For eight years actor Rick Hoffman slept in friends’ garages and waited tables while he searched for an acting job. “I was getting fired from every waiting job in Los Angeles,” he recalls. “In eight years, I had a car that had no doors on it. At one point, my car wasn't working at all so, like any person who doesn't have a car, I would take the bus. I grew up in Roslyn Heights, Long Island, so I was like — no car. I learned a lot about life when I struggled waiting tables.”

Hoffman, who’s best known as the insecure corporate attorney in “Suits,” and for his turns in “The Bernie Mac Show” and “Samantha Who?” has finally managed a car with doors and a delicious role as the gangster boss in “London Calling,” premiering in theaters Friday, Sept. 19.

In a rare instance, says Hoffman, he didn’t have to audition for the role in the action-comedy about a hit man who must babysit his boss’ clueless son. But that doesn’t happen too often.

While he’s a successful actor, Hoffman admits he was a terrible waiter. “I was like, ‘How you guys doing? What would you guys like? What are you drinkin'? What are YOU drinkin'? I'll be right back.’ No small talk. No ‘Welcome to John Rogers. What would you like?’ It's none of that,” he says.

“I wasn't a corporate guy. I once worked at California Pizza Kitchen. God bless them. And I walked in on time, I was very excited that I was on time, and the manager comes up, ‘Hey, Rick, hey, buddy! Man, you got one button off there, I gotta give you one demerit.’ How long do you think I would last in that arena?”

Not long it turned out. “I got to leave Jerry's Famous Deli as a waiter to get my first break on a show, called ’The $treet.’ It was a Wall Street drama on Fox that Darren Star created. But it was literally the day I found out I got that job, I got to leave my waiting job. And it's when I entered the business that I had been told so many times I don't belong in.”

Hoffman, 55, had often been discouraged from acting. “Who would ever hire a goofy-looking guy, deep voice? You tell them you want to be an actor, and they give you the glaze look through your head, going, ‘Huh, it's a tough business.’ And, ‘Oh, I don't know, I would have a Plan B,’” he remembers.

But he never had a Plan B. “I started to find who I was because I think when things start to fall into place, like the fact that I had gotten this job, not knowing anybody when I first moved out to Los Angeles, in the business, really. And to earn it that way. And then to sort of find accomplishment — working all of a sudden. One minute I'm looking at Jennifer Connelly on a movie screen, and the next minute I'm going face-to-face with her on the set.

“That proves a lot to who you are as an actor, or someone who belongs doing something they've always wanted. So it changed my entire outlook on life. You're able, if you really try your best at things — doesn't matter what it is —you can. You can. it sounds like a cliche, but it was proof that you can achieve them.”

Because Hoffman doesn’t fit the formula, working can be erratic. “For an actor such as me a journeyman, I call it an actor from the Island of Misfit Toys from that Christmas special. Actors that look like me and sound like me, and have a sort of a very, I guess, unique voice of their own, it isn't as easy these days. So you need to have patience and put up with the in-betweens. It'll always be there, and it's something that I struggle with from time to time. That's the biggest challenge. Doing it — it's like peak happiness.”

But Hoffman always had his doubts, he says, because he wasn’t really good at any other enterprise. He made bad grades in school and suffered a severe anxiety disorder when he was 23.

“It came on, like a chemical,” he sighs. “It was just out of nowhere. And it turned my world upside down, because it was the first time I wasn't able to look to my parents thinking they would have an answer. I can't even explain to you the feeling,” he shrugs.

“But it was all-encompassing, and I was incapacitated for three months.” He was in Los Angeles at the time but returned to New York and a psychiatrist who’d helped him when he struggled in school. “Thank God I had the right doctor who knew what it was back in ’93. And because of that struggle that I had, I was able to then, anything from that point on, survive.”

He’s survived well since then as the father of a 10 1/2-year-old son whom he co-parents with his ex-sweetheart. Though they never married, they work in harmony rearing their child, he says.

“We had our losses when he was 6 months old,” says Hoffman. “We just weren't, we were never right for one another. And then slowly but surely, through the years, we have become truly the best of friends, in the most healthy of ways. Not only as co-parents, but I live in a very small town up here, two minutes away from where she lives, and we co-parent him. We threw away all of our differences, and we ... thank God we align ourselves with the same beliefs and values, and it's a really beautiful thing. I'm so happy.”

Celebrities strive to 'Name That Tune'

With a great puff of smoke and a shattering downbeat, “Celebrity Name That Tune” has returned to Fox and is streaming on Hulu. The show pits two “celebrities” against each other to see who knows the most about music and who can earn the most money for their favorite charity. While some of the so-called celebrities are not so celebrated, many are including Lisa Rinna, Mira Sorvino, Kal Penn, Debi Mazar, Craig Robinson, Emily Osment and Torrey DeVitto.

DeVitto, (“The Vampire Diaries,” “Chicago Med”) who played the violin as a kid, always thought she’d be a musician but got into modeling at 15. She tells me, “I felt really lucky. I just didn’t like the actual job very much. When I got put into the acting class which was around the corner from my house in Florida, I thought, ‘Oh, this makes sense. This is what I want to do.’ And I just loved it. I was in the Florida Youth Artists orchestra growing up, and we traveled to Austria and Germany, and I played for weddings for money when I was in high school. Since I’ve been out here (in Hollywood) I’ve done professional stuff with it too.”

But it was modeling that got her started. “I was a kid. I had a little tummy and was curvier at that age, and I was around these stick-like, very serious, big, tall, 5-10 models. So I was the one coming in with McDonald’s at 10 o’clock at night, and they were eating carrot sticks. I was, like, something doesn’t feel right here. But I did make a lot of friends and had the time of my life. But as far as being on the job, I never felt like a model. I didn’t feel like I fit in there.”

Norton co-stars in family epic

Netflix is going to expose another interesting dynasty when it premieres “House of Guinness” on Sept. 25. The story takes place after the death of the patriarch who established Europe’s famous brewery, and deals with the colorful family that follows.

James Norton co-stars in the eight-part series. The British actor is best known from his memorable performances in “Happy Valley” and “Grantchester.” He says he was introverted when he was a kid. “I’ve always been very shy, especially when I was a child. I was painfully shy. I didn’t have friends. I just read books and sat by myself. When I discovered acting, I was able to be so much more comfortable because it was like you slip into someone else’s skin and you can be outgoing – it’s so much easier for me to do that than be myself.”

Felicity Huffman enriches 'Doc'

Felicity Huffman returns in a co-starring role as a mentor to Molly Parker’s character in “Doc,” which introduces its second season Sept. 23 via Fox. Parker plays a doctor who loses the memory of the last eight years following a car crash. As she tries to rebuild her life, Huffman portrays her former mentor and friend who may be harboring a secret.

“I like challenging myself, being uncomfortable and being scared because it makes me feel. I don’t like it, but I want it. It makes me feel alive,” she says.

“I never feel up to the task. I always feel, Oh, my gosh, I don’t know if I can do this. This is the one that’s going to be a disaster.’ You always feel a bit of a fraud. I think it’s part of the human condition. So I always feel that uncomfortable going into a role. The way I compensate for it is I work really hard. I try and make up in hard work what I might lack in natural talent. And that’s not natural to me. I'm naturally lazy but I just work really hard and whenever I look at it, I go, ‘Is there anything I can do today? Have I left anything undone?’ I compensate for being lazy. I think, ‘Oh, my God I’m lazy!’ So I take myself by the scruff of the lapels and I lurch myself around.”

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