I do spend a lot of weekends on the road. I have to pace myself. It can be pretty busy, but I'm not out in the Afghan desert with 70 pounds on my back, away from my family for a year at a time. I keep a good perspective on it.
It's always been my dream to do a dance scene with Anthony Hopkins.
'The Stand' came out in May of '94 and was seen by 60 million people a night for four nights, and then two months later, 'Forrest Gump' opened. So within a very short time, I went from being depressed about not getting any work to being in two of the most popular shows of the year.
Wherever I go for the military, they always call me Lt. Dan. They just can't help it.
You learn from things that don't go well, and you try to capitalize when they do. You build on those strengths and try to make your weaknesses stronger.
Before discovering theater, I was sloughing off and didn't have any passion for school. Then I couldn't get enough. All of a sudden, I was getting good parts in all of these plays. I just loved it. I started getting A's in acting, directing and technical theater. I found something that clicked.
There's always the ongoing actor frustration of finding the great role to do next. I don't go to work a lot. I wait as long as I can until the money runs out or a great part comes along.
The chance to play a romantic character who kisses somebody onscreen was one of the elements that made me want to do 'The Stand.' The more you can do, the better, and I've been known as a character actor.
If you're missing three or four limbs, you have special challenges going forward. And the last thing you want is to not be independent in your home.
Unless you have a long-running series, most actors just go job to job if you're lucky to keep working. You just do a movie or a play or a TV thing, and it's over at some point.
I have a band that I started with a buddy of mine, a Vietnam veteran pal named Kimo Williams from Chicago.
I think you're lucky if you discover what you really love at a young age. College wasn't something I was going to do. I wanted to keep acting, and I didn't want to go to New York or California and pound the pavement.
I'm not registered to any party. I don't really play in the political world. I'm really more interested in getting things done.
Careers, like rockets, don't always take off on time. The trick is to always keep the engine running.
The University of Southern California has a wonderful social work department, and I was thrilled to find out that they have a whole veterans' initiative program there. They approached me, and I set up a scholarship that would go to a military-oriented person to learn techniques and skills to better help veterans.
I started a theater called Steppenwolf. We've been very supportive of the veterans there.
I started as an actor. I started directing because Steppenwolf needed another strong director.
Yeah, I volunteered to support the troops, and get out there and show them that we care about them.
My mission is to support our service members. They're volunteers, and if they're going to go to a hostile place like Afghanistan, I think we owe it to them to back them up and try to help them get through it.
The wonderful drama teacher at my high school, Barbara Patterson, saw me standing in the hall and told me I should audition for 'West Side Story.' I guess she thought I looked like a gang member.
