Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Its set in Chicago (cheaper than New York, with similar romantic cachet).
It takes place around Christmastime.
The hotter man is the wrong one.
Someone falls while ice skating.
Unfortunately, we cannot say the same forPeter Gallagher.
), Lucy jumps down and rescues him.
Before we start, we should talk about when we first met.
And then you turned around Oh my God.
We were on Central Park West, right by the museum.
A post shared by Rachel Handler (@rachlyha)
Thats what you said back!
I wanted to ask you how often you say that to people who approach you.You know, whenever!
Do you feel like the worlds Jewish dad?No, I dont feel like Im the worlds anything.
I just love theres a bunch of characters Ive played over the years and thats one of my favorites.
I certainly love to be adad.
I know I did.
So I get it.
That made me tear up a little bit.
I didnt know we were going this deep this early!Its hard.
Nobody ever tells us really how to be men or husbands or fathers.
Nobody tells anybody anything, really.
Unless you have the good fortune of living with a good example.
My dad was a good man, he just didnt say much.
Well, lets talk aboutWhile You Were Sleeping.
Every time I do something with you in it, you dont say anything!
And I said, Lucky for you!
It was a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful cast.
He actually went to the Seminary, so hes way more Irish Catholic than I was.
We just laughed our asses off.
But youd have no idea.
Id say, Hey man, Im going to the driving range, wanna come?
And hed say, Sure!
You could do better than that!
Wed all just hang out and talk.
You figure,hey, I didnt come all this way to pretend.
I dont know if thats true, but Im gonna put it on my epitaph.
I may put it in my Twitter bio.
Im sure its probably just made up or I dreamt it.
But I heard something like that.
Thats right, Iwasasleep!
Thank you for noticing!
Your ability to fall asleep is astonishing.
How do you do it in front of all those people?It drives my wife crazy.
I remember in the early years of our marriage, she couldnt understand how anybody could take a nap.
I said, Honey, if I dont get a good 1416 hours, Im just no good.
And I said, Okay, but can I lie down right here next to the refrigerator?
[because] when I was a little boy I used to sleep by our refrigerator in the kitchen.
Its not like I grew up in an insane asylum.
Well, maybe I did.
I found the warmth and the noise comforting.
So I said, Can I kindly?
I laid on that floor and I was out in seconds.
In a sense, you were born for this role.I was.
I didnt know it.
But obviously they did.
I probably peaked and I wasnt aware of that.
Because Id been asleep.
Did you find Sandras character creepy?No.
Only when she throws me over in two seconds for my brother [Jack].
She didnt even give me a chance.
But thats okay.[Laughs.]
It was unnecessarily arch.
Whats he guilty of?
Hes successful in business, and hes not ready to get married yet.
Do you know anybody like that?
[And then]hes savedfrom a situation that he clearly wouldnt be successful in.
But when they pick the handsome guy to be the asshole, its like, Okay, were done!
Which is pretty fair.
I know thats how I wouldve felt if I saw myself.
I think when I was younger my looks got in the way a little bit.
In the way of your career, or your life?Nah, not in my life.
I havent been that conscious of it.
Just in terms of how people responded to me: Hes too good-looking.
I dont see him with a gun in his hand.
[Indiscriminate faux-yammering].
Just more of a credible person.
You dont have to go out of your way to gild the lily there.
Unless he is the devil!
Or did that feel exciting, somehow?I dont know that it was exciting.
It wouldve been nice to have been the guy that gets the girl a few times.
Surprise people by being funny or believable.
You do play him in a very bewildered way when hes awake.
Did you ad-lib the alphabet part too?Yeah.
And I did some stuff around thesquirrel [plot], too.
Thats a lot more interesting, if I actually believe the circumstances.
She took the No.
1 position on the call sheet with a real generosity of spirit.
She took responsibility for that position.
She treats people well.
She understands her position as a leader of the company.
And I think,Oh, now I gotta stay relaxed while my head hits the railroad spike.
What?!Yeah![Laughs.]
She looked up, like, Oh my God, whats going on?
She didnt really hurt me.
Just bruised a little bit.
At least the train didnt hit us.
And everybody crossed their Ts and dotted their Is.
Having grown up in New York, lying on the tracks was not anything Id aspired to.
So you didnt have a body double?
That was all you?Oh, yeah.
I dont think Im lying to you.
Unless they did it in the dark of night and reshot it.
And Sandy was right next to me.
I shouldve known better: If the No.
Im sure if anybody would recognize anybody, theyd recognize the other Peter, not me.
This is totally crazy: I remember walking back to my apartment late at night.
I felt like I was alone in the city.
Im stopped at a light, a big thoroughfare of cars going by.
I step out into the thoroughfare and a Lexus is speeding by.
I throw myself back and the car zips by and its Roger Ebert.
Holy shit!I thought,Holy shit.
You dont mess around.
When you dont like a performance, you dont quit at the review, do ya?
You wanna get the job done!
Im sorry hes no longer with us.
But I just thought, Wow.
Had I not stepped [back] off the curb … it wouldve been a good headline.
Your eyebrows do a lot of the work in this movie, considering your eyes are mostly shut.
And now they arefamous.
But honestly, the whole eyebrow thing I was so surprised at.
Stunned is a better word for it.
When I was growing up, the thing that caused me the most problems was my lips.
I had these big lips and a smaller face.
I was constantly getting into fights over my fat lips: Hey, fat lip!
All of my high-school yearbook pictures are of me trying to smile with thin lips.
I thought,What the hell are they talking about?
Whats wrong with my eyebrows?But I guess theres a whole mythos about them.
How much grooming do they require?
How much attention do you personally pay to them?Not much, to be honest.
Theyre highly trained professionals.
But theyre pretty drip-dry.
Sometimes I do maintain them with my Swiss army knife.
Because sometimes my wife and my kids are like, Okay, Dad.
You gotta go back in.
You cant go out looking like that.
You play anothersemi-consciousperson onZoeys Extraordinary Playlist.
Did you think about the similarities in the roles at all?Im conscious, just not expressive.
So thats what occurred to me I had a lot of experience with that.
Or his sense of humor.
Or his willingness to embrace others.
And that to me was America.
This family has everything.
And they open their home to kids that need it.
Do you keep in touch with yourOCcastmates?I spoke to them all just a couple of months ago.
And she sent Ben a cake and it said, Welcome to 44th Street, Bitch.
Thats incredible.I love those kids.
Im constantly wishing them well.
Mischa [Barton] is coming out the other end of what must have been a really trying adolescence.
She came to work with us when she was 16 years old.
Its to her credit that shes still among us and still swinging for the fences.
I love those kids.
You remember it so well!Come on!
It was Peter Boyle, Jack Warden, Glynnis Johns.
And everybody loves that movie.
And I dont even really get tired when somebody says, Ho, man!
[Affects very serious voice] I havent heard that one before.
That just means that it means something to people.
And thats what we try for.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
