Liev Schreiber relies on "meditation" to distance himself from his lead role in 'Ray Donovan'.
Liev Schreiber
The 50-year-old actor - who separated from his long-term partner Naomi Watts in September 2016 - admitted he needs a regular "ritual" to draw a line under a day's filming so he can then go home to his sons Sasha, 10, and eight-year-old Samuel without feeling the strains of his alter ego.
He said: "This was a hard year for Ray and for Liev. I find meditation helps. You know, don't get too attached to anything. Ray's a rough character to play.
"It can be difficult when you're a character like him. You ratchet up tension and then you don't express it. The guy's carrying a lot of tension around a lot of the time, but he rarely, rarely expresses it like he did in that scene in episode eight.
"Part of the satisfaction -- hopefully for me and for the audience -- is to finally see him express some emotion because most of the time he's got to contain it. And it's not like you just can't be emotional when you're containing emotion. You have to have the emotion and then not express it. That's like a double whammy.
"And I think it's really important to try and find a ritual where you can say, OK, look I'm done with work, I'm going to stop and put that behind me and go home and have a nice time and see my kids and do something pleasant. Meditation works.
"Unfortunately, Irish whiskey also works really well, which probably accounts for a lot of the alcoholism in the acting business."
'Ray Donovan' is Liev's first major TV role and he has learned a lot from the change in medium.
He told Vulture: "I went to the ballet last night and there were all these people from the theatre who were asking me if I was gonna do a play. I'm like, I did one. Uh, I'll be back I guess.
"This been a really interesting journey. I've learned a lot. I've learned a lot doing this. And I value the experience and all the people that I work with so much. It's hard though. Fourteen-hour days for six months. It's hard. But, you know, I was a mason's helper for a while. [Laughs.] This is what I do now."
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