I didn't want to do a lawyer. I didn't want to do forensics. I didn't want to work in an ER.
Mental illness is the last frontier. The gay thing is part of everyday life now on a show like 'Modern Family,' but mental illness is still full of stigma. Maybe it is time for that to change.
I hope that dog lovers around the world will support the Cruelty Free International global campaign to end the use of dogs in outdated and cruel experiments.
You can write your own history.
When you become a father, everything changes.
I have to challenge the audience.
With these scripts and these writers, so much of it is done for me. Because we don't just throw words around: we make sure the audience understands.
Growing up, my father was a financial analyst for an oil company. He was just a regular dad. And when I would say, 'Hey, come see my play,' he'd say, 'Sure.' He'd see one, 'Oh, good play' - you know, very typical dad reaction.
I needed to start pulling at this other sort of funnier, lighter side. So I auditioned for everything. I auditioned for 'Friends,' even.
I love playing anyone that does stuff that I don't do.
I think there's a certain objectivity that comes from being Canadian. You're partly British and partly American; you have a good bird's-eye view of both countries. So much of the comedy that comes out of Canada is impersonation - it's less 'look at me' than it is 'look at me playing other people.'
Certainly 'Lonesome Dove' would be way hard now, because, I mean, back then I wasn't married. I didn't have kids.
As a television actor, there's a power you're given to use your image to do something valuable. As a parent, these messages are particularly important to me.
I started to realise that it wasn't for me. Perhaps I didn't have to give my Hamlet before I died, that the world might be an OK place without my Hamlet, in fact.
Particularly in television, we can stereotype ourselves. You realize that we all have a lot of voices in our head. We have angry voices, we have voices of doubt, and we have moments of strength.
When I was 16, I'd ping pong between AC/DC and Barry Manilow without any sense of irony.
At home in L.A., Sunday is lazy. It's the wife and me lying in bed with coffee, watching 'The Soup' or something funny on TiVo. The kid will occasionally join us. Eventually, breakfast is at a place down the street called Paty's. And we always have some kind of great dinner - my wife makes a great roast beef.
I feel like 'Travelers' is something I can legitimately say, 'You're going to love this.' I think then people will accept me as a different thing. And if they don't, it's fun trying.
That was the only trepidation I had about 'Will & Grace.' It had nothing to do with the sexuality of the character. It was more, 'This could be the next 7 to 10 years of my life.'
The vote is the important thing. Just go and vote.
I like playing a character every day. I like having something to go back to. I always enjoyed that with 'Will & Grace.' I like the camaraderie. I like having a crew that I know and I can work with every day.
We see people talking to themselves all the time. We always have. Particularly if they're homeless people or at all questionable, there's a sense of, 'That guy's crazy!' I see that now with a much more empathetic eye.
I'm not sure sometimes if it was because Will was gay or it was a sitcom. But that combination does make it hard to become the new lead on the 'Sopranos.'
I think most actors go into the business thinking, 'I can play everything. Why can't I play a black woman? Just give me a chance.' Then you grow up and realize it's probably better that they cast an actual black woman.
But I was ready for it and I knew I could do it. I've just turned 40, I have a son and I feel more settled and driven than ever. I think my 40s will be my most prolific time. It's a very rare life you get to lead as a sitcom guy.
As I got older, I realized that my life experience, what I really had, was always going to be more valuable than what I pretended to have.
Most people, if you live in a big city, you see some form of schizophrenia every day, and it's always in the form of someone homeless. 'Look at that guy - he's crazy. He looks dangerous.' Well, he's on the streets because of mental illness. He probably had a job and a home.
I had played many gay characters before, but they were finite - guest characters in TV shows or characters in plays.
I think we all realize that anyone can - and has - gotten AIDS. So there's obviously still a lot to be done.
Because I had three years on 'Perception,' I think I succeeded in showing I can do other things, and I can create a different audience, even from people who loved 'Will & Grace.'
I know where TNT's sweet spot is, and when I read 'Perception,' I thought, 'This is a chance to play a fascinating, fun, challenging character but still within the realm of something that will sit very well with 'The Closer' and 'Major Crimes' and the other shows there.'
I did 'The Commish' and an episode of 'Neon Rider,' and then I got the series called 'Street Justice,' which I ended up doing about 18 episodes of.
I've had to take roles that on purpose were not Will-like so that someone like 'The Hollywood Reporter' would write, 'McCormack shows great range; no Will Truman here.'
There wasn't an episode of 'Will & Grace' that didn't begin with my voice saying, 'Will & Grace' is taped before a live studio audience.
The States doesn't think much about Canada, but we're attached. We're like Siamese twins. We can't do things - you can't roll over in the American bed without waking up the Canadians. It matters.
Not a big sci-fi guy.
I haven't had a chance to play a quiet leading man in a while.
I loved working with Cary Elwes, who is in 'The Princess Bride', one of my favorite films. He's a great guy.
'Monk''s gone, and 'House' is gone. Maybe I can pick up where they left off.
That's an amazing feeling, to walk onstage, and you're not thinking about anything, you're not thinking about your lines or what you're supposed to do - your body, your brain knows, so there's freedom. There's not fear, there's not nerves.
I think it's about finding the character you want to play and the people you want to work with.
Tom Cavanagh is fantastic.
I always kind of dreamed locally - I never really ever dream that I would be south of the border; I dreamed about being a theatre star in Toronto, and maybe I'd do Stratford and regional stuff. I always thought it would be a slow growth.
I would come home with my friend Bill, and we would sit and watch 'Get Smart.' And I was Agent 44, and he was Agent 85. And it was a fantastic - and all we wanted to do was sleep with Barbara Feldon.
I love learning language and ideas that I didn't know before and making them sound like my own.
You're damned in success a little bit.
On Netflix and other streaming services, they're taking risks that are based on 'Come with us! Come with us!' and the audience does.
As much as I loved Pacino and De Niro and wanted to be a dramatic actor, I also grew up on sitcoms. I grew up on 'M*A*S*H' and 'All In The Family' and 'Cheers.' And then around this time - this would have been '95, '96 - I was so into 'Friends' and 'Mad About You,' the idea of being on a sitcom became a very real thing that I wanted.
If we're karaoke-ing, I'm as likely to do Aerosmith as I am 'Sweeney Todd'.
