I was a typical boy growing up, even though I wasn't particularly outgoing or chatty. I loved running around and playing football. My siblings and I are only a year apart in age, so we played together. Sometimes it was good being so close, sometimes it wasn't - like when they'd steal my candy and toys.

I'm very critical of myself.

I just take it one day at a time. Austin Powers has given me a lot of opportunities as far as my career.

In the film, I'm not very mobile, like in the space suit.

I came from a middle-class family. My dad was a professor; my mom was a nurse. I didn't come from money, and I didn't come from circles of power. I didn't come from the country club; I came from the town park.

I am fourth-generation deaf, which means everyone in my immediate family is deaf. So I grew up always having 100 percent accessibility to language and communication, which was wonderful and something so many deaf people don't have.

To be honest, after you've crossed the line at the Olympic Games, it is bedlam for the next, about, five or six hours. Media, press conference, dope control - you might get some food if you're lucky. You might see family if you're lucky.

The reason that it's so easy to go out there and be me - warts and all, critics and everything - is because my family and my career are the only two things that really matter in the big circle of life.