I like to get my 10,000 steps in.
— Joshua Malina
'Scandal' is certainly different from anything else I've been involved with as an actor.
'Scandal,' I sort of experienced the ascent and the transition from a modest start to a full-blown hit.
I sure do enjoy my ice cream. And I consider a pint a good start.
I keep kosher, so I have an element of consumption awareness embedded into my daily life. One of the things the practice does is make one more mindful of - and grateful for - what goes into your body.
A lot of people stop me to say nice things about 'The West Wing,' nice things about 'Sports Night' - so many people that I'm like, 'Where were you when it was on?'
If 'Scandal' were to run for the rest of my career and prevent me from doing anything else, I would sign that contract this moment.
Coming up in the School of Aaron Sorkin Delivery of Fast-Paced Dialogue and Hyper-Articulateness prepared me well for Shondaland, where there are many of the same factors at play.
I tend to not wallow too much in sentiment if I can avoid it.
Aaron Sorkin has been incredibly good to me; I don't know that I would have an acting career without him. Thanks to him, people think I'm smart and nice, but I'm neither.
I always wanted to be an actor. It sort of prevented that whole - I never had any of that kind of angsty period old and doing musicals at camp and community theater and plays at school; it was just always what I most enjoyed and always what I intended to pursue.
It would be a disappointment for me to take a job, as often happens, having to shoot out-of-town and not where I live.
I'm incapable of truly relaxing. I remember when I was younger and less wise or experienced, actors that I knew would always talk about jobs ending and wondering whether they were ever going to work again. Now that's my life.
I've been on plenty of things that never took off, and I've been on one thing, 'The West Wing,' that was a big hit, but took off well before I was on it.
I always wanted to be an actor.
With 'Scandal,' I was there from the beginning. I got to experience the transformation from its initial slow start to the water-cooler hit it became. I have thoroughly enjoyed the ride, and am deeply grateful for it. I can't believe how often people stop me on the street to talk about it.
I actually grew up in the 'burbs - New Rochelle, specifically, most famously home to Rob and Laura Petrie of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show.'
When I came on 'The West Wing,' I jumped onto something that was already a steaming locomotive of a hit. It was very exciting for me because I knew, the moment I got the 'West Wing' job, 'Well, hey, so now I'm on a hit show because it already is established and very popular.'
As far as exercise, I play a lot of lacrosse and rugby, and I'm an avid distance swimmer. Nope, none of that is true. I do walk a lot, though.
I'm proud of my work, and I try my best.
I'm a provocateur.
I have a very thick skin altogether - surprisingly, many actors are rather fragile, but I get that of the 10 million people watching an episode, probably 3 million hate me, and I'm comfortable with that.
I delight in embarrassing somebody else.
I grew up and I was weaned on the Marx Brothers. They were sort of my all-time favorite. My parents showed me their movies when I was very young. And as I got older, I became a Charlie Chaplin fan, and I love Buster Keaton.
'Backwash' is an old-school, slapstick-y romp between three eccentric loser friends who inadvertently rob a bank, armed solely with a salami and a sweat sock, and then find themselves on the run pursued by singing cops. It's kind of a classic piece, a sophisticated piece, if you will.
I knew I wanted to be an actor, and my mother said, 'Call Aaron Sorkin.' It seemed dubious that I'd make it as an actor by calling Jews I knew, but it worked.
I won't divulge the details, but there's a way to call somebody's phone and have whatever number you want appear on the caller I.D. so that the call you're making appears to be coming from someone else.
My dad in particular I tend to use - I call him 'The Brain.' If he's accessible, I'd rather put it through his brain. My wife, Melissa, maintains that the closer he is in proximity to me, the less I think for myself. And I think she's actually correct. So anything worth mulling over, I will mull over with my father, and that includes ratings.
For better or worse, I have a lot of vaudeville circus skills that you just can't showcase in Aaron Sorkin's work.
There are many, many, actors with whom I'd like to share a stage or a set.
My children are largely unimpressed with what I do for a living. I wouldn't have it any other way.
A lot of shows, things will just simmer and simmer and maybe never explode into the open, or only risk exploding into the open when it's clear that the series has gotten to its endgame. So I'm always impressed - but not surprised - when 'Scandal' just completely goes for it.
It's very easy to divide a long shoot day into 15 or 20 rounds of 'What do I eat next?'
Jon Favreau hates me.
I'm in a profession where if you're planning more than six months ahead, you're doing it wrong!
I like to put shaving cream in the door handle of people's cars and that kind of thing.
I like the concept of escalating warfare, but you need someone to fight back in order for things to escalate. If there's no confrontation or argument going on, it's too dull for me. I think that's the nature of the prankster: Things are too quiet. What can I do?
You can never entirely rest comfortably with Michael Black or Michael Paynes.
Now everybody's got a video camera, so go make videos with your friends or see if you can get a part in a film school thing that's being done.
Any celebrity that goes on Twitter and spouts off, as if we should care what they say, is opening himself or herself up to ridicule by anyone else.
I plan someday to do a one-man show based solely on the e-mails of Bellamy Young. And people will think I've written a brilliant comedy myself when, in fact, all the text will be directly from Bellamy.
My dad is a very good sounding board. He's very, very smart. Both of my parents are very, very sharp, much smarter than I, I'm happy to acknowledge.
I actually have, in all seriousness, in the back of my mind someday to write a book, the title of which would be 'Quit Now and Other Practical Advice for the Aspiring Actor.'
