“There’s been a rise in white supremacy, and hate crimes, and empowerment of something that has been closeted for many years. I think Trump has been less graceful at hiding some of the racist agenda that has been perpetuated for years by the right. And so, in a way, it’s exposing things that had been cleverly disguised before.”

On his life under President Trump

“How’s it going for me? Well, it’s going OK for me. I try not to wake up everyday in the spirit of hatred and opposition. I think that that’s something that is super dangerous for all of us. I try not to wake up, look at my phone and get into the negative right away in my day. I think there’s a lot of things we can do to fight this that are productive and positive things. And I think that’s the biggest challenge right now for all of us.”

On The Actors’ Gang

“The Actor’s Gang was started out of UCLA 36 years ago. It’s a professional theater company in Los Angeles, we’ve toured all over the world. We’ve played in five continents and in over 40 states. We try to present theater that talks to now, brings up questions that are essential to our community. We have programs in 12 prisons on 13 yards. What we do is we go into the prison and we teach the incarcerated men and women about this form of theater called “commedia dell’arte,” which gives them stock characters to play — the old rich man, his servant, the harlequino, the two young lovers that want to get married but are being forbidden from being married — this story has been told for forever, and it’s told in every culture. And what, in fact, it does is it winds up making them understand over the course of the training that they have control over their emotions and a choice when it comes to obstacles that are in front of them. We have a 10.6 [percent] recidivism rate for the people that have been through the program, and a 89 percent reduction in in-prison violations.”

On The Actors’ Gang’s new play, “The New Colossus”

“A couple years ago we were noticing the reluctance of the United States in opening its doors to Syrian refugees, and throughout the campaign we were alarmed by the rhetoric that was being said from Mr. Trump. And we started asking the question, internally, at The Actors’ Gang, ‘Where are we from? Who are we? What is this country that we live in?’ And I asked all of the actors to tell all of their stories of immigration, or their families’ stories of immigration. And so we looked at the world around us and we decided that this was the way that we could most effectively raise the issue of what immigration is all about. It’s been demonized, it’s been made to seem like some kind of anomaly for America, but it isn’t at all. It is what created us. In fact, the strength and character of someone that leaves the place they love in order to find freedom somewhere else, and survive that journey, is, in a lot of ways, what defines us as Americans.”

On whether he has a preference among TV, theater and film

“I like doing it all, actually. For me, it’s, The Actors’ Gang, has also been a respite, an oasis from the business that they call show. It’s a way to remind myself that there’s a lot to be learned. It’s a way to experiment with new forms, create new pieces of work with a company of like-minded actors that are trained in a similar way. I feel it’s such a great blessing that I’ve had throughout my career to be able to go back to my laboratory at The Actors’ Gang and create new works and not have to ask the permission of a studio to do it. I would rather be in a situation where I’m continuing to create, both in acting and directing, and continue to test the boundaries of what my knowledge is and what my expertise is.”