My father owned some Laundromats, and when I was 10, he had me in there making change and being an attendant. He taught me that on weekends, you had to get up and go to work. That has been a big help in acting.
Guys like Spielberg and Zemeckis and really anybody who is a storyteller-filmmaker today has studied Hitchcock and the way he visually tells a story. He was the master of suspense, certainly, but visually you would get a lot of information from what he would do with the camera and what he would allow you to see as the story was unfolding.
I think one of the reasons 'The Karate Kid' film has stood the test of time, aside from 'Get him a body bag,' 'Sweep the leg,' catching flies with chopsticks, all of that stuff that's become pop culture, is that it worked on a human level.
Persona-wise, I represent a lot of people's childhoods.
When you look at the 'Roseannes' and the 'Will and Graces' - when those reboots or sequels or whatever you want to call them are well-executed and have a fresh angle that's relevant, it's a big, warm comfort hug to the audience.
I was playing this role on 'Ugly Betty,' the sweetest, nicest guy. He was a fun character to play, but I was in a Latin soap opera - where are you gonna go with a nice guy in a Latin soap opera?
