The mind is the most important part of achieving any fitness goal. Mental change always comes before physical change.
Matt McGorry
I grew up in Chelsea on 22nd Street... I am really a native New Yorker.
I got a lot of empathy from my mother growing up, and I think it prevented me from ever really just writing people off.
The way I approach any role, whether it's comedy or drama, I like to look for the truth first. I think comedy for the sake of comedy wears dull pretty quickly. You have to ground the character in reality first and allow the audience to sympathize, emphasize and be more invested.
I was the youngest member of the New York International Brotherhood of Magicians. It was me and a bunch of 60-year-old Jewish men.
I started performing when I was 9 or 10, doing magic.
I am all about the complicated ice cream. Ben & Jerry's is my go-to. I like as many things in there as possible.
As for my personal style, I like comfort a lot, like jeans and T-shirts. Having been a trainer for so long, I spend a lot of my days in tank tops, shorts, and T-shirts. Still, I do like the occasions where I get to wear suits and make that a thing.
When you're used to being at a point where you're deadlifting close to 600 pounds, getting to be 5.5 percent body fat and seeing veins in places you shouldn't see them, it kind of skews your understanding of what is normal and OK.
My character on 'Orange is the New Black' is not one that requires being absolutely shredded with 5% body fat. But I wouldn't be opposed to doing that for a role one day.
A place of freedom is the best place to have the most creativity.
At some point, you're just happy to be a working actor, but to be able to do it with people you really love and enjoy spending time with, it's just such a rare thing. You hear so many horror stories.
People who act the most arrogant often are the most insecure, and they just can't even begin to accept the possibility that they might not be as good as they think they are.
I have a background in erotic dancing, but that's mostly just - it's not professional, it's just amateur.
I never particularly thought of myself as great with girls. I can be awkward, and I have a strange sense of humor at times. But I've also been learning to try and embrace that.
There's some part of me, as an actor, that likes attention and validation, but on any given day, depending on the style and volume of it, it can be too much.
I was a personal trainer for about a decade. I competed in powerlifting, and I did a bodybuilding competition. I was heavily entrenched in the personal training world.
We need to create a society where girls and women are getting the same encouragement and support to build their careers as the boys and men are. From the start.
I'd feel weird on a show where it was a bunch of dudes that are my type. I like sticking out a little.
It's nice being liked for playing the nice guy, but it's also fun to be the funny one.
Acting with someone else, I can't tell how good they are because if I'm doing my job right, I'm just fully invested in everything that person's saying.
For me, my preference for comedy is grounding it in the psychology of the character, and not just kind of making faces. Even when it's a crazy character, grounded comedy resonates more with people because it doesn't look like you're watching someone do vaudeville. No offense to vaudeville.
I wasn't athletic as a kid, and I was self-conscious about my body, but then in eighth grade I won a school contest, and the prize was a bunch of personal training sessions.
The whole reason I did a bodybuilding show was to see how far I could push my own discipline. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. When I made the switch to acting, I was able to break that down into small, measurable goals like I did with bodybuilding.
I know some people who are like, 'I love fitness,' and I feel like if you have to say that, you're still in the romance stage. I'm in the stage where I've been married to it for 60 years, and I don't think I'll ever get a divorce.
I feel like my early experiences of acting, and I think a lot of other actors' too, are probably at camp or school plays where you get to have great range. At camp, I remember getting to play a 50-year-old man.
It'll be interesting to see if I ever have to play a typical, bland romantic interest. I'm quirky, and playing it kind of straight and bland doesn't interest me a whole lot.
I tend to be shy in asking people for photos - other actors that I really like and admire.
I understand that in TV, people like likable people. In film, you can get away with playing a terrible person. In TV, you're in people's homes every week.
I love the stuff that makes you laugh and cry. It kind of sucker-punches you a little bit. That's the thing that most interests me as a performer, in addition to telling the most captivating story.
In 2010, I was ranked top 50 in the deadlift in three different weight classes, and I won my first natural bodybuilding competition.
I honestly love any good chick flick, as long as it's a good movie or pretty funny. 'Love Actually' is a no-brainer.
