Pittsburgh felt like the perfect size of a city to me. There's enough to do, but it's not like living in a circus. I also really loved how sports-enthusiastic Pittsburgh people are: how proud of their sports they are.
Look what's happened to Barack Obama over the last two years or George Bush for eight. It's a blood sport. But at some point I may feel the need to run for office again.
After my first 'Sports Illustrated' cover, I felt terrible about myself for a solid month. People deal with models like they are children. They think they can pull one over on you. I'm not a toy; I'm a human. I'm not here to be used.
I roller skated when I was younger, but when you're on a track that's slanted and you're with other people all skating in a pack, it's a whole different sport.
The most important thing you learn as a sports photographer is anticipation - not where the action is taking place, but where it's going to take place. Not where the subject is now, but where they're going to be.
Everyone thought I was going to die like a year later, they didn't know. So I helped educate sports, and then the world, that a man living with HIV can play basketball. He's not going to give it to anybody by playing basketball.
I think my appeal is that I've always tried to stay very grounded to my fans and to be accessible - not being this unattainable thing. I think doing sports and riding motorcycles has made me more approachable and more real and down to earth.
Sport doesn't know barriers, really. You are judged on your performance... how far you can jump, how fast you can run, how well you can hit a tennis ball.
I never did any sports at school. It wasn't until I moved to America, to New York, when I was about 20 that I actually thought that if I wanted to be an actress I might have to start working out.
I started my cooking 'career' aged 15, almost 20 years ago. At the time it was quite a shock suddenly working 75 to 80 hours a week, without time to play football or other sports.
When you have a background in combat sports, people think you're this martial arts expert, but really I'm just a guy who is able to do certain things without making a mess of himself.
All of my activities are so pedestrian. The extreme sport I play is ping pong. And we play it hard. If any of you suckers want to step up to the table, be ready.
When you look at golf films before us they're all - garbage or satire. A lot of sports films tend to vilify the opposition. Where the opposition becomes this big angry monster, so big you can't beat him.
During my childhood, I played just about every sport imaginable, which became less feasible at Juilliard... Although I remember our annual dodge-ball game as a highlight. The Juilliard 'Fighting Penguins' are a force to be reckoned with.
So nonetheless given the importance that was placed on sport in Australia, I wanted to be part of that scene, particularly since I had felt very strongly in my early schooling being marginalised even in the Catholic school.
I grew up being into sports and I wasn't trained to move my body in the right way for dancing. I'm the last one to get any moves correct. In rehearsals it's always, 'OK, one more take for Zac.'
The difference in my body from pre-pregnancy to post-baby was night and day. I didn't have the strength, I didn't have the flexibility, I didn't have the stamina, I didn't have the mobility. I felt like I was handicapped.
I was the only child born to Josephine Perry that survived. Mama had six other children before me, and all had passed very quickly and very young, all succumbing to a combination of illness and disease and the lack of strength to fight off both.
Part of my strength as an actor comes from what I've learned all these years: when you play a villain, you try to get the light touches; when you play a hero, you try to get in some of the warts.
I left because I could no longer make records that sounded less and less like me. I tried to please people instead of believing in my own strength, until the only thing I could do was walk away.
The more I get to do this character, the more I realize that she's not just annoying. It's that her strength is not interacting with people socially. She just doesn't have time because she has so much going on in her brain.
