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I did a crazy version of 'Romeo and Juliet' once, and I played Romeo.

When I was prepping for my Broadway debut as Romeo, it really hit me that I had never done that. I had trained at drama school for three years in my late teens to early 20s, and I'd studied Shakespeare, of course, but I hadn't actually performed it. So to do something like Romeo for my first Broadway role was a challenge.

I played Romeo when I was younger, and I think I did a couple kind Romeo-like parts after that, and I kind of went, 'I mustn't do this again. I must always choose something that I don't know if I'm a good enough actor to play.'

I kind of got really lucky a couple of years ago: I got to do a part in 'The Descendants,' in Alexander Payne's movie. I just had a small part, but I got to do a few scenes with my best friend George Clooney.

I did this one scene in an episode of 'General Hospital', and that was my first job down in L.A. It was, like, my second audition, and I was like, 'Woo! This is easy! This is fun!' That was a really cool moment for me.

After drama school I did a seven-month tour of Europe performing in 'Romeo and Juliet.' I played Romeo.

It was my first scene. My first day. We could have started with me drinking a beer, something a little less than having Barbies touching each other. But they started with that.

I try to imagine the scenes as I'm writing them as if I were watching them play like a film.

I was thrust into a really lofty, enviable, but isolated position with 'Princess Diaries' in that I could carry a film before I really knew if I could act.