“Basically it’s when your lungs collapse. It was incredibly painful, and I couldn’t breathe right. I thought I was having a heart attack and that I was going to die. Fortunately there was a medic in the jeep behind us, and he stabilized me. The explosion banged everyone up, but we all survived.”

“Is that when you came home?”

He shook his head. “A little bit after that. They performed a thoracoscopy on me and let me heal up. Then they sent me home with a medical discharge. The doctors determined that I was at too much risk of a recurrence if I sustained another physical injury. It’s why I can’t do my own stunts in movies, either. Which is frustrating. Anyway, I was pissed off. I’d trained with my company for three years, and they were off to serve our mission while I was sitting in an apartment in Brooklyn with no idea what to do with my life.”

“You didn’t go right back to acting?”

“No. I considered becoming a police officer or a firefighter. Something where I could still serve and protect. But I went to this play, A View from the Bridge, and I was blown away. The way the lead actor played this character, how he channeled this rage and frustration into a work of art . . . I wanted that in my life again. I resisted at first, because I didn’t want my parents to get credit for any of my success.”

“Have they?” I had to admit it, I was dying to get my phone out of my purse and see if I could look his parents up. What kind of people would treat their son that way?

“I don’t think so. Somebody on my team would tell me if they did.”

“I’m sorry.” It felt like such an inadequate thing to keep saying, but I was at a loss here. Things had worked out for him, but it couldn’t have been fun to go through it.

“That’s just how it was. Not everybody’s parents are mentally healthy, and sometimes the best thing for you to do is move on with your own life. My army-appointed psychiatrist told me that and I agreed, and now here we are.”

Now here we were. With him being nominated for the most prestigious acting award in the country. It was strange to think he’d almost walked away from all of it. “Do you regret your time in the army? Because your career might have been different if you’d stayed?”

“No. Joining the army was the best thing I could have done for myself. It taught me to work hard, gave me discipline and structure, and made me understand what was really important in life. It made me the person I am now, and I’m generally happy with who I am. Even if I can be a little impatient and annoyed with others.”