“I felt very much at home with the sadder side of Tommy, but it’s not a territory I need to dwell in,” he says. “I don’t need to discuss or work around the abuse that surrounds alcoholism and dysfunction in families who suffer from that disease because it’s something I can draw on from personal experience. It was actually quite cathartic, and I felt a responsibility to those who understand that world and those who don’t and to open a window on it.”