I have a way of synthesizing. That's what I would encourage any young person to do: take in the ideas, the conflicts, and the world. Watch and listen and live before you go public.

I'm coming from the notion that acting is an art. It is not a business. It is about building characters, not about selling personalities.

I don't have any artifacts of my profession in my house; the Oscar is in storage.

I am constantly asked, 'What's the difference between acting in the theater and acting in film?' The only answer I can give is the space - you adapt to the space. But acting is acting.

If I had gotten the parts in 'Scream' or 'I Know What You Did Last Summer,' I would not have been very good in them, and I would've squandered whatever success I had gotten because I wasn't ready for that sort of thing. So I feel grateful for all of the years that I have behind me trying to get traction and a career.

Being an actor, in my case, any failure or success is extremely visible to a whole nation of movie-watchers.

My goal is to be the best player on the field every down and every game. If I achieve that, then I will achieve any goal I set forth.

Nashville has a formula, and it works a lot of the time, but it wasn't right for me. They're afraid to step outside the box - even though, with me, my success came because I was outside of the box to begin with.