Madeline and I dated for nine months, but then Debra Sills came on the show, and we really clicked. She and I dated on and off for a year before calling it quits; we were both loose cannons when it came to relationships, so really it’s impressive that we lasted as long as we did. She broke up with me to date some guy she’d met during an off season gig, and I took a break from women for a while.

I started getting bit parts in movies, and my character was written into some action that really stretched me as an actor, but I found I was spreading myself too thin. On the one hand, I wanted as much exposure as possible—that was how I’d get known in this town. But on the other hand I’d worked hard to get where I finally was, and I didn’t want to ruin it by going down that road so many green actors go down: working yourself into the ground and getting burned out and pushing yourself onto bigger and bigger projects. That kind of lifestyle had never paid off for anyone; they always ended up drinking themselves into their graves—or at least into forced retirement when no one was willing to take the chance of hiring them—or else they had mental breakdowns and ended up on the After-School Special circuit. But I also didn’t want to be in the same place doing the same thing five years down the road. I learned quickly that the life of a serious actor is one big balancing act.

Those first three years on DC were heaven for me. I finally felt like I had come into my own, like I wasn’t fudging in the slightest if I wrote “actor” on the occupation line of surveys or credit applications. When you’re stuck doing community theatre you never feel like a real actor; it’s just a hobby, something you do in your free time, and you have to squeeze it in around whatever it is you do to pay the bills. But once I got on DC, all that changed. I was getting paid to do this. I even got some fan mail, which was both flattering and a little frightening. It is incredible what people think you’re like just from watching you act and reading a few interviews.