Mandy Patinkin showed up for an appearance on “Live! With Kelly And Michael” on Thursday looking a lot different than he usually does, and he says he looks 20 years younger.

The veteran actor, who just finished the third season of “Homeland”, shaved off the heavy beard he’s been growing for two years and said it was like taking off a mask.

“I shaved it the minute I finished the last shot!” Patinkin said. “I felt like I was taking off a Mickey Mouse mask.”

Although he says he’s loving walking around incognito, the beard will be back, because “Homeland” was just renewed for a fourth season. But for now, he’s enjoying a little change.

“The thing I loved most about it is once the show got more and more successful, wherever I go people would go, ‘Saul, Saul!’ I’d be in an airport in a foreign country and people would say, ‘Sa-ul, Sa-ul! And I took it off and, like, nobody know me,” he said. “This is what real life is like!”

Patinkin spoke recently about his reputation for being difficult on set, saying he had a hard time letting go of the control.

“I struggled with letting in other people’s opinions,” Patinkin said. “During ‘Chicago Hope,’ I never let directors talk to me, because I was so spoiled. I started off with people like Milos Forman, Sidney Lumet, James Lapine, unbelievably gifted people. So there I was saying, ‘Don’t talk to me. I don’t want your opinion.’ I behaved abominably. I don’t care if my work was good or if I got an award for it. I’m not proud of how I was then, and it pained me.”

Now, the 61-year old says he’s changed, and talked about his appreciation for the creative minds at “Homeland” for what they’ve achieved.

“(The writers) blow me away. When I read what happened in the fourth episode which was aired this past Sunday, I’m a very emotional person…I couldn’t get over the creativity of the writing team. I mean, I read that…I couldn’t believe what they’d done,” he said.

Image: Wikimedia Commons