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There was a time when I couldn't watch sitcoms for a while because it was just cacophony, it was just noise.

Some actors get fired up by the sound of the audience. I just want to retreat.

In the theatre, once you've gone about eight rows back, everybody else is just listening to you. You're very small, and nobody can really see what you're doing.

In theatre, you've got to make the connect with your audience in the first three minutes. If you haven't, you know you've almost lost them.

Onstage, even though you're here together with the other actor, face-to-face, playing out the scene, you also have that other ear pointed out toward the audience and how they're listening. That informs a lot.

Actors should be overheard, not listened to, and the audience is 50 percent of the performance.

In television, a sitcom is probably the closest thing to what it's like working in the theater.

Every now and then, when you're on stage, you hear the best sound a player can hear. It's a sound you can't get in movies or in television. It is the sound of a wonderful, deep silence that means you've hit them where they live.

With theater, you have to really be able to listen and to respond to other people on stage. You're all constantly on your toes. And then with film and television, you can get a second take and things like that.