The dream, I think, with any project is it starts with an idea, and then somebody writes it, and the writer hopes that a director comes on and makes this piece of material visual, and both the director and writer hope that they can have actors come in and bring something to it that neither one of them expected, elevating it along the way.
— Max Greenfield
I'm very married.
I think everything is its own beast. I think every project has its own unique insanity, and I think that's what's really fun about it.
'Acceptance' is always a good word.
I'd actually love to play Sonny in 'Dog Day Afternoon' now that it's being adapted for Broadway. People don't talk about that movie that much, but it's really a beautiful gay love story.
I always tell people I'm not one of these guys that was, like, born with, like, a halfway decent body.
I just felt like actors - I watched a lot of 'SNL,' and those guys just seemed like they were superheroes - that that wasn't a reality for anyone other than people with superhuman strength. So, I mean, I acted a little bit in high school, but the idea of doing it professionally was just never really an option.
When you get to Heaven, God points you to the all-Entenmann's craft service and says, 'You can eat all you want, and you don't gain any weight.'
Making a pilot is never a seamless process. If it is, it usually tanks.
I love Jonathan Adler but more importantly I love throws. To clarify, a throw is not to be confused with a blanket. A blanket is to be slept under, a throw is to accent a chair or sofa and give the illusion that in some scenario someone might rest underneath it. In reality, this scenario does not exist and I never want it to.
I literally have over a thousand emails in my inbox that need to be returned. I'm sure all of my friends and certain family members are like, 'Oh, look who got nominated for an Emmy and doesn't want to write me an email back!' I need a good few hours to just sit and get on the phone.
Pilots are so hard because you have to introduce all these characters, you have to hook an audience, and an audience has such a smaller attention span than maybe they used to have.
I'm just not one of these guys who, like, you know, woke up with a six-pack. I need Skittles. I have to eat very particularly and I have to work out like a madman. And then it looks like... okay.
I think the most important foundation about any relationship is just being honest. You've got to. My wife and I are honest to a fault with each other, and we're best friends on top of it, so we're very fortunate.
If you knew my wife, you'd be like, 'Yeah, you're very married.' She runs the household. I refer to her as 'the greatest director I've ever worked with.'
So when you go to a set and you just fully trust everybody, you know how hard everybody's working, you know that the people doing it are good and have such a strong vision - that's exactly my experience on 'New Girl,' and what my experience on 'Veronica Mars' was like. Everybody was just so great.
What's fun about 'New Girl' is that when we sit down for a table read, we are always in the mind-set of, 'Well, wonder what this is gonna be like!'
Before 'New Girl,' I had just been grinding in TV for a really long time. I had been testing for so many shows and not getting them. You don't know how difficult it is or how lucky you have to be - and I only say lucky because there are so many people out there - to get a show on the air and keep it going.
There are extraordinary positives and advantages to Facebook and social media and things that genuinely do bring us together. With that comes the horrible negatives of it, but I don't think social media is going anywhere.
You don't want to leave 'what if's in life.
If the gay community thinks you're doing a good job, you're in. I don't think anything gets done in this business without the gay community - at least not anything good.
I lived with a bunch of guys for about a year in L.A. when I was younger. But I never had a weird roommate situation.
Early success is really scary. Especially in acting.
Having worked with Sarah Paulson on 'American Horror Story: Hotel' and seeing the lengths she goes to when shooting a scene, you go, 'Oh, so that's what this is going to be like.'
In my latter years I've decided that there's too much to keep track of when you go into the lying game. That becomes stressful and it's not for me anymore.
It is crazy. It's our first kid, and all of a sudden, she identifies letters as what they are, and you go, 'This kid is a genius - she's obviously some sort of savant!'
I just never want to be in this situation where I get to set and they're like, 'We rewrote this scene, you're now naked.' I need a little prep work.
When I'm in the car sometimes it's like, 'Yeah, man, just put on the pop music.' You know what I mean? I don't want to listen to Tom Waits.
I always feel like people in general are much weirder and insane than anybody really wants to admit. How dare somebody watch anything and go, 'That's not real!' Go on the subway. For five minutes.
For a girl, the wedding is when you're married. For a guy, it's when you get engaged. It takes a real aggressive human being to back out between the ring and the wedding.
George Wendt is a saint. And one of the finest American actors that we have.
I'm Jewish and my wife isn't so right now we're literally decorating a Christmas tree with Jewish stars draped around it.
I hate to give myself credit for anything, but I will say I really enjoy, as an actor, and especially with comedy stuff, playing with different rhythms and with different ways around a joke. There's always an obvious route, and there's one that maybe is a little bit different.
You do 'New Girl,' you play a character like Schmidt, you crave as an actor afterwards to just do something different.
'New Girl' was a wonderful experience, but for seven years, we were shooting single-cam that is not handheld, that is traditionally shot, and they're asking you to improv, and you're on location. It's a real grind.
My parents were involved in the record industry, so I was exposed to the arts very early.
I'd much rather look adorkable than cool.
My parents were the best. They were very supportive.
Having two kids is like having 1000. It's just scheduling, moving around, being mobile.
Shows like 'All in the Family' and now 'Mom' - there's a tradition of tackling real issues.
During a panic attack, I remember that today is just today and that is all that it is. I take a deep breath in and I realize that in this moment I am fine and everything is okay. More importantly, I am reminded that my A.P.C. jeans are so perfectly worn in that they are appropriate for any season and I am suddenly at ease.
I remember having a feeling like, 'I can't believe this is happening!' Two years ago I was auditioning for The Disney Channel, and now Paul Rudd is saying, 'Hey man, congratulations on your Emmy nomination!'
Yeah, a lot of people ask me to take my shirt off, which is aggressive. I wish that I were just one of those guys who was just like, 'You know, look, when I was seven I had a six-pack, and it just never went away.'
Here's what's nice about life: Sometimes you have ideas and for the most part, they're not good ones. And then you'll follow through with a handful of them and sometimes you'll be pretty disappointed. And then other times you'll follow through and you'll go, 'You know what? It's nice to be right.'
There's nothing worse than walking around and talking about your failed relationship, all day, every day, for months on end.
I think L.A. gets a bad rap. L.A. is the same as everywhere else.
Another show I really enjoyed working on was 'Raising The Bar.' I did four or five episodes of that show.
I love Twitter. My favorite thing to do these days is to tweet things that seem very questionable as to whether I'm joking or not.
