As in, “I will slither naked out of the bathtub five times, and that’s it.”

That was actually one of the harder ones. The shot they wanted was an overhead of me just lying flat in the tub. I felt like I was drowning.

Why did “The Leftovers” become much more celebrated in Season 2?

What initially attracted him [Mr. Lindelof] to the material was that it was this great portal to talk about things that he’s really interested in: grief, hope, the meaning of life. He was sourcing [Mr. Perrotta’s] book in a good way. Then, in the second season, he was like, “O.K., now I can really charge hard at the questions I want to ask.” It’s kind of like if you want to enjoy a hot cup of soup by the fire, you have to walk through the blizzard to get to it.

Do you agree that Kevin takes off his shirt a lot?

There’s always a reason for me to be shirtless. I’m either being rebirthed into a different astral plane — it does make a certain amount of sense that he would be naked. Or I’m waking up with my wife in the morning. It’s not “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” I’m not going to be wearing baby blue pajamas.

Explain all those beards in the new season.

[Mr. Lindelof] told me to start growing a beard. Then strangely all the other guys showed up with beards, too, unasked for. They said, “Do you want us to shave?” And they said: “You know what? Keep your beards. Let’s see if that works.” I think Damon wanted to show that Kevin had settled into the town, become more of a part of the community.

Do you keep your wife up to date on all the scary things that are happening to Kevin?

I do. But knowing about it and being there while it’s happening is a totally different thing. There are times when she’ll call me, and she’ll be out with friends, and I’ll be at the bottom of a well with mud all over me. And I’ll be like, “I really have to call you back” [laughs].