When I get onto the pitch, I block out everything around it, and I really focus on the pitch.
In TV, you can really get into not only great characters, but also the relationships. There are all of the backstories and all of the relationships that you have with every person in your life, and the relationships those people have with each other. It's just more dense and there's more time to tell stories.
What was really wonderful about the 'Doubtfire' shoot is that we had this really long rehearsal period in the beginning. That was a great time to get to know each other. We got to know each other and to create the family vibe. So we really didn't have to force it.
'Orange' is fun. Even when we're doing super-intense, emotional, or physical stuff, we're having fun. We're checking in with each other; we know about each other's lives and know each other's families and relationships. We're really friends.
What a laugh, though. To think that one human being could ever really know another. You could get used to each other, get so habituated that you could speak their words right along with them, but you never know why other people said what they said or did what they did, because they never even know themselves. Nobody understands anybody.
Really, when you get down to racism, in or out of the church, it's a heart issue. It's not a head issue. When we actually get to experience each other's ministry, and each other's struggle, and each other's pain, there's a much greater sensitivity.
Sticking to a routine helps you get in the zone for the match. I always put my left shinpad on before my right. When I go out onto the pitch, I take three hops on my left leg - but I don't know why I started. I must have seen Messi do it or something.
Miz and I have known each other for a long time, and we really know, like, how to get at each other's nerves.
The interaction with Marco Reus is also very good. We understand each other very well, both on and off the pitch. If we get along privately, then that affects things on the pitch. We're almost like brothers.
At the time - but we've since made amends - James Franco and I really didn't get along. When we were on 'Freaks and Geeks,' we were 19, and we really, really disliked each other. He shoved me to the ground once; it was really brutal. We're friends now, and we really like each other now as adults - but as kids, we did not get along.
Part of our goal, in the episodes moving forward, is to deepen and dimensionalize every other character, to get into their relationships with each other, expand that stuff and really sink our teeth in.
I think, when I was younger and I was on loan, I used to get nervous before games, but as you get older, you adapt to it, and it becomes second nature to walk out onto the pitch and perform.
Even if someone doesn't look like you or you don't know people like this in your real life, you get to know them and you get to see their humanity and you get to empathize with them. Our hope is that through empathy that can spark change. We hope people start talking to each other and our show sparks conversation because we need to start talking to each other, not at each other.
When two human beings get together, they're co-present, there is built into it a certain responsibility we have for each other, and when people are co-present in family relationships and other relationships, that responsibility is there. You can't just turn off a person. On the Internet, you can.
That's the great thing with Lyon: we are such a competitive group of players, but we know each other so well, so what happens on the pitch stays on the pitch.
Whenever you move to a different team, it's really hard just to get to know each other. The best thing I've found is to just be yourself. They're people like any other people - you just have to get to know them and create that relationship.