Here is the translation for the D Magazine article courtesy of junglegirl from The Church. Is this just another reason to re-post one of those sexy pics? Maybe, but I also wanted to let you all know something surprising: That Magazine also had WORDS! It's amazing. I had no idea. But now a warning:
Junglegirl: The long introduction is full of wrong information. Maybe the journalist does not watch the show. There’s no season two in Italy. The gang is not being hunted by warden Pope. And Robin Tunney is obviously not Michael Scofield’s girlfriend…
THE DOUBLE LIFE OF A GOOD GUYNo, there's no new info but my favorite bit:
(D-La Repubblica, Saturday, Jan 13th, 2007)
PEOPLE. His white mother and his black father are both professors at Yale. Yet he likes tattoos better: he has a tattoo drawn all over his body. Raised in Brooklyn, now he’s one of those talented actors you can bet on.
By Silvia Bizio
He spends four hours a day on the make-up chair in order to have the neck-to-wrists tattoo applied on his body: for Wentworth Miller, star of the TV show Prison Break, whose second season is airing both in Italy and US, (the first has already been released on DVD), this is a necessary bother to play the character that made him famous. The tattoo actually depicts the map of a maximum security prison from which Michael Scofield (Miller) has to arrange a risky escape. He has one goal, saving his brother who is locked up in the death row for a murder that he claims not guilty of.
On Prison Break, whose first season gained several nominations at the Golden Globes (with one for Miller as Best Male Actor in a Drama Series), Michael’s brother, Lincoln (Dominic Purcell) is found guilty of the murder of the U.S. Vice President’s brother. Then they find out that the Vice President herself faked her brother’s death with a sleight of hand in order do a coup d’état and become President. Michael plans a bank robbery to end up in jail with his brother and he involves other convicts in his escape plan (some mob bosses, too) as well as his girlfriend Robin Tunney. The daring and extremely complex escape closes the first season of the show. But soon the gang find out that the escape is only the prelude to worse problems. Being haunted by both FBI and the sadistic warden, longing for revenge because of the loss, they must get over the dangers of a life on the run. And they must also figure out what lies behind the fake murder. So, the action-packed Prison Break is like a cocktail of The Sopranos and 24. How does his leading actor see it? “Michael is a good man, an honest man. He borders on the hero-type, but he has to get his hands dirty to achieve his goals,” says the 34 year old actor, whose mother is white and whose father is black, both professors at Yale. Born in London, but raised in Brooklyn, Miller (but his friends call him Went) majored in English Literature at Princeton before moving to Los Angeles to make his dream come true: acting. After small roles in a few episodes of many TV shows, from Buffy to Joan Of Arcadia, Wentworth performed his task egregiously on the big screen in The Human Stain, playing the young self of Antony Hopkins’ character, Underworld and The Confession. Until he got the leading role on Prison Break, the show previously shot in Chicago and now relocated to Dallas, Texas. Miller says he has little time for his private life, when he is not on the set. We met him during one of his rare visits to Los Angeles, the city where he is already based.
Wentworth, what was your first reaction to a story about a man who’s willing to sacrifice everything he as to save his brother?
I was curious to see how they (the writers) would manage to do it, because at first, I admit it, I thought the idea was absurd. We dealt with this story as if it were a real story, but the universe they built around it, it’s like the universe from comic books, it allows you to do everything you want. Great part of the success of this show, I guess, is actually the fact that it is not afraid to seem absurd. It’s like a puzzle that the audience enjoys solving, piece by piece, episode after episode.
In real life how far you’d go, instead, to save someone you love?
Michael is the extreme example of devotion and loyalty. If one of my loved ones ended up in jail, maybe I wouldn’t stop writing petitions, making phone-calls. Maybe I’d hire the best lawyers on earth . But I couldn’t go further. I care a lot about my freedom, expecially after I spent six months in a real prison to shoot the first season of Prison Break.
What must we expect in the next season?
I worked hard on Michael’s psychology. The audience must believe that he’s capable to do the impossible. But you need to give yourself up to the world of comics, you must believe that an ordinary man can get himself locked up in a maximum security prison, with all the terror that it strikes, and that he is determined to get out of it with his brother. Michael is somewhat like Steve McQueen, maybe a little arrogant, too. But in season two we can also see Michael’s life and the deep relationship that ties him to his brother through flashbacks. So we can understand him better.
What can you tell us about the giant tattoo that covers a large part of your body?
It’s the most ambitious fake tattoo in television history! This certainly makes all the long hours spent in the make-up room more bearable. Luckily we need to do the entire tattoo only once per episode. But you usually see only an arm, the torso or the neck, so the hours needed for those applications are considerably reduced. And once you have it on, you need to shoot as fast as you can, because it melts in 24 hours.
Did it make you want a real tattoo?
No. Actually, after this experience, I have no desire to get my own.
Is it true that lots of real inmates worked as extras in the first season of Prison Break?
Yes, it is. We shot in the Joilet Penitentiary, which was shut down in 2002. Everyday we had 150 former inmates and guards from that prison working on the set as extras. One of them once approached me and told me: “I spent six years here as a prisoner and working on this show is the best thing that had happened to me since 1984, when I was arrested.”
What about your private life? What do you do when you’re not working?
I don’t even have time to breathe. The show takes up all my time and energy. We are on the set from 12 to 17 hours a day, five days a week. On the weekend the only thing I want to do is sit on the couch and stare at the wall. The only thing I can think about is eating, sleeping and “recharging my batteries”. I’m not a party-loving person. I don’t feel at ease in clubs, or in nightclubs. I’d like better staying at home and play Scrabble or having dinner with friends. At most I can “enjoy” myself watching the entire season 14 of Law & Order or The Simpsons.
You dreamt to be a movie star. Does television satisfy you?
When I moved to Los Angeles, like many other actors, I thought that being successful meant becoming a Tom Hanks or a Julia Roberts. Today, I think that we tend not to appreciate the skills and talent of actors who work, day by day, in TV shows. I was not sure that I would enjoy playing the same character for months, but now I get to like it. And with all the unemployed actors around, if you manage to do what you love and you get paid for it, you can really say that you’ve made it.
"On the weekend the only thing I want to do is sit on the couch and stare at the wall."
As long as there is a pic of you on it baby, I'm in. Speaking of pics:
OK maybe one more
Make that two more
Oh Wentworth...
FYI, if one wanted to see these REALLY REALLY big, one might check my Imageshack. They are breathtaking. *sigh*
