'I'm Like a Catalyst'

Yeah, and it isn't really like that. It takes work. There's a lot of beautiful, joyous moments, but the great thing about marriage is that it is a really fertile place for people to grow. The only way to grow is by exposing yourself and your foibles, and it just happens naturally. Unfortunately, the people that you love get to see not always the best version of you. But by sort of exposing some of those things to the light of day, you have some growth. That's what I hope anyway. [laughs]

I think that's what we all hope when we get married.

But it's hard to keep it up. Or they just stop telling the truth or stop communicating. I mean you have to say things to somebody that you never wanted to say to another human being about desires and other things. But once you say it, it's freeing. It's amazing. And you remember why you fell in love. I think that's where Jack ends up towards the end of the movie. He's unconscious and then it all comes out. His whole life unfolds, and he says, this is my life, this is where I belong.

You've said in the past that you dread being compared to the characters you play sometimes. Have you had a hard time trying to keep from being stereotyped as the character you played in "You Can Count on Me"?

Yeah, I keep looking to break it up and keep the balls in the air, so to speak, before someone pegs me, pigeonholes me, boxes me up and puts a nice label on me, sells me to the mass public. [laughs]

You've got the whole industry figured out.