Compared to Boogie Nights, the subject matter was much more emotional and tense and all of us had gone through stuff, losing family members and I think it was reflected in the work there.

Although, a lot of the basis for who my character was, came from these video tapes we made while Paul was trying to get Boogie Nights put together.

We would drive around and I would pretend that I was a policeman because we were obsessed with that show Cops, which was brand new then.

We did our own version of Cops and the stuff that I said in those video tapes became the basis for the character in Magnolia.

Me and Paul made it a little more serious and added this romantic element to it with my character’s involvement with Melora Walters’s character.

I always get a headache the first time I’m watching a movie I’m in, and then I’m just staring really hard at the screen trying to remember, like ‘This happened…’ it seems like a scrapbook of your life, but out of order because usually things are not filmed in order.

Everything feels like all jumbled up and it takes one or two viewings to even get any kind of objective take on it.