• “When I got to college, acting suddenly seemed like a very risky proposition and all my friends were going to law school or med school or Wall Street.”
• “You might look at my CV and see I’ve had 12 jobs, but I’ve been to over 450 auditions so I’ve heard ‘no’ a lot more than I’ve heard ‘yes’. So if I go in looking only to meet my own standards, then that will make taking that rejection a little bit easier. And when I do get that job it will seem like icing on the cake.”
• “The show is completely preposterous. But that aside, it’s a great ride.”
• “My experience is that I find myself having to constantly define myself to others, day-in, day-out. The quote that’s helped me the most through that is from Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” where she says, “Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined” – so I find myself defining myself for other people lest I be defined by others and stuck into some box where I don’t particularly belong”.
• “My father is black and my mother is white. Therefore, I could answer to either, which kind of makes me a racial Lone Ranger, caught between two communities.”
• “I’m kind of a dork. I don’t have much game. I’m not particularly comfortable in bars or clubs. I much prefer being home playing Scrabble, having dinner with a couple friends, going to see a movie, or losing a whole weekend to Season 14 of “Law & Order” (1990) or “The Simpsons” (1989).
• “I made a decision not to work out because I’m lazy and also, the character is not a superhero. I didn’t want him to be a buff guy with Jackie Chan moves because the point is he’s smarter than your average Joe” – on playing “Michael Scofield” with his regular physique.
• When asked what character from literature he would like to play: “Well, if we can expand the definition of literature to include comic books, I’d definitely love a crack at “General Zod” from “Superman”. So I’m hoping that Bryan Singer makes a sequel to the “Superman” that’s coming out and casts me” (TV Guide, April 10-16,2006).
• I have a little fantasy where in the last episode of the season, we slip into the prison’s sewer system, up through the grate, and pop out a hatch – and we’re face to face with Matthew Fox and spend season 2 on a tropical beach. – jokingly linking his show, “Prison Break” (2005) to “Lost” (2004).
•“I’ve been busted for rolling through a stop sign or two, but that’s the closest I’ve come [to being arrested].”
•“My last meaningful relationship was about a year ago and lasted only a few months, but it was hot and heavy; those are the best kind.”
•“My character [in Prisonbreak] needs to be formidable. In reality, I’m not very tough at all.”
•“I haven’t been working out in a while, I appreciate that it [the tattoo] adds shading and contours where there are none.”
•“A great book provides escapism for me. The artistry and the creativity in a story are better than any drugs.”
•“I’m pretty much a couch potato.”
•“You might look at my CV and see I’ve had 12 jobs, but I’ve been to over 450 auditions so I’ve heard ‘no’ a lot more than I’ve heard ‘yes’. So if I go in looking only to meet my own standards, then that will make taking that rejection a little bit easier. And when I do get that job it will seem like icing on the cake.”
•“I think the character I play [on Prisonbreak] is potentially sexy.”
•“I’m kind of a dork. I don’t have much game. I’m not particularly comfortable in bars or clubs. I much prefer being home playing Scrabble, having dinner with a couple friends, going to see a movie, or losing a whole weekend to Season 14 of Law and Order or The Simpsons.”
•On his character in Prison Break, Wentworth says, “Michael was a success in his pre-prison life. He had a career, friends, girlfriends, and yet he was willing to throw that away and go to jail to save his brother. That’s not something your average Joe would do.”
•About being in prison: “I wouldn’t last long. I’d get shanked in, like, five minutes.”
