On the one hand I've had such a normal upbringing with my mum who has kept me grounded but on the other the wild experiences through my dad.
My dad served in the Air Force as ground crew for several years and doesn't really talk about it. I know that it's there. I think my main thing about direct or indirect experiences as near to home as it were is the idea of self-sacrifice really.
I finished high school moved to Nashville for college and set out to break into the music business. Every night when I called home with news of my experiences my mom and dad would encourage me to keep taking those small steps.
My dad's gay experiences really had a very positive influence on me and my straight relationships - how to better accept all the weirdness and ambiguity and ups and downs and paradoxes. I knew from the beginning I was writing about love.
We all have experiences in our lives that change us and we all learn from people like my dad but at the end of the day it's only us. And we're only responsible to make ourselves happy.
My role in 'Legally Blonde' was really rewarding because I had so much fun working on the movie. I've had really rewarding experiences on tiny low budget films that you'll never see but where I had a cool time creating characters as well. I love almost all of the characters I've played.
I think I'm drawn to more villain-type characters because it's so cool to get to say all the things you want to say. In Hollywood you get to this position where you have to bite your tongue so much. You take all your experiences of not being able to say what you really want to say and channel that through your character.
It is a weird feeling to have people go 'Hey Chris' like they know me. But number one 99 percent of my experiences have been really cool. People couldn't be nicer and more positive.
Sure climbing Mount Everest would be cool but that's something I would now like to do as a family. Big experiences like that I don't want to have on my own anymore. I want to share them.
Poetry is the communication through words of certain experiences that can be communicated in no other way.