Jeff Perry

Gary Sinise and I go the furthest back of the Steppenwolf people; we were both saved from academic mediocrity as sophomores by being cast in 'West Side Story' by this transformationally beautiful teacher named Barbara Patterson.

When I was in high school, the drama teacher picked me to play Iago in 'Othello.'

I got to meet one Chief of Staff: Sam Skinner. He was Chief of Staff at the end of George Sr.'s White House.

There's something terribly solitary about working in movies and television, and in New York, so much of the theater is showcasing.

I've been such a fan of American TV.

A fuel of discontent and anxiety is probably pretty central to the fuel at 'Scandal!'

This kind of one-on-one connection of tweeting, I've really grown to get a kick out of.

Television is so neat; I grew up doing theater, and I've done a bit of film. I know I'm stating the obvious, but it's a unique storytelling form in that it's able to constantly evolve.

Everything about camera movement, about how film was made, shot architecture, and time management... I was horrible at all that.

I don't have much estimation of my abilities as a director, but I found I loved class and loved process and loved practice. And so I've put together classes of actors - oh my God - since I was 21 years old, I think.

To have a drama teacher as a mentor was just like, 'Oh, what a gift.'

We actors are an especially superstitious lot.

During 'Anna Christie,' the biggest challenge I had was working with my daughter and sort of not stopping and asking an audience member for a camera to record the moment.

I was one of the artistic directors of the Steppenwolf Theatre, which me and many dear buddies started all the way back in 1974, and I have a lot of that in my makeup.

Most actors will tell you this - I don't really know how to connect, empathize with, or make worthy of any revelation a character that doesn't have love in there somewhere, that doesn't have an idealism or an empathy in there somewhere.

Most actors will tell you, when they've got emotional stuff that's hard to carry around for hours and hard to try to do justice too, it just beats your butt.

I get people saying, 'Opera is too large a canvas for me. I don't love it. I love movies that feel almost like documentaries,' in terms of artistic vocabularies of storytelling. I totally get that discussion; that makes sense to me.

I'm pretty peaceful and calm and sweet.

I feel gigantic affection for all of Homeland Security at airports.

I went from rotary phone to Twitter. And was appalled at the notion.

I've been blessed. Starting with Steppenwolf Theater and onward, learning from wonderful actors and getting to play with wonderful actors.

Actors usually respond to minor aspects of their own character or things that even feel disparate from themselves.