I went to work in accounting at Arthur Andersen. At one point, it was the creme de la creme. I wanted to work there because it looked like the hardest thing I could find, and I loved being on a steep learning curve. I progressed quickly, and two years out of college, I was managing a small team of people.
I get stubborn and dig in when people tell me I can't do something and I think I can. It goes back to my childhood when I had problems in school because I have a learning disability.
My career actually started in the second grade as class clown. That's no joke. I was always making people laugh, and it was really to mask a learning disability... When it came time for me to read out loud, I would crack jokes or create a diversion.
The only thing I learnt in high school is that people are very violent and territorial.
Most people I work with are older than me and the main thing I've learnt is that everyone is a dumb as an 18-year-old.
When you're 22, 23, living in New York, you're just scrambling to live on people's couches and in rooms that you're sure you're not supposed to be in. You're not on the lease; you're paying weird amounts of money every month trying to make it happen.
Trumpeting the importance of voting deludes people into thinking that they have a leash on the government.
When I think about it, the happiest and most successful people I know don't just love what they do, they're obsessed with solving something that matters to them. They remind me of a dog chasing a tennis ball: Their eyes go a little crazy, the leash snaps and they go bounding off, plowing through whatever gets in the way.
The best way to put the federal bureaucracy back on a leash is to make it obey the laws the people write.
I'm not saying I'm wealthy. The best thing that ever happened to me in that context was turning everything over to Rita. And the business people. I am on a leash. That's not the end of the world.
It's fun playing villains. It's people who are not held by any moral constraints - or any constraints, for that matter. It's a chance to be completely off the leash and do things that you never could in real life.
People don't want to hear about me having leather walls or gold toilets.
I don't want to look at other people my age in leather. Why would I put it on?
Alaskans are basically 'leave me alone' type people who respect and embrace different strokes.
People have come to me for my opinion since 'October Baby.' But, hey, look, I'm an actor who is very fortunate to be in a movie that's making wonderful noise, and hopefully helping parents and children to be a little closer. Leave me alone. I'm not talking about politics. I'm just trying to have a conversation with my own kids.
Here in Denmark, you can easily just be left alone. This is my 'hood, and people leave me alone; it's nice.
If I were to have seen more people that looked like me - because I'm Palestinian and Lebanese - and talked like me and acted like me, I probably would have had a lot more hope knowing that I wasn't alone. I really hope that this show, 'Champions,' gives that to people.
Yeah, I play a lot of point guard. LeBron plays a lot of point guard. A lot of people are thinking too much on positions.
The way I look at it is, when you allow people to submerge themselves into a story, they will react by thinking through what it's about. That's just so much more fun and effective, I think, than a lecture.
This is unusual for me. I have given readings and not lectures. I have told people who ask for lectures that I have no lecture to give. And that is true.
