me

When I was little, my dad used to call me 'Bandarella,' because I was a mess - a Bandar is a monkey in Hindi. I was not a girly-girl and would always break something and would be running around and didn't really fit in.

My old man tried to force on me a notion of what it was to be a 'man.' And it destroyed my dad.

But I have to be careful not to let the world dazzle me so much that I forget that I'm a husband and a father.

I know that my dad not being in my life made a huge impact on me.

My dad cut my hair once - I wanted a bob and he gave me a bowl cut. That was a tough few years.

People have told me, 'My dad passed on, but I have great memories of watching your shows with him.' It doesn't get any better than that.

I've always loved video games. I played 'Ms. Pac-man' with my dad, and I Ioved 'Galaga' and 'Tempest' and grew up on the standing arcade games. Even to this day, my dad will call me if he's playing 'Ms. Pac-man' and hold the phone up to the game.

I remember in the fifth grade my dad would take me to Manhattan to shop for clothes.

My dad taught me to never be pigeonholed to really allow yourself to reinvent characters as they reinvent you to be bold and to be willing to play seemingly unlikeable people.

My dad always used to encourage me to dress weird.

My dad was always interested in characters he didn't understand - he was such a great bad guy in movies. And that is really the thing that calls me to the material often: something I struggle to understand in human behaviour.

But I honestly don't read critics. My dad reads absolutely everything ever written about me. He calls me up to read ecstatic reviews, but I always insist that I can't hear them. If you give value to the good reviews, you have to give value to the criticism.

My dad died of a heart attack when I was 15. I was bullied mercilessly in middle school. I went through a divorce - those not-so-great things are all a part of me, and they give me a place to go when I cover those stories on the news. I'm more empathetic, more relatable because of them.

When I first joined SAG, there was another John Reilly. My dad was John Reilly, too, but growing up I was John John. Nobody in life calls me John C. It's more like, 'Hey you, Step Brother!'

My dad was the way he was, but he also gave me a motto: never say die. Just to keep pushing and pushing, fighting until the end. He put it in my head that you're always going to fight, and you're always going to beat them.

I'm more comfortable with whatever's wrong with me than my father was whenever he felt he failed or didn't measure up to the standard he set.

My dad got me a huge board when I was little. He loves to surf. He suited me up and sent me out on this huge wave. I went under, and when I came out and the board hit me in the face. So I said, I never wanted to do this again. I stayed away until I was 13.

I remember when I was younger. Dad's agent came round, and I asked if she would represent me. She didn't represent children at the time, but I wouldn't let her leave the house until she agreed. I've always been quite headstrong.