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When you're making a television show, it's about the story and arc of the show rather than any particular episode or director.

I'm always writing about character first. Plot, such as it is, comes from the characters.

Any time you get to dig deeper into your character, you welcome it, especially on a TV show.

Since I was there in the very beginning, I know the history of the characters. So, I make comments about the tone and sometimes remind the writers that we've done that before.

I tend to write the episodes in the middle of the season, which can be a challenge because you've got to balance all these threads that have begun - and also make sure they will make sense with the overall plan going forward.

You wanna do a lot of backstory for your character - as an actor, you wanna research that. But on the show, it's fun to remain in that naive place as you go along, and be able to continue to discover things about your character as the writers come up with them.

There's this thing in TV that I find hysterical where the writers and creators will ask us if you want to know what happens to your character or if you want to experience it episode by episode. In the theatre, we always know the ending; we always know where the character is going.

You set up the story, but the characters start talking, and they go places that you didn't expect. You have to follow.

I try to trace the connection between the characters and that way a story or plot emerges.

It's kind of interesting when you sign on to a show because you're basically signing on to play a character because you only really see the first episode of the show.