[on his character Jayne Cobb in Firefly (2002)] Jayne for me is the role of a lifetime...he could be good, funny, bad, selfish or a slob-that guy can do no wrong! Show less «

We all felt unique and lucky working on a Kubrick movie, but everyone's human. It's not like we got there with these expectations that we'd be working with Kubrick, the master, the God. He's only human. Familiarity breeds contempt. We just wanted to know when it was gonna be done, and he would just say, "I don't know." We were young and unwise. We didn't know it would end at some point, but we should have realized. We should have enjoyed it while we were there. Show less «

I need my comfort zone. I think I blew out my ears listening to Led Zeppelin in my headphones, living in my basement apartment, so I don't hear too well in crowds. I like having conversations where I don't need to go, "Huh? What?" Show less «

What I try to do is to appreciate every job I have while I'm working on it. [Stanley] Kubrick taught me that on Full Metal Jacket. He said I wasn't patient enough. We were a bunch of cocky young actors. "We're in a Kubrick film! We've made it!" Big arrogant fat-headed idiots in green fatigues. I'll always reflect back on that. He showed me you should appreciate what you have while you have it. Show less «

(2009, on Drillbit Taylor) There's a little clip out there on YouTube if you Google "Drillbit Taylor Bodyguard interview." Steve Brill, Michael J. Fox, Richard Dean Anderson, and I would all play hockey in a local actors' league together. Steve knew me from that, so he threw me in for a cameo. But I had to convince them it would be okay to let me wear the My Bodyguard jacket, which I still have. Their idea was to throw me in that cameo montage, but I figure if I'm gonna do it, I might as well do the character with the dirty white T-shirt and the jacket. It's a laugh for the parents taking their kids to see the movie who saw My Bodyguard in theaters. A friend of mine said, "Oh! I laughed when I saw it. My kids didn't get it, but I did." Show less «

[on winning the role of Jayne Cobb on Firefly (2002)] I'm under the impression that getting the job was an outlet from having done some guest work on The X Files (1993). I was in kind of a funky stage in my life. My kids were young, I was hanging out with them, playing a little golf. Being a slacker. My manager called up and said I had to meet the guys from X-Files. I'd auditioned for the Robert Patrick role, but I guess I was wrong for it. Wrong age, wrong type, or just too tall for Gillian Anderson. They liked the audition, though. They brought me back for something else, so Joss [Whedon] had seen my work on the network. So I was on their list, too. I read for him. It went by pretty quick. You read two scenes; if they like you, they test you within a week, and bang, you're off and running. I remember that Joss knew we were under the gun [with "Firefly"] from the get-go, because they weren't too thrilled with the pilot. So they gave us Fridays at 8 p.m.; they didn't want to use the two-hour pilot, because it wasn't finished. That's a reminder that you don't want to give your boss an unfinished product. There was a battle sequence that was supposed to open the show that wasn't in the pilot, so I guess it felt kind of plodding. We were thrown into a perfect storm of baseball playoffs and American Idol's first season. [A.V. Club interview, February 2, 2009] Show less «

It was never the fame or fortune that drove me to act. It was something I love and enjoy doing it. A lot of people identify who they are by what they do and that's not me. It's what I do but not who I am. Who I am is a parent. I'm a family man. Show less «

(2009, on Angel) [Joss Whedon] would come by and say hi, but he never directed episodes. That was a job where I called him up and said, "Dude, I need a job." That was early '04. Firefly was cancelled in '02, and '03 was a tough year for me. I needed a job. There just wasn't a lot of work to be found. I did video game work and some Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon voiceover work. That's what saved my nut. Joss was kind enough to come along and give me a cool part. He has been very good to me. He's pretty loyal that way, if you don't piss him off too much.I love [David] Boreanaz. I think he's a sweetheart. Real professional. One of those jobs where the crew has been together forever. There were some hot girls on there, too. J. Richards and Amy Acker and Andy Hallett were all really great. Show less «

[on moving from the series Firefly (2002) to the movie Serenity (2005)] It fit like a glove. I still had the boots from the series. I slipped right back into those, and a couple of the T-shirts. We upgraded them a little bit, and put on some cooler beltwork and weaponry. The gun sling that the prop guy made for the movie used a quick-release parachute capo. That was pretty cool. It was great to have that group back again, because at that point, we all appreciated what it was. It was probably the most fun job I've ever worked on. It was so sweet. Such redemption. I'm sorry the movie didn't make more money at the theaters. If we'd had three more million viewers for the show, we'd still be on the air, and if we'd had three million more butts in the seats, we'd probably have made a sequel or two. ... I think the movie title was also kind of misleading. I mean, Serenity is the right title, but also the wrong title. It sounds like a yoga class to the uninitiated. Also, the movie is much darker than the series. There wasn't as much camp and fun. That may have hurt it too. (A.V. Club interview, February 2, 2009) Show less «

[on the cancellation of Firefly (2002)] We were all heartbroken. It was a heartbreaker because we all understood how many stories there were to be told. Show less «

(2009, on Day Break) Long hours, night shoots; when we came out and our ratings were low, we thought we were under the gun. I think what hurt the show was that it didn't have enough of a sense of fun. No sense of humor. Too dark and brooding to hold an audience. There's not a lot of real estate out there when it's up against baseball and Dancing With The Stars and American Idol. It's also a complicated storyline. You come in two episodes late and you'll go "Huh?" But I think it holds up well as a box set. Show less «

(2009, on Chuck) The role came up in the normal process of television pilot season. Before that, I'd been on a few series which had gone half a season. So I just went in after Day Break went down, and back into normal casting sessions. Chuck bit-apparently [co-creator] Josh Schwartz and everyone liked my work. They were rooting for me. It was nice to see Zack Levi at the testing session. He's tall, about 6'3", I'm 6'4", so when you're cast opposite people of the same height, it's helpful. Especially for the cinematographer. I don't want them to carry around an apple box, and I don't want to have to carry around a shovel. Show less «

(2009, on My Bodyguard) I like to think about that as the role that saved my sanity. I was having a tough time in high school, as most people do. Acting had always been the social scene I'd fallen into. It was sort of a merry band of band geeks and theater nerds. They were a rambunctious band of misfits, and they were very forgiving of your screw-ups. That show came along, and I auditioned for it just as a stupid high-school kid, and went through some screen tests. There were yesses and nos and we're-not-sure's. And then they gave it to me.I never thought I'd get the part. It was May 1979, and they'd sent out some guys from local agencies to find high-school kids, and the guy that came to our school auditioned about 30 of us. I tried on a lark, he called five or 10 of us back to talk to the casting director at the Ambassador East, and they just sort of weeded it down. They tried a lot of different cities, though. Dallas, L.A., Toronto, New York. But they wanted to shoot in Chicago. But maybe it came down to the fact that they could pay me scale. They saved a lot of money on me, I'm sure, because I could live at home and commute by train.Fifty-two days of shooting in the summer of '79, which was the summer of Breakfast In America by Supertramp. In Through The Out Door by Led Zeppelin. I had tickets, but Bonham died. That's how I remember it music-wise. The visceral remembrances were very heartfelt. We shot a lot in the Lincoln Park Zoo, and I understand that whole lakefront area is completely transformed. There's an ape house there or something. I haven't been back, but I hear you couldn't reshoot that scene if you wanted to now. Show less «

[on acting] 'A lot of people identify who they are by what they do and that's not me. It's what I do, but not who I am. Who I am is a parent. I'm a family man!' Show less «

The inspiration for Jayne Cobb... I had just been trying to do Warren Oates from The Wild Bunch (1969) meets Eli Wallach from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Guys like that. Those are guys I was trying to impersonate, mixed in with some Strother Martin. Those are great Western guys. I just always approached it as a Western, with that sensibility. You can shoot someone in the back and rationalize it, because you're out on the frontier, and survival of the fittest. No honor among thieves. It was up to Joss [Whedon] to infuse him with a little bit of a heart of gold and honor for [Nathan Fillion's character] Mal. The rest of them, he could take or leave them. And later I saw _Alien (1979)_ again, and it turns out I was just doing Yaphet Kotto. Show less «

It's great to be able to pretend you're tough but funny at the same time. Dry humor. The straight man is already kind of in my wheelhouse. It's a pleasure to play that. I'm not one to start rambling on a Neil Simon soliloquy. I'm no Jack Lemmon. The guys I grew up with, my cinematic heroes, have always been men of few words, but of action. Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach. Show less «