I don't want to have the bounds put on me in terms of mediums.
We're at a point right now in our development in this country - setting the immigration issue aside - that you can't ignore the sheer population of us in metropolitan areas all across the country, of how significant Latino-ness is in the United States.
The hits and the misses. I just want to keep the at-bats solid.
I am very Latino in everything I am and I do, but there's a part of me that's also something else. I'm reflective of the way this country's gonna be in the next 40 years. More multicultural is what we'll see.
As an actor, it's hard to approach any character with negatives.
When you're doing 22 shows on network television, the writers are going on vapors towards the end and, as an actor, you're just trashed by the end.
I've been lucky because I've had wonderful teachers along the way who have nurtured and pushed me to the next level.
Of course you draw from yourself, but the artistic nourishment you want to get is be versatile, do something different, and I think I got a chance to do that in a lot of different ways.
In my college years, I worked as a union labor organizer. I was just one of the many workers trying to do my part to help the community.
I have no tattoos at all - it was a huge undertaking for me in the '80s to let my parents know I was piercing my ear when I did 'L.A. Law.'
The Latino population has become such a presence. We are part of the American tapestry in a very profound way, in every area you can think of, and are very significant in popular culture.
There's a lot of successful procedural shows that are out there. A lot of them are very successful. I just know there's an audience out there that wants character also.
Growing up in New York, we lived all around the city depending on our economic circumstance. I also lived in Puerto Rico for a number of years.
You gotta find that hook so everybody can grab on to it. So that you're true to the culture but, at the same time, how it relates to the larger tapestry.
That 'who's the sexiest' business is a crock that the media cooked up to sell magazines, so while I say thank you very much, I don't put much stock in it.
I couldn't see myself doing a traditional sitcom.
The friendships I made on 'L.A. Law,' with the cast and Steven Bochco and David Kelley were really wonderful.
I'm not a policy wonk - I'm somewhere between being undecided and a surrogate.
I worked on a show called 'West Wing' before. I didn't work with Aaron Sorkin, but he created the show and set the tenor of the show, which was you follow the words of the script perfectly because there's a dramaturgical thing behind it.
There's something so familial and intimate between a boxer and his trainer.
