class clown and I said, ‘Wow, this is exciting, I’m a little bit nervous.’
The secret to comedy is not playing the comedy, but actually playing the situation, playing the drama of it.
I was attending the University of Alberta. I was going to be a high school teacher, like my parents. I failed – no, I didn’t fail a class, I just barely passed. I really didn’t try. It was Canadian history, through the plays of the time. My God, those were boring plays.
I want my job to include a little adventure, a little more of a heightened reality than what I’m actually living. And ‘Castle’ has that. He gets this opportunity to tail these homicide detectives, and he’s driven by that. He’s a little immature, but he’s obviously loving life.
I think that acting can be a very pressurized existence. So when I’m not working, I spend very loose and un-pressurized time and I like to meet people who have a similar attitude.
I told myself a while back, ‘Love what you do, but don’t fall in love with what you do.’ That way you won’t be brokenhearted if ever it gets canceled five episodes in – which has happened to me.
I’ve got a full plate, yes I do. That iPod, that’s nice. A phone recorder? Nicely done. All right I’m a bit of a tech geek. I have a subscription to Popular Science and I keep up on all this stuff.
I’ve had a long line of failed television programs, pilots that were never picked up, series that didn’t go very long. I’ve learned that there’s really nothing you can do. If it’s not in my control, I try not to worry about it.
I live in Los Angeles and I like to do a lot of hiking. I live a very relaxed life.
You have a dramatic portion of your television program and you treat it dramatically, and then you have a comedic portion of your program, and you treat it differently. Why do you change who are between the two pieces? You’re the same person. Just go.
My worst day is still a really good day. I complain, but I catch myself and count my blessings. I am truly blessed.
You can’t embarrass Joss Whedon, he’s got no pride! He fully admits it. ‘Oh, it’s me. I’m little and goofy.’ You can’t wound his pride. He’s too self-deprecating.
When I go to a sci-fi convention, oh God, it’s the closest thing to being a rock star I will ever know in this life. I want to be a rock star, don’t you? It’s a good thing to be, a rock star.
My first Comic-Con was when I first met Joss Whedon: He introduced me to that world and I’d never been to a convention before that. He and a bunch of the ‘Buffy’ and ‘Angel’ writers were all going down in a big van and he invited me along.
It’s so great in Hollywood now. You have people past 40 sitting and talking about serious stuff, writing and making movies and TV, but there’s laser pistols and superheroes and alien monsters involved. It’s viable and mainstream.
I think TV has been a little bit irresponsible in how they portray these people because homicide detectives are not brooding, tortured souls who are stained with the stink of the city and who have blood on their hands. They are real, live people that are incredibly entertaining.
I am one of the lucky few who is successful in their career, and I’m really enjoying myself.