In Pinocchio, Geppetto is one of the leads, but in Once Upon a Time, Tony Amendola has had to wait his turn for a meaty storyline. In a new interview, the actor talks about the process, and why he loves the show.

Speaking to The Morton Report, Amendola raves about Once Upon a Time, saying:

The greatest thing about this show is that it’s not a retelling of a fairy tale. Each episode deals with a different question of something that preceded it, or an implication of why certain characters are together. For instance, with Geppetto there’s this whole back story involving Jiminy Cricket, why he’s in my character’s life and the fact that he feels this sense of responsibility towards Geppetto.

The actor also admits that as much as he loves the show, “For the first couple of episodes, I felt a bit like ballast,” because the show focused more on the central characters. But, “as an actor you’ve got to be patient,” and Amendola was glad he stuck around for the episode “The Stranger,” which delved into Geppetto’s backstory and gave the actor a lot of great material.

Do you enjoy Amendola as Geppetto? Hopefully August won’t be gone for good, so we get to see more of their relationship develop.