Stephen Collins

Stephen: I realized a few years ago that, as much as every actor dreams of a movie career, my bread seems to be buttered in TV. I still make an occasional feature film, but I think TV suits me in a lot of ways. I like working quickly, and I like the speed between shooting something for TV and the time it airs. I resisted TV for years, back when there was a double standard. When I began my career, you absolutely couldn't do TV if you wanted a film or Broadway career. But now I love it.

Stephen: I was ridiculously shy as a kid, and I think I was first attracted to acting because when I played other characters, I could behave in ways that I never had the nerve, or courage, to behave in myself. I also felt a strength and power on stage that I'd never felt anywhere else. I loved making people laugh, too.

Stephen: (about on-screen daughter Jessica Biel posing nude for Gear Magazine) It's not like Jessica came to any of us and asked if it was a good idea. We talked about it afterward. Jessie was the first one to know she'd made a big mistake. She'd been manipulated, lied to. She learned about 8 million lessons. I said to her, "You're not the first beautiful young actress who has been led down this road. A lot of people have been down this road and survived it." There was no uproar here at all. There just wasn't. Most of the people in the cast didn't even see the magazine. Everyone knew what had happened. It doesn't change anything.

Stephen: I just have one daughter. When I went to work the first day of 7th Heaven, I said to my wife, "I don't know what I'm doing." I never even heard of the show until 36 hours before it was offered to me. My wife said, "You're basically playing your brother Mike." My brother Mike has six kids and is a great father, truly one of the best people I know. He also is a guy who keeps his sense of humor around his family. Part of the reason people like Eric Camden is because he has that thing that Hemingway defined as grace and courage under pressure. I could conjure Mike.

Stephen: No, I don't think anyone is as good at any of those things as my character Eric Camden seems to be. I've made a lot more mistakes in my life than he has. He's not perfect. Part of the beauty of the show, in a way, is that he's not perfect, but you can always count on him to do the right thing in a pinch. That's why he inspires people and inspires me.

Stephen: People stop me in airports and say, 7th Heaven means the world to my family.