Alzheimer's is a devastating disease. It was painful for me and my family to watch my grandfather deteriorate. We must find a cure for this horrible disease. |
August was horse-racing time. The only time we'd ever go to the track is sometimes in the morning, when the horses would be working out. |
Both my parents had a strong influence on my sense of humor and my ending up in this profession. They both had terrific and very different senses of humor. Mom had a very dry, deadpan sense of humor. My Dad has a very wet, anything-goes kind of humor. He tends toward the wild and crazy. |
By the time the disease was through with him, he no longer knew how to move a chess piece or to put together a simple child's model boat, |
Don't you always feel bad when they take away one of the spoons? It's like you ordered wrong. |
From Kelsey, I have learned among many other things the value of turning on a dime and how you can have an extremely funny and extremely poignant moment with absolutely no separation in between... and sometimes in the same moment. |
I am, by nature, a fairly shy person, and one of the things I had to learn was, when you're on a popular show and people feel they know you, what used to pass for shyness can be perceived as rude. I do feel more vulnerable, but people are always nice. Nobody ever comes up and throws food on me and says the show is crap. |
I consciously or subconsciously draw on whatever attributes are most appropriate to the character and just heighten them. |
I did a big movie this summer, during my hiatus. That's really the time when I can do anything where I have a large part. That was Down With Love, an homage to the Rock Hudson-Doris Day films. |
I do know that if you're able to laugh in a situation, it means you have perspective on the situation... that you're not swallowed up by it. On some level, you can keep your head above water enough to see the humor in something. Being able to have a sense of humor in dark times is an indication that you can make it. |
I don't have the time to tell you all the things I've learned from this cast. It's an extraordinary ensemble because we all support each other so well. |
I don't remember any sibling rivalry growing up, because by the time I was really conscious, Tom was going away to college. My relationship with him, which is a very close one, really developed in more recent years. |
I had always acted for fun, and I wanted to do that. I really didn't have the talent. I loved to play, but that's a whole different level. |
I had done voiceover for a Simpson's episode, and I also did some for the HBO show Puss N Boots that was set in Hawaii. |
I probably was as bad as a security guard as I was as a tie salesman. |