The main thing about doing a comedy is that you spend most of your days really happy and laughing.
— Chris Messina
You don't get to rehearse much on TV. You are kind of rehearsing on film. Depending on the way you work, that's either a good thing or a bad thing.
I did a lot of small black-box theater in New York when I was starting out. I'd get a group of actors together to do workshops and readings. And I ended up directing three or four productions.
A lot of acting, as I grew up wanting to do, is kind of like magic... I'm not comparing myself to him in the least bit, but if you knew what Daniel Day-Lewis was doing every step of the way and what he was eating, I don't think when he popped up as Lincoln we would quite believe it.
I like talking about acting. I'm comfortable talking about acting.
When you do a movie, you shoot, and then you go away. A lot of the times you walk about from the movie, you say, 'Oh, I get that scene now... Oh, that whole ending - I wish I could have done another shot.'
Probably the best part about being an actor is that you get to be a traveling wanderer.
I haven't watched a lot of television, but when I was kid, I watched 'All in the Family,' and I liked Archie and Edith a lot.
My mom was a dance teacher, so she put me in dance school when I was a kid. I did everything. I used to take ballet.
I'm lucky to just be a working actor. There are so many great actors out there and I'm just lucky to have gotten work.
I think as an actor, you're constantly putting yourself out there, and a lot of times failing - and failing in front of a bunch of people - and sometimes you have a good moment and something clicks.
If you're playing your character and you're running into all these people who know who you are and treat you in a way that doesn't pertain at all to the character, it takes you out of it more, so when you're alone in a city where people don't know you, you can kind of pretend even more and get into the head space of where you need to be.
When you do a play, you do it for a couple months, and it just gets in your bones. You can learn about somebody that way.
Well, it's always strange to kiss someone with 10, 20, 40 people around.
I like to eat.
I've spent so much of my youth trying to change people or change girls and then having it done to me and people wanting me to change.
I honestly think comedy is probably the hardest stuff to do.
One of the interesting parts of being on a television show is you often don't know the fate of your character until you're reading the script. I always look forward to finding out.
When you go to a college for acting, at least the college I went to, it's like everybody just singing and dancing and acting, and they all come together, and everyone's talking about head shots... It just turned me off. I was like, 'What is this? I don't understand this. People are singing in the hallways.'
For the longest time, I was always like a guy that people would think they went to high school with. They'd be like, 'How do I know you?' After, we'd play a guessing game. I'd say, 'I'm an actor,' and they'd go, 'Oh, what have you been in?' I'd list my credits, and they wouldn't really remember me.
The truth is really funny. It's uncomfortable sometimes, it's dramatic sometimes, but it's really funny. Life is funny.
'The Mindy Project' is really best when you're loose, and we improvise a lot, and that's what's best.
Honestly, one of my favorite things about a director is when they understand what an actor brings to their role.
I like romance in films. I like love in films.
What's monotonous about being an actor and often makes me want to throw in the towel or drive a car off a bridge is the auditioning - the waiting around.
Ultimately, making movies, if you don't have a big star, it's hard to do. Or if it's not a star director.
Yeah, I think everybody has the crises of questioning themselves at some point or other in their lives. Is this where I should live? The job I should have? The girl I should be dating? Is this the friend I should have?
I like funny things, but I don't find myself particularly funny.
I think Aaron Sorkin is like Shakespeare. When you go through it, there is a rhythm and clues all over the place of how it should be played.
I'm from another time period. E-mailing sometimes, for me, is difficult.
I'm not a cook. I don't think I ever will be.
How precise you need to be when you're in a comedy, and the honesty you need and to have those two things meet up and have the execution just right, I always found very difficult.
That is the fun of being an actor. You play all different kinds of people.
I was so bad in school that acting gave me some kind of identity and gave me a home.
I was in a movie called 'Before & After' with Meryl Streep. I was edited out of the movie, but no one told me. I think I was 18 or 19 years old. I sat across from her and asked her every question about acting. I completely embarrassed myself.
When I'm doing a drama, I like to find the comedy; when I'm doing a comedy, I like to find the heart and drama.
Doing something like 'Damages,' I played a character with post-traumatic stress. I was playing with sleep deprivation. I was not sleeping; I stayed up for three days at a time, drinking Red Bull. I would get shaky and tired and hyper.
I don't know if women gravitate toward me, or I gravitate toward them.
I don't have much interest in gingerbread houses - except in eating them.
As corny as it sounds, I'm often pinching myself going, 'What great opportunities and great parts and great people that I've gotten to work with.'
There's been a lot of times that I thought I'd never work again; I was really bummed out.
It's always flattering when somebody you really respect and like wants you to be involved in their project - let alone writes a part with your voice in mind.
I am a big fan of movies from the '70s.
I would love to close my eyes and see myself with my girlfriend when we're 99 years old and I have a pipe and she's knitting a sweater, and I hope that's the way it goes. I think it's a challenge every day.
I'm from Long Island. Strong Island.
I love 'Boardwalk Empire.' I really love that world. I love that style. I love all the actors on it.
