James Wolk
My mom is an art teacher and my dad owns a women's shoe store, so they're not actors by any means. Well, I guess to sell women's shoes, you have to be an actor.Collection: Teacher
There's a film I did called 'Front of the Class', about a teacher who had Tourette's. That was a beautiful blend of drama and comedy. There's some great moments of levity in the script.Collection: Teacher
When I was young, my parents made me listen to old music and watch Jimmy Durante. I fell in love with the whole mystique of acting and entertainment.Collection: Music
During my third season of 'Zoo,' I was picked up by a car to go to work. We had this huge scene to shoot that day, but the traffic was just gridlock. My transportation guy got a call saying, 'Where are you? We need to start shooting.' So I got out of the car and just took off running by all of these cars that weren't moving an inch.
I try to stay away from the more schmaltzy side of things. That can backfire quickly.
You can find old Jewish newspapers from Detroit that have my promotional ad in them. It was a totally insane time in my life. Paul Rudd was also a bar mitzvah emcee, you know? It was like being a local rock star in Detroit.
I emceed in metro Detroit throughout college, and even when I moved to New York, I would actually fly back on a Friday, emcee on a Saturday, and fly back on Sunday so that I could audition during the week. It was a big part of my life.
Often in television, you read a script and you're amazed that you get the scene given to you.
As an actor, you're tied to the writing. You live and die by what's written for you. And you can elevate that to a certain extent, but really, that's your blueprint.
No one ever judges their own self.
In my everyday life, I'm a jeans and button-up shirt kind of guy.
I just grew up loving acting and loving entertainment.
In Michigan, if you want to act, it's local theater, it's high school theater and it's going to camp and putting on plays in the summer, and I always loved doing that. There was something that just drew me to it.
My dad used to put me in front of the TV screen and made me watch old Jimmy Durante and Dean Martin movies. I just always loved entertainment.
When you feel moved by the story, you want to tell that story.
The 'Lone Star' experience was tough at the time, but it really allowed me to look at things from a 3,000-foot high view. You can think something is the greatest thing in the world, but, as we know, anything can happen. It really taught me that I always want to make choices that I believe in artistically. No one can take that away from you.
I started in theater. I would liken sitcom work more to theater work than I would, perhaps, to dramatic television. It's so quick. It kind of feels like the pace of a play.
I think you always want to be open to things... it's just the matter of finding something I believe in, finding a character I believe in, and I think that's the way it should always be. I'm looking for things that excite me.
Anytime you get to join a group of people you admire and respect, you want to keep those doors open.
I had just finished working on a play, and we started to talk to the 'Happy Endings' folks. There was interest from both sides, which was exciting, because I thought it was very fresh. Adam Pally's just a really funny, talented dude. I thought I'd be great to jump on and do some comedy.
There's a certain rhythm to comedy that is almost like you're dancing and you just go on autopilot, so to speak. There's something just beautifully enjoyable about comedy in that respect. It's a joy to be able to do that. Drama, you get to go to depths that you haven't gone to before.
I like 'Homeland' a lot.
I always feel like hard work leads the way, and from there, I leave it up to the powers that be.
I personally am not a shorts-wearing guy. That goes for any form of shorts, beside sports shorts, that I have to wear.
'30 for 30s' are amazing. They're little documentaries and can be anywhere from half an hour to an hour-and-a-half - great sports stories.
I just enjoyed bar mitzvahs as a kid, and there was this company in the Detroit area where I grew up, and I think they recruited me as a party dancer - you know, like, you dance around and pass out glow sticks. I quickly rose in the ranks and, within a year, became an emcee, which was kind of unheard of.
I was an emcee for bar mitzvahs from age sixteen to twenty-one.
I learned women never want to hear they have big feet. That's no fun.
It's easy to think you can get discovered on the street, but I developed my chops on the stage - four years of theater in high school, and then another four in college.
By the time I got someone to take my head shot, I'd been acting for nine years!
Running is very therapeutic for me. I tend to have a louder brain, so when my mind is moving, I go for a run. It's very calming.
My family and friends and career are very important to me, but running allows me to be a better friend, a better family member, and makes me better at my career.
I'm pretty addicted to it, so whether I'm home or on vacation, I need to run five days a week. It doesn't matter what the weather is, what the terrain is, where I am. I always need to get my miles in.
I had such a broad array of classes, in improvising, in clowning, in Shakespeare. It was so great to just be inundated with all that.
Acting is definitely an incredible pursuit, but on the other side, it's a business, and learning where art meets business was a huge lesson for me. The more you can wrap your mind around that idea - that yes, this is my art, but it's tied into business - the more it helps you understand and move past the failures.
I'm a person who can't sit still for long.
I probably don't watch as much television as I should, given what I do.
As an actor, it's exciting to play a role that's so far from what you are and to have people respond to it like a real human being!
For 'Mad Men,' we really had to stick to the script, and you want to. It's not like you feel your hand is being forced. The words you get are the words you say.
With 'The Crazy Ones,' we were really encouraged to improv and go off script.
I've always loved doing comedy.
I'm kind of a goofy guy at heart.
For people to keep saying, 'We want to see more of this guy, even though the shows have not always been out-of-the-box successes,' is a huge compliment to me.
I like to dance, but there's nothing professional about it.
The nature of television - it's quicker than both a play and a movie.
Even when we see somebody incredibly evil, there's a rationalization behind what they're doing. They're at their best when they're at the moment.
My character on 'The Crazy Ones' is entirely different than Bob Benson. If these guys ran into each other at a bar, I don't think they'd have much to talk about. They're really different guys.
For the auditioning process, I love to move my body around, maybe dance a little bit, get myself in a really loose place where I'm free to play.
Honestly, it's the luck of the draw. If you are comfortable with the actor that you're opposite of - it just breaks down a lot of those insecurities and you can just say, "Okay, I trust this person, and I respect them and know they respect me," and then you can just go with it. When that doesn't exist, it's a lot harder to let go.Collection: Letting Go
What's been exciting for me is to read the scripts.Collection: Scripts