I’m torn about late parenting. I believe people should spend their twenties living and having fun and not having any regrets later. I also think people in their thirties generally make better parents but so many of my friends are having trouble – myself included – as fathers get older.
At home in L.A., Sunday is lazy. It’s the wife and me lying in bed with coffee, watching ‘The Soup’ or something funny on TiVo. The kid will occasionally join us. Eventually, breakfast is at a place down the street called Paty’s. And we always have some kind of great dinner – my wife makes a great roast beef.
Most people, if you live in a big city, you see some form of schizophrenia every day, and it’s always in the form of someone homeless. ‘Look at that guy – he’s crazy. He looks dangerous.’ Well, he’s on the streets because of mental illness. He probably had a job and a home.
Mental illness is the last frontier. The gay thing is part of everyday life now on a show like ‘Modern Family,’ but mental illness is still full of stigma. Maybe it is time for that to change.
Growing up, my father was a financial analyst for an oil company. He was just a regular dad. And when I would say, ‘Hey, come see my play,’ he’d say, ‘Sure.’ He’d see one, ‘Oh, good play’ – you know, very typical dad reaction.
I never felt cool growing up. I was a bit of an outsider, but I discovered theatre very early on, which got me through.
That’s an amazing feeling, to walk onstage, and you’re not thinking about anything, you’re not thinking about your lines or what you’re supposed to do – your body, your brain knows, so there’s freedom. There’s not fear, there’s not nerves.