Peter Gallagher is one of our favorite actors, and after reading his recently-created Twitter account, we want him to be our new internet-best-friend. Gallagher fan and Urlesque pal Joy Engel noticed that the multi-talented actor, dancer, singer and amazing-eyebrow-wearer had joined Twitter, but that he was surprisingly lacking in followers.

Joy was shocked. We're talking about Peter Gallagher, here! He was in Center Stage! He was in American Beauty! He was Sandy Cohen on The OC, for crying out loud! Why doesn't this man have a MILLION Twitter followers?!

So, Joy started a movement to get Peter Gallagher to a million followers, complete with its own hashtag, #getpetertoamillion, and we started a campaign to get Mr. Gallagher to talk to us about his experience venturing into the Twitterverse. It was a short-lived campaign, though, because Peter (may we call him Peter?) is a stand-up guy, and he agreed to an Urlesque interview.

Responding to an interview request out of the blue and over Twitter was a new experience for Peter, but he decided to go for it anyway, and we're glad he did. Read on for Peter's thoughts on Twitter, his multi-faceted career, and even the Sad Keanu Reeves meme.

Like the rest of us, Peter couldn't escape hearing about Twitter, but he was wary about the way the service seemed geared toward oversharing and narcissism. He finally decided to try it out when he started working on the espionage drama Covert Affairs and found a lot people on the set were tweeting. Christopher Gorham, in particular, was the resident Twitter expert in the cast, and he offered to help Peter set up an account and get some more followers.

Now that he's tested the waters a bit, Peter likens chatting with fans on Twitter to "standing at the stage door after a performance, talking to the audience, signing playbills." It's a refreshing attitude when so many Twitter users -- celebrities, marketers, and just regular folks -- are using Twitter to promote things and pursue profit. That's never been Peter's way of looking at things, though.

When it comes to picking roles, he says he'd rather take a small part in a project with a great original story or an amazing director than star in something we've already seen before. If you're confused by his long and eclectic resumé, just look at his career as an extension of his passion for storytelling. He's certainly not in it for the money.

He told me a story about taking a drive with his wife past some unbelievably expensive houses, and telling her "I'm so sorry! It never occurred to me to make a lot of money. I just thought, 'If we get to do what we love, we win!'"

If we get to do what we love, we win!

It's a fantastic philosophy for life in general, and for Twitter in particular. Internet trend watchers have observed this pattern repeating over and over: the least cynical, most genuine things online earn the most positive attention. Without changing a thing, Peter already has the perfect mindset for "going viral."

Not that he's worried about it, of course. When I asked him what he thought when he first met (well, @replied to) Joy and the #getpetertoamillion movement, he didn't say anything about the number. Instead, he focused on the community, and what it means to him as an actor.

I was so touched. I've had an interesting career in that I haven't always made the most obvious choices, or the most high-profile ones, or ones that might be consistent with wanting to be successful ... But the choices I've made have meant a lot. As I've wandered through my career, sometimes you feel like you're in a forest, and you wonder if anybody hears. After a while you think, 'I might be alone in this forest.' It doesn't matter if anybody else hears. When you find out that the choices you've made have resonated with people, that's reassuring.

And, as far as getting to a million followers, he said he couldn't imagine it would ever happen.

Joy told me, "He's wrong." "We got him a thousand in a week," she said. "People will realize how great he is at Twitter. He understands it," and of course, "He's Sandy freaking Cohen! I always wanted to go to Chrismukkah at the Cohens."

That's Peter Gallagher's not-so-secret weapon on Twitter. He's been acting for a long time, but the generation that's making Twitter a huge hit grew up seeing him as The OC's iconic TV dad. How can we resist paying attention when the cool father we've always wished we had shows up to the party ... and on top of that, he's willing to talk to us?

Ego-driven celebrities like Kanye West (who also just joined Twitter) promote themselves so often that even their loyal supporters can eventually grow tired of it. Some never deign to @reply to a lowly fan, and some don't even write their own tweets.

Peter told me that it had never occurred to him that some celebrities would hire "ghost tweeters" to run their accounts for them. He can understand how it would be easy to get sucked into the selfish and solipsistic side of Twitter, though.

It could just be like the worst drug for certain people, in that you could be completely self-obsessed 100% of the time. As an actor, I'm only self-obsessed 99% of the time.

Peter's laid-back and personable approach to building a community on Twitter could make him part of the group of celebrities that the internet adopts and promotes as its own. Online communities can do big things when they decide they like a particular actor. Facebook successfully campaigned to get Betty White on Saturday Night Live and Reddit started Cheer Up Keanu Reeves Day.

Keanu became a meme when he was spotted forlornly eating his lunch alone on a park bench, and the internet tried to boost his spirits by sharing stories about him and donating to charity on his behalf. The Cheer Up Keanu movement never could never have gotten off the ground if Keanu himself hadn't developed a reputation as one of the kindest people in Hollywood.

But when it came time to respond to this outpouring of fan love, Keanu issued a dismissive statement through his publicist. Since Peter doesn't seem like the type to react that way, I asked him whether he thought Keanu had made a mistake.

I can't speak for Keanu ... He's a lovely, great guy, but he's also been in the glare of a brighter spotlight, and a harsher glare for a longer amount of time than I have been. I've been hiding in plain sight, and happily so. To each his own. How you feel and what you reveal [in real life] might affect the kind of power you'd have in another character.

Based on the way Peter chooses his projects and talks to fans -- and even the fact that he agreed to this interview at all -- I think he's the sort of genuine guy the web can get behind. "And he also makes fun of his own eyebrows!" says Joy. Indeed. I told Peter that Joy suggested the underscore at the end of @petergallagher_ was meant to symbolize his distinctive (and distinguished) eyebrows. "Maybe I should have done two [underscores], then!" he said, and then joked that maybe one is fine after all.

Around the Urlesque water cooler, we're pretty sure that #getpetertoamillion will eventually be a success, but what should he do if he does end up with a million followers? Peter hadn't even considered it, but he came up with a couple of ideas on the spot.

I'd have to throw it out there and see. Maybe donate to some kind of consumer protection bureau, or help the Alzheimer's Association. It could wreak complete havoc with my personal and professional life. 'Sorry, I can't talk to you! I have a million people I've got to tend to!'

Joy thinks he should employ his talent as a singer and perform a song for Twitter, a la Ingrid Michaelson.


Of course, Peter Gallagher's not just busy with Twitter all day. He's currently on two TV shows, which both air on the same night, and he's also in two upcoming films.

On the TV side of things, you can see Peter as the head of the CIA on Covert Affairs, and as Father Phil, the chief confessor on Rescue Me.

He reminds me of the priest we had at our first parish in the Bronx, St. Barnabus. Kind of a tough guy. Scare the heart out of you when you're younger, and then have a cigarette with you behind the church when you're in high school.

He's also due to play superstar defense attorney Barry Scheck in Conviction, which comes out on October 15th, and also stars Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell, Minnie Driver, and Juliette Lewis. Then he's Cher's husband in Burlesque, which also features Christina Aguilera (no, not Urlesque, although we'd definitely cast him if we ever made a movie).

In terms of his varied career, Peter wouldn't lean toward one medium -- theatre, TV or film -- as his favorite, but he did break down what appeals to him about each of them:

I think I must have a little ADD, because I like to be able to bounce around between all of them. They've each given me very different things. The theatre is closest to me, in a way. Live performance is where I started, and it's what I tend to keep coming back to. In terms of the audience, and the Twitter thing, for us, when things go right in a play or a musical, we get to be there when it happens. You're actually present when those moments of community occur. A big laugh or a deep silence or something that just works. Doing 8 shows a week is enough to drive you around the bend, but when it works, it's pretty special.

The theatre's given me the opportunity to play a great number of roles I wouldn't have in film. But by the same token, working with Robert Altman so many times, Soderbergh, and some of these great filmmakers, there's nothing like it.

And then for TV, you actually have an audience, and you get one more chance to get it right next week, which is very powerful for an actor.

And singing of course, I'll keep doing. That was where I started. I kind of bounce around, which has been a challenge. I think it's hard for people to put their hook around what I'm all about, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

And, since this is Urlesque, we had to ask Peter for his thoughts on viral videos and internet memes. When I asked him for his favorite YouTube vid, he couldn't remember any off the top of his head -- his wife is the family expert at finding funny videos -- but he did point me to the famous "Did You Know?" video, a mixture of population, education and technology statistics that has over 11 million YouTube views.

He was more enthusiastic than I expected when I explained what we do, and he summed up Urlesque more elegantly than I could have:

What you're doing is finding things that are genuinely funny, finding things that actually capture what entertainment can do when it's at its best, which is capture people behaving as people would in those circumstances. It's like evidence that there's still some authentic behavior on the part of human beings, that's not just ironed out and squeezed and forced and shaped to promote something.

I think we should take that as a compliment!

We'd like to thank Peter for sneaking past the traditional media gatekeepers with us and agreeing to an interview over Twitter. Of course, be sure to follow him, too.

• link:// Peter Gallagher on Twitter
• link:// Peter Gallagher on IMDB
• link:// Peter Gallagher's Facebook Fan Page
• related:// 10 Reasons to Follow Peter Gallagher on Twitter