Cougar Town's Dan Byrd On Transitioning Into Hollywood and Avoiding Shame Projects

Dan Byrd has spent the past decade maturing on camera, often playing an intuitive adolescent who has difficulty fitting in with his peers. While bouncing between his hometown of Marietta, GA. and Hollywood, Byrd has starred in the CW's Aliens in America, CBS's Clubhouse, as well as features A Cinderella Story and The Hills Have Eyes. Now firmly rooted in Los Angeles and co-starring in ABC's Cougar Town, Byrd showcases his comedic talents as the unfortunate son of the show's resident cougar (Courteney Cox).

We caught up with Dan Byrd yesterday to discuss the perks of being the youngest actor on set and the possibility of his own on-screen cougar dalliances. Really, isn't that what we're all after?

I heard the exciting news that Lisa Kudrow will be guest starring during sweeps week.

Yeah, I heard that too but I don't think I have any other information than you do probably. Come sweeps, they want the special guest stars in the mix. So, it's cool that they got her to do it.

Like the last show Bill Lawrence created, Scrubs, Cougar Town shares a pretty fast pace. The lines are delivered so fast that some viewers might occasionally miss the jokes. Was that speed difficult to adjust to?

Definitely. When we shot the pilot, no one really anticipated the pace that it was going to be cut together at. Once we found out, everybody kind of recalibrated their performance to match the pace at which Bill puts the shows together. I did a half hour single camera comedy a few years ago (Aliens in America), so it wasn't something I was totally unfamiliar with but every show is different and there is always something you have to sync up with, because it's not going to sync up with you.

Is it strange being the youngest actor on set?

No, I've been acting since I was really young so I'm kind of used to being the kid on set. It's fun to work with peers but I kind of like being the odd man out too because I get along well with older people and they obviously have lots of experience and skills to draw from. I love everybody on the show and I feel very fortunate to act alongside all of these veterans -- I don't want to make them sound like old people though. They're not old, but they're older than me.

Do you know much about your character's dating arc? This show is called Cougar Town and I imagine that as Courteney Cox's character's son, you might give her a taste of her own medicine by dating a middle-aged woman soon.

One can only hope. [Laughs] I have no idea what they have in store for me. We find out week by week. You know, we get the script the day before we start shooting. Someone else might know, but I don't have a great idea of where my love arc is going. Although I can tell you that I do get a girlfriend. The last few episodes we shot, I've had a little high school sweetheart but I don't know how long that is going go on for either. I'm hoping that [the writers] will throw me in with a cougar soon. It seems inevitable.

Keep that dream alive. With Aliens in America and Cinderella Story and now Cougar Town, you've played these super-smart teenagers that are sometimes so wise beyond their years that they have trouble fitting in with their peers. Is that something you relate to?

I have friends that I'm in touch with on a regular basis. Growing up, I was kind of neither here nor there. I was acting when I was young and I'm from Georgia, so when I'd go back to Georgia, I guess that kind of alienated me from people there because that was something that they weren't used to. But I like to think of Travis as more of a Ferris Bueller-type character if anything. He's not a jock and he's not a nerd but he could probably get along with anyone you put him in front of. I have played a lot of nerdy outcasts and the idea was to try to shy away from that a little with this one.

When did you move out to LA?

I guess about five years ago, but like I said before, I was going back and forth from here and Georgia for maybe ten years or so. [Cheekily] You've got to make sacrifices. I was lucky to have a family that was very supportive though and made that work even though I have a brother and sister who were at home, going to school and both younger than me, which can really put a strain on families. My families were able to pull it off though and that's a really cool thing.

What was the hardest part about coming out to Hollywood.

I was lucky in the sense that I didn't have to get off the bus when I was 18 years old. I came out here because I was working on a show on cable. When I came out here, we were told that we were going to do 13 episodes and we were like, "This is great! Crazy! What's happening? It'll be an adventure for a couple months and I'll get a sense of what the city is like." Then the show ended up lasting for four seasons, so I ended up staying out here for half of the year and then being back in Georgia for half of the year. That went on for four years and then the year after that, I was old enough to move out here officially on my own so I had a nice, easy transition into Los Angeles. I know a lot of people that come out here when they graduate high school and college and don't have a lot of connections, it can be difficult to sort of get things off the ground.

Do you see a clear career trajectory for yourself yet? Would you like to move into producing or directing?

I would actually like to eventually go into marine biology. I'd like to transition into aquatic life. [Laughs] No, to be honest, I'm sort of at that point in my life where anything goes. When you're younger, you sort of have ideals and ideas of what you want your life to be. I'd love to just keep acting as long as I can. If it stops working at some point for whatever reason, I don't want to be scared to try something else. As far as an acting trajectory goes though, my only goal at this point is just to do stuff that doesn't suck. Whether it's comedy or drama or TV or film. I don't really care, I just don't want to be ashamed of it. I've done a few things that I'm just been completely ashamed of and it's just not a good feeling. So I'm just trying to avoid shame pretty much at this point. Hopefully I can abide by that.