I felt like I was going crazy as a kid. I wanted to be man, get a job.

It was more important to me to understand what it's like to be this Jewish kid who felt he was so different at such a young age. I feel the story is about a kid who came to hate through love, so I felt I had to learn why he loved this thing so much that he also apparently hated it.

I always wanted to entertain. When I was six, a scrawny, scrawny kid, I'd get in my red speedo and do muscle moves. I actually thought I was muscular. I didn't know everyone was laughing at me.

I did what I had to do to get where I wanted to go. I had unearned confidence.

I feel like one of the things that I watched that I felt was really helpful in some way but, more than anything, is worth mentioning was this film 'Boogie Man.' It's a documentary about Lee Atwater.

For me, I sort of felt like it was kind of a fairytale... but an interesting one. I don't know of anybody who has had a romance quite like this, but I certainly know people who have stuck it out.