The Perfect Man was your first big Hollywood role. Was that exciting for you?

Yeah, it was pretty neat. I was surprised when my manager called me and said, "They need you to do a chemistry read with Hilary [Duff]." This time the directors and producers and Hilary’s there, and you have to do the scene with her to see if you have any chemistry. It felt very important.

So how did you get your big break on Broadway in The Graduate?

I had just graduated college with an acting degree from Ithaca. My agent called and said, "Jason Biggs is leaving The Graduate for a couple months over the summer." I got to be on a Broadway stage, which is a dream come true. And then the auditions went on for a million years, and I didn’t get the part. And you know who did? Josh Radnor, the star of How I Met Your Mother (JVibe notes: another great Member of the Tribe).

When you first came out to Los Angeles, it was for a role in a TV show called The Mayor, and then that show didn’t air. Was that discouraging for you at all?

I came out here to do a show, and it did get picked up, but it got cancelled. But at the same time, Adam Sandler was my boss, and I got to be on a sitcom and work with all these really cool people. And a couple of them are still some of my best friends. I spent a lot of time with Lizzie Caplan (JVibe note: Mean Girls, Related and yes, fellow MOT). Lizzie played my girlfriend; she was one of my first friends that I met out here.

You’ve done a lot of Jewish roles, from Living with Fran, to When Do We Eat? Have you actively pursued Jewish roles?

You know, it just kind of happened. It’s funny, When Do We Eat?—it doesn’t get Jew-ier than that. The movie was about a Passover seder. Every single one of us had to show up every day and sit at the same table in the same clothes, eating and drinking the same stuff for weeks. I was so Passover-ed out.

But no, I did not pursue Jewish roles, they just seem to come to me. I guess I just exude Judaism in Hollywood. Coming from a Jewish background, what was it like for you working on that film?

I think most Jews can understand what's great and what's really annoying about a Passover seder. It's the same thing with family. You love to see them, you love to be with them, but at the same time, everyone drives everybody crazy. I think any religion can understand it. It's the same thing with Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas, it's about family, and families are just groups of crazy people. So it was very familiar for me.

And thank God I was Jewish and understood everything that was going on. I actually learned a whole lot doing that movie because the director was pretty hardcore Jewish and there was a lot of reading about Passover and learning about the traditions, far more than what I had known before.

There were always coconut macaroons and matzah on set. We ate a lot of Jewish food. That's the one thing about Hollywood—when you're working, you're fatter, because there's always food. So yeah, that was a fun movie, and I learned a lot, and I felt more Jewish afterwards, but then I had to steer clear of Passover for two years. My family did not understand it but I was like, watch the movie and you'll understand.

Living with Fran had a strong Jewish tone, too, right?

Fran was pretty Jew-y too. And that was never written or intended to be as Jewish as it became. Originally it was kind of about me, but then you cast Fran Drescher, and there’s no way it’s not gonna be about Fran. She brought writers with her who were on The Nanny, and there was a lot more Judaism. But it was cool because there’s not a lot of Jewish families on sitcoms, other than Seinfield, which wasn’t a family. It felt groundbreaking.

Was it nice to incorporate Jewish traditions into your work?

Yeah, no matter what, if there’s something about a role that you’re playing, a job that you’re doing, that there’s another element from your life that you can bring into it, that’s great. You can pitch ideas to the writers—what if he said this or was doing this? You can draw from experiences that someone who wasn’t Jewish wouldn’t be able to bring to the role.

 What has been your most memorable Hollywood experience?

I was visiting Terezin last year in the Czech Republic with my girlfriend at the time. It was where they held Jews before they sent them off to the concentration camp. Then, all of a sudden, a giant Canadian teen tour came, and one by one, the girls started to recognize me. I said to my girlfriend, "We’ve gotta get out of this room, this is getting weird."

Finally we go into a room with two young guys, so we figured we were in the clear. We walk in, and one of them goes, "Excuse me, were you in The Perfect Man?" And I whisper, "Yeah, yeah," and he yells, "He was!"

Nine teenage girls come running back in. It was the most surreal thing that’s ever happened to me. For that to happen in Europe, in a holding camp, it could not have gotten more bizarre than that.