Ross Butler

Growing up, my favorite movies were 'Forrest Gump,' 'Shawshank Redemption,' 'Gladiator' - none of them really had Asian leading men.

When I was growing up, my mom didn't let me watch a lot of TV. She said I couldn't watch 'Friends' or that era of sitcoms.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt's career is kind of how I want to create my career. He's very involved with his recording and production company and also worked on some really great projects.

When I was younger, I had no idea that I would be an actor. I had an interest in it, but I never actually did it. I didn't really expect it to be a career path.

When I started acting, one of the first things I learned was - especially in Hollywood - was branding. I'm a tall guy. I'm like, 'Yeah, that's probably going to be my foot in the door,' because that's my impression on everybody. I'm an athletic guy, and I think, because I grew up disliking jocks so much, that became, like, the character for me.

I had a lot of friends, but none of them I felt super close with. Now that I'm older, I can look back on my teenage self and kind of see the things I did wrong and the things I did right, what affect they had on me, and what affect they had on other people. I can look at it in a much more conducive way to storytelling.

People in high school either feel like they're with the cool kids in a clique, or they're isolated - there's no in-between.

I'm not the Asian kid of 'Riverdale;' I'm Reggie, and I just happen to be Chinese.

My acting technique is a combination of a lot of different ones. A lot of it is Meisner.

I like to say I was a creature in high school. A weird creature who had my hands in a lot of different things.

There's so many Chinese or Asian Americans that were either born in another country like I was and raised in America or born in America and raised in America. They're normal Americans, and they just happen to have a different heritage.

Weirdly enough - if I make enough money one day - I want to open a board game bar.