V’s most handsome convicts are back on TV Land this month when Prison Break hits our screens on 20th June at 21:00 KSA. The drama follows a group of inmates, led by two brothers Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) and Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell), as they plan their escape from Illinois State Prison. Viewers all over the world have endured the wait to return to River State Penitentiary after the startling cliff hanging ending three months ago. Arab News took a break with Wentworth Miller to find out just how far he would go to save a loved one!

So how much of your life has changed drastically? I mean, inside your mind do you feel like it’s overwhelming or it’s okay?

I try to take it one day at a time. It’s been a bit like winning the lottery. One moment you’re unemployed and driving around L.A. killing time, and next year literally behind bars working 5-day weeks, 14 hours a day in a completely different city. And it has been extraordinary. It’s been a very challenging year in that they don’t tell you until you become a lead on a 1-hour drama that that’s widely considered to be one of the most difficult jobs in Hollywood just because of the amount of time. It’s exciting to work on a show that inspires you and to be wrestling with a character that you think is unique as I believe Michael Scofield is. I’m just happy at the end of the day to have somewhere to go when I wake up in the morning.

Before you had this offer did you think this might be how fame or success would feel like?

What I never took into account is how powerful the medium of television actually is. The Human Stain: Anthony Hopkins and I spent 6 months of my life training for that movie and then shooting it and it kind of came and went without leaving much of a mark, so to speak. And to know that The Human Stain, which was 6 months of my life made no impact by and large on my career and on the American audience, whereas, one episode of Prison Break, which will take 8 days to shoot, will be seen by millions of people. It’s an eye-opener. The fact that I now walk down the street and 9 times out of 10 I’ll run into someone who’s a fan of the show, whereas once in a blue moon, I’ll meet someone who has seen The Human Stain. It’s pretty extraordinary. And the wonderful thing about talking to these fans is that when they tell you “I never miss an episode,” what they’re telling you is they’ve made time for you and your work and your show within their schedule in their lives. I think it’s an incredibly high compliment.

How far would you go to, say, protect your family?

Not as far as my character, I don’t think. I don’t think in real life I’d last very long in an actual prison.

Do you know what’s happening after you break out?

I have a general idea of where the story goes. I think we’ll break out at the end of this season, hopefully. And the next season will be my brother and myself on the road trying to unravel the conspiracy that put him behind bars in the first place while still trying not to get caught by the police.

So now that the cast has become so successful have you had a few more proposals to work in movies?

I have, and it was interesting to go back to The Human Stain, that was a movie that I was very proud of and I hoped it would open a lot of doors for me, but we’re working in a time where casting decisions as far as feature films aren’t made really by directors unless you’re Steven Spielberg. They’re made by studio accountants and foreign distributors and your name has to mean something overseas. It has a lot to do with whether or not you’re going to get cast in a movie regardless of how talented you may or may not be. And the fact that Prison Break will now be seen by a much larger audience, I think will go a long way as far as helping me with name recognition. And I do consider the show to be a means to an end, but it’s also an end in and of itself. Hopefully it will open doors for me and give me access to projects and directors that I didn’t have access to before, but it’s also where my entire commitment lies at the moment. For that reason, I won’t be squeezing a movie in on my hiatus. I’m pretty tired at this point and I think it’s in my best interest and the best interest of the show to take a couple of months to recharge the battery so I’m ready to go in the second season and give it everything that I gave it in the first season.

What do you do to recharge the battery?

Sleep. I sleep a lot. Eat a lot. And I think I’ll enjoy being out of Chicago which tends to be dark and cold. L.A. is now my home and it has been for the last 10 years and knowing that tomorrow will be sunny, it makes a lot of difference in one’s attitude. I think everyone in California is a little bit light sensitive. Myself included.

What have you learned from the show?

You know what I’ve learned is that I think we’d all like to believe that there’s a world of difference between us and people who live their lives behind bars, but there is a very, very fine line. And even though exact wrong set of circumstances you too could be behind bars. Just driving the highway you’ll see one of those signs “construction up ahead” and if you blink or sneeze and God forbid hit a construction worker, that’s 10 years in prison. So, you know, your average law-abiding citizen who would never break the law consciously could conceivably find themselves in the position of Michael or Lincoln. I think that’s one of the appealing parts of the show; if not the most appealing part is that prison is a real-life horror story. It could in fact happen to me.

How are you like your character?

I do share my character’s sense of discipline and organization and follow-through. But I think Michael is a man obsessed. I think when I first read the script I thought that Michael was the good brother and his older brother was the screwed-up one. And what’s become clear to me now is that Michael has just as many if not more issues than his older brother that he’s trying to save. He’s just been a lot better at keeping them suppressed and repressed.

Was it easy to get into this character’s head? How did you prepare for the role?

I had to throw myself into it very quickly. I was cast a week before we shot the pilot. They’d seen hundreds of actors for the part and I think I came in last. Kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel. And there is a certain rhythm to the writing. It sounded almost akin to His Girl Friday black and white, Rosalind Russell, Cary Grant feature film, that sort of snappy back and forth. So in the beginning, really that’s what I latched on to as far as who this character was. That it was all about verbal tennis, it was about being a poker player and keeping a stone face and your emotions very close to your chest, but as the show has progressed and the clock is continuing to tick and the pressure is starting to mount, the cracks are starting to show. And in some of the more recent episodes that we’ve shot that haven’t aired you do see the fear and anxiety that’s been simmering under the surface start to come to the surface and that’s been very exciting to play.

What did it feel to be nominated for a Golden Globe?

I thought it was pretty extraordinary. I certainly had hopes for the show, but I hadn’t really thought about myself. What’s incredible is that we’ve only aired 12 episodes. I mean, it’s a very, very new show. And I think some of our best episodes have yet to air because they took us off the air in the middle of November here in the States. And we’ve been working hard consistently without a break since then. And to be included in the same category as a Hugh Laurie or Kiefer Sutherland, these are men with resumes as long as my arm, it’s an incredible honor, because I do think of myself as someone who even though I’ve been kicking around the edges for a long time, I’m still at the beginning of my learning curve.

Is it a long process to get the painting?

It’s about four or five hours with two people applying the tattoo and we do it maybe once an episode. It’s a series of details that fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Maybe 20 to 25 in all. They strip the moisture from the skin with rubbing alcohol, apply a layer of glue, press the decal on, spray it with water, peel it off, apply a layer of sealant and it’s an exacting, painstaking process and at the end of the day you want to scrub it off. It feels like flypaper. It’s kind of tacky to the touch.

Do you think that shows like Prison Break are more demanding of the audience in terms of the complexity of the plots and the long time commitment to the viewing?

I think it’s certainly — it certainly benefits the actors. I mean, Prison Break is a story that cannot be told in a 2-hour feature film. It has to be told over the stretch of two or three seasons. And I think we’re definitely following in the footsteps of 24 or Lost where there’s the assumption that the audience is smart enough to follow along, that they are willing to invest in the plot, in the characters over the long term in the way that you don’t have to with a CSI or your average episode of Law and Order. And I’m very happy that we’re part of that trend.