Were you more attracted to the Mike and Molly script or the fact that Chuck Lorre was producing? Well, it’s hard to get around the Chuck Lorre attraction. You love to be in good hands as an actor. I come from the theater where the actor has so much more onstage responsibility but on television, the [writers and producers] hold more of the responsibility. So it’s important to be in good hands. It’s also crucial to me, when I read the pilot, to be moved and this really touched my heart.

What part of the script moved you most? You see [Billy Gardell’s character] try to ask Molly out, and he is so awkward about it. She wants him to ask her out, too, but he just can’t. He keeps failing. But I read the pilot and then met with Chuck. It was kind of love at first sight for me, and obviously I did something right because he wanted me. But it’s just something I am very, very glad to be a part of. What’s really important to me, too, is that I am playing someone I haven’t played before.