He Was Sleeping on the Subway Before Joining 'Friday Night Lights'

The 'American Primeval' star on getting kicked out of acting class and the man who taught him how to feel

- Marc Myers

BEGINNING in the fourth grade, I loved talking in front of my classes. We had public-speaking contests. Some kids spoke about penguins or polar bears, but I made up funny stories about nightmares. I was a class clown, always trying to make people laugh. Public speaking planted a seed for acting years later.

My family first lived in Kelowna, British Columbia. My parents divorced when I was 1. My father, Drew, had been a race-car driver and then worked in Guyana diamond mines before going into construction.

My two older brothers-Brody and Daman and I lived with my mother, Sue. When I was 5, we moved to Anmore, a rural area north of Vancouver. My mom held a few jobs to pay the bills.

Three years later, my mother had a serious boyfriend, Peter. We moved into a double-wide, ugly blue mobile home with four bedrooms in a trailer park.