MONDO EXTRAS

CB: Are you competitive in sports?

JD: Very!

CB: I figured.

JD: Very, very, very.

CB: Do you watch any other TV shows?

JD: Let's see, what am I watching. I just bought 21 Jump Street...

CB: Niiiiiice!

JD: ...because I wanted to check out Johnny Depp, and I'm so excited. Also Family Guy, and I just bought Wonderfalls, because I heard it's good, and our Director of Photography for the first season did Wonderfalls. I also saw the first season of Deadwood. So good.

CB: You started to mention this earlier, but what are your favorite movies?

JD: Oh, boy. You know, I almost...don't really watch movies for pleasure. It's more that there are just actors that I like, whatever they're in. Gary Oldman's awesome, anything that Jack Nicholson does I think is great...and all for different reasons. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is just awesome. Such a good movie...I don't know, I'm looking at my shelf, I've got them all in alphabetical order...State Of Grace, I love. I thought Frida was rad -- I think Alfred Molina's one of the best living actors right now. East Of Eden's rad. I loved Kids; that had some of the best acting I've ever seen in my life.

CB: So you're a fan of James Dean as well?

JD: Oh, yeah. A lot of his plays that he did, too -- I really get into those.

CB: Now if someone were to look at your picture, they'd probably see someone who looks pretty young and not especially dark. But in truth, Logan is possibly one of the less fucked-up characters you've played, given that you were a guy sleeping with his sister on an episode of Judging Amy, and a soldier who was a victim of sexual abuse on an episode of Cold Case. Now you're going to be playing Timothy McVeigh in the upcoming Dreamland. Why do you think you've been cast in so many sort of...unsettling roles?

JD: You know, I don't know...I always used to play the good guy. Like if you look at stuff I did when I was twelve or whatever, it was boy-next-door stuff -- nice things. Then I was in class one day and I worked on a piece called Does A Tiger Wear A Necktie?, written by Don Peterson -- I think Pacino won a Tony for it on Broadway? ["The Internet Broadway Database confirms that." -- CB] And it's just this crazy-assed guy named Bickham, and it's just the darkest fucking part...I don't know. Once I worked on just one monologue from that, I had a whole other range in my acting, and I started getting all these other roles. I actually did that part for Veronica Mars, and toned it down a little bit, and I got Logan. Maybe it was my interpretation -- I played him as having fun. They kept pushing me for that -- they were like, "Have fun with it! Have fun with it!"