TV Tattler: Celebrity Interviews

'Prison Break' Star Wentworth Miller Locks Down Breakout Role

Related Links 'Prison Break' Listings More About Wentworth Miller

May 1 -- It's almost too good to be true: a good-looking Princeton grad, who just happens to be the star of a hit TV show.

But that description only begins to define Wentworth Miller of 'Prison Break,' who stars as Michael Scofield -- a structural engineer who gets himself thrown into prison and devises an elaborate plan to free his brother from death row.

In an interview with AOL Television, Miller weighed in on the show's future, his indirect route to stardom and how R&B diva Mariah Carey changed his life.

How does it feel to be the hottest breakout star of the biggest breakout show this season?
You know the best part about the whole thing? We just got spoofed in 'MAD' magazine. You don’t know what that means to me. I swore by that thing when I was a kid. As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t get any better than that. Period.

How did you prepare for your role on 'Prison Break'? Did you spend time in prisons with real inmates?
I had very little time to prep because we started filming a week after I was cast. But as luck would have it, we shot the first season in a real prison -- Joliet State Pen outside Chicago -- which served as a very real, very concrete reminder of where you are, who you are, what the stakes are and so on. They shut down Joliet in 2002, but its history is alive and well. We had former inmates working as extras on the set. They had some incredible stories to tell about their time behind bars.

What's it like acting behind bars?
The prison has an oppressive, heavy feel to it. It’s a strange place to go to work. Like having a picnic in a graveyard. But I know I can go home at the end of the day, which makes all the difference.

Do you prefer the Midwest to L.A.?
L.A. has been my home for the last ten years. I’ve come to like it a lot. But it’s very much about the entertainment industry, and it can be a little incestuous. That’s what I liked most about working in Chicago -- not everyone I met was somehow connected with the business. Not everyone had a stack of headshots in the backseat of their car. Not everyone was working on a script.

Executive producer Paul Scheuring has said, "Season 2 [of 'Prison Break'] will be the manhunt." What do you think that will mean for the show once the gang breaks out?
It means we've got our work cut out for us. It means that we leave behind a lot of what attracted people to our show in the first place -- the prison, specifically. And then the question becomes, do you care about these characters enough to tune in to see what happens to them once they’re on the outside? But I'm excited by the idea of the show completely reinventing itself. It's bold, it's ambitious and I don’t think it's been done before.

Is there a future for real romance between Michael Scofield and Dr. Sara Tancredi?
That remains to be seen. Michael and Sara have a real connection, forged in extreme circumstances, but there are so many obstacles between them. And the way this season ends… It’s pretty devastating, especially for one of us. I’m not sure their relationship, which is so new and not exactly built on the strongest of foundations, will be able to recover.

Who would win in a steel cage death match: Abruzzi or T-Bag?
Tough call. Abruzzi's got the size and the strength, but T-bag is small and quick. Then again, T-Bag probably has a razor blade or two tucked away in some unimaginable place, so I might have to go with him.

Has the show influenced your views on the American criminal justice system?
What’s changed is my perception of the men and women behind bars. I think we'd all like to believe that we’ve got nothing in common with the average inmate, but the fact is they've got dreams and fears and hopes just like anyone else. And they all started out someone’s child, someone’s friend, someone’s loved one. The line between "us" and "them" is a little less clear than you might think.

Would you ever go to similar lengths to save a loved one in need?
No. I mean, if it came down to it, there are people that I'd give my life for, but there’s no way I'd be clever enough to pull off what my character's up to. The truth is, math and science have always baffled me. Even if I were willing to endure months of pain to get those blueprints tattooed on my body, I wouldn't know how to read them.

>> Next Page: Wentworth as Mariah Carey's Video Boy Toy

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