“A teacher asked me if I'd audition for a play, and I ended up playing ...” — Nick Gehlfuss Quote

A teacher asked me if I'd audition for a play, and I ended up playing the pirate Red Dog in a production of 'Treasure Island.' And that's where it started, and I really felt part of something special, but I still didn't think about it as something I wanted to do. I was just having fun.

I set a goal for myself in being an actor and moving out to L.A., and I really felt I had achieved it when I landed 'Shameless.'

I come from a pretty positive family and positive environment, and in that sense, I'm very fortunate and grateful; that has kept me grounded.

When I was in college, I wasn't in a fraternity or anything. I always wanted to jump around to all different types of cliques.

I kind of slept through school. I wasn't engaged at all. My exercise books were empty at the end of the year. But I didn't sleep through drama, probably because there wasn't a desk, so my teacher sent me to this audition.

There is something daunting about getting a role you didn't formally audition for, another weight of needing to prove yourself.

I've now been doing this for ten years, and I actually got to skip a stage of going to casting directors, and now I meet with the directors, either for lunch or an audition room, and I still read sides; you're never going to get around that, but I'm not the best person to go on an audition.

I audition for a role, I shoot it, and I'm like, 'This is the best time of my life. I'm making my best friends. This movie's going to be amazing.' Then we do the press, everyone's like, 'This is so good.' Then the movie comes out, flops, and immediately, all the great things become secondary.