By starrymag | January 12, 2014

Q) What are some of your most recent projects?

 

A) I just recently did a Christmas movie called Snow that aired on the ABC channel with Tom Cavanaugh from “Ed” and Ashley Williams who was on “Good Morning Miami.” We shot that up in Toronto last summer, but it just aired every other minute over Christmas.

 

Q) What is it like working on the set of the show “Joan of Arcadia”?

 

A) It is a really good show to be on! The best thing about “Joan” is Amber Tamblyn. It’s sort of like that old saying, “The fish stinks from the head down.” Amber is such a professional and such a joy to work with and she’s so nice. It makes working on the set fantastic. Not to mention, when I go to work I get to work with Joe Mantegna and Mary Steenburgen and the producer Barbara Hall (who already has “Judging Amy” on the air and has done many other projects before that). It’s fun to go to work, which is a rare thing to say, but every time you get the call to come in to work it is always enjoyable. The crew has been together for two years and we all like each other. It sounds sappy, but it is really fun. I have been on things before that isn’t so great, so I am happy to work on this project.

 

Q) What is a typical day like for you on the set of the show?

 

A) I have it pretty easy, even if I’m working heavy (which means I am in a lot of scenes). One of the best things about the day is that we shoot at the Sony lot, over in Culver City, and as an actor I still get such a kick out of driving through the gate and having the guy find out that you are on the list and you get to drive on to the lot! You get to drive through this big gate, they have all these huge movie posters and they have big sound stages there. We were working there last year and they were shooting Spiderman 2 on the sound stages. I’d be walking to work and poke my head in and you’d see Metropolis. It reminded me of the magic of being in the movies, which is really fun!

 

Q) What is it like working with a cast so young and diverse?

 

A) When I first got cast on it, I was under the illusion that I was still in high school. When I auditioned for it, I thought I might be auditioning for the part of the young gym teacher fresh out of college and instead I go in for the Vice Principal who literally wears tweed jackets with patches on the sleeves. I was like, wait a second, I’m not that guy! I’m the Coors Light guy, aren’t I? That was kind of odd at first. The kids who are playing the kids, are kids and some of them are just recently turning 18, 19 and 21. It’s funny to watch them go through success at that age. Mary and Joe are much more experienced and the stories that they talk about, I don’t think most of the people that play the high school kids even know whom they are talking about. I am sort of in between. I’m hip enough to know what music the kids are listening to, but my heart is still listening to The Beatles and Rolling Stones.

 

Q) What is your favorite moment from filming “Joan?”

 

A) The whole process is great! It is so fun to get in there and get into hair and makeup and get on set. It’s always fun when we can break each other up. I remember one time we had kind of a heavy scene and Mary Steenburgen comes in with Amber Tamblyn. Mary plays a teacher on the show and she came in to my office to yell at me and to sort of bitch slap me because I was being mean to her daughter, and we did take after take. It’s a heavy scene so we tried to keep the small talk to a minimum. I asked for one more take and the producer, who was also the director, James Hayman, was very accommodating. All of a sudden Mary delivers this line where she says, “Tell her. Tell her.” She’s dead serious and I look at her and tell her, “I love it when you yell at me!” Then I leaned over and kissed her right on the mouth! So we had some gag reel action that day!

 

Q) Do you prefer drama roles to other facets?

 

A) The stock answer is that I love them both, but what I am finding out is that I am getting cast more often than not in the last few years as a meanie. I always think of myself as being Mr. Bubbly, sort of the guy next door, but I’m getting cast more as a guy in a suit with a sharp tongue. I was just on “Will and Grace” and I was playing your basic boy next door, bubbly charming guy.

 

Q) You were a part of the much loved show “Saved By the Bell.” What was it like working on such an iconic show?

 

A) It was so funny. I got a couple of gifts this year and all of them were “Saved By the Bell: The College Years,” which are all out on DVD this year. Buy them as soon as you can! It was really fun, mostly because I had never watched the original “Saved By the Bell,” which aired on Saturday morning. It was off of my radar, therefore, I had no idea what I was getting into. The first time of taping, they started introducing the cast and of course the studio audience starts going nuts. It’s like The Beatles have shown up and it was really amazing. They handled themselves so well, considering the pressure that was going on because Mark Paul and Tiffany and Mario would enter and people would swoon and scream. They would thank them, but they had to tell the audience to be quiet during their entrances and then they’d be willing to sign everything for them. They really worked with the audience in a great way and at the end they’d sign anything that the audience had for them. They were really gracious. I had no idea what I was getting into. The first week, I got two garbage bags full of mail saying how cute I was and they wanted to study anthropology. When I’m walking through airports and stuff, I still get guys that come up to me and say, “Hey dude, you kissed Kelly!” After the day I kissed Kelly on the show, I literally got like four bags of mail the next week and it was all hate mail. I was once again reminded of the power of television.

 

Q) You were recently on an episode of “Will and Grace.” What was filming that episode like for you?

 

A) It was so fun and I know them all! I auditioned for the role of Will way back seven years ago. It was kind of weird step on the set and go, “Oh, maybe I would have been Will.” But, of course, Eric McCormack is the perfect Will. I know Eric, Debra, Megan and Shawn socially, but it was also easy since they are well-oiled show. They are so funny and so nice. We just laughed and laughed the entire week. I thought this was the kind of job you want, you want the kind of job where you get to laugh all week and they still pay you. They were really really nice people.

 

Q) Why did you decide to get into acting?

 

A) It is one of those things you just fall in to sometimes. I was a musician in high school, I used to play in all the bands and sing in all of the choruses. They had play auditions and musical auditions. I got on stage and saw that I seemed to have an aptitude for it. I went to college and studied it. I liked it and was serious about it. I think my father still thinks I’ll go back and get a degree in English at some point!

 

Q) What has been the highlight of your long lasting career?

 

A) The first would be that I got to do a play on Broadway called “The Food Chain” by Nicky Silver. I think nothing could be better for an actor than every night signing in by 7:30PM because you are working on one of the stages that happens to be on the island of Manhattan. It’s amazing taking a cab up or grabbing the subway, running through 42^nd Street to get over to the theater to sign in, doing a show for live other people and then head out to dinner and then run into your fellow actors/actresses. It can’t be beat! The other thing about being an actor comes from when I did an episode of “Xena: The Warrior Princess.” To work on “Zena” you have to fly to New Zealand, all the way down to the end of the Earth. You get down there and you are the American who has come down to work and they are very excited to see anybody new on the island. You hang out for two weeks and they give you a great apartment. I got to wear leather pants, kiss Zena and beat up the bad guys and I couldn’t think of a better job.

 

Q) Do you have any advice for up and coming actors/actresses?

 

A) Stay true to your dreams. Stay true to your heart, but also understand that is really really hard and you have to work hard. You don’t just find yourself on the cover of People magazine. You have to work hard. It’s a very rough rejectable business. My biggest piece of advice would be to study. Study in college, while you are in class, but always be working on your craft.

 

Q) You have worked with Tom Cavanaugh, Debra Messing, Amber Tamblyn and so many more amazing celebrities. Who would you most like to work with in the future?

 

A) Well, Salma Hayek always comes to mind when you ask a question like that! I didn’t get to work with Kiefer Southerland when I worked on “24.” I didn’t actually get to have any scenes with him and I was sort of bummed out about that. I think he’s a really good actor and a good guy. Obviously, I’d love to work with people like Sean Penn and I just watched Punch Drunk Love, and I’m not even a huge Adam Sandler fan at all, but boy he is good in that and I thought I’d like to work with someone great like that. My all time is working with Paul Newman, but that’s reaching for the stars. 

 

Q) Your website features some great pictures of you and your dog Ruby. What is it about her that you love so much?

 

A) Every moment is brand new for her. It’s almost that I have to remind her that I am her owner, every day. She’s got so much energy, even though she’s four now, but every morning she comes in and jumps on the bed and licks me awake. Every time we’re ready to go out she just gets full of energy. She also reminds me to enjoy every moment and every day. They say dogs are very much like their owners and I think on some level I look a little bit like her, I feel like we have a similar attention span.

 

Q) What do you do in your spare time?

 

A) I am very athletic and I just did my first triathlon this year. I just did the Malibu Triathlon and I took part in the celebrity division (I had a friend who had a press agent who got me into the celebrity division, which was nice [but that basically meant I just got a nice sweatshirt]). I like the outdoors a lot. I love biking and I just did that triathlon. I swim three times a week, play tennis and golf. I do the usual sort of things for male actors in Los Angeles.

 

Q) What would you like to say to your fans and supporters?

 

A) Thank you for putting up with all the variances in my career. Keep watching because we’re one hit away from really knocking it out of the park!