As far as... what they've given me so far, in the last two movies -- I feel like I have the most kind of tortured character in the movies and so it's always great to play as an actor,

Reviews about film acting are very... tricky, because movies are such a collaborative thing.

There's a tacit belief that actors shouldn't write books, they're sort of allowed to direct movies but there will be a lot of skepticism, and they shouldn't do artwork or music. There are these invisible roadblocks to gain entree to these areas for actors, and you kind of have to crash through those invisible barriers.

When we were doing 'Freaks and Geeks', I didn't quite understand how movies and TV worked, and I would improvise even if the camera wasn't on me. I thought I was helping the other actors by keeping them on their toes, but nobody appreciated it when I would trip them up. So I was improvising a little bit back then, but not in a productive way.

What movies have you watched the most . . .?

When I went to film school about three years ago, the first two years you're required to make a series of short films. I started making films based on short poems.