Wentworth Miller's Addicted

Setenay_Went

Announcer: Wentworth Miller, who you may remember from “Prison Break”, he was the lead in that, he’s in the new Resident Evil. He’s pretty awesome. He’s really kind of a low key, just chill guy, very laid back. He came over and like shook all of our hands …even one of the reporters said, “That’s really nice of you, acknowledging that we exist!” Really just a nice guy. Right away jumped into it, and there might be a “Prison Break” question or two in there which is kinda cool, but mostly Resident Evil. Here’s Mr. Wentworth Miller:
Female reporter: You’re so nice to shake all of our hands! No one does that!
WM: Is that not done?
Female Reporter: Sometimes, but not all the time. Thank you!!
WM: You’re welcome…it’s my pleasure.
Q: So what was the first day on set like for you? Stepping into this very well established world.
WM: Well, the first day I was on set I was just kind of there to show Paul Anderson my costume, and go through kind of the gack that we’d agreed upon for the Chris character. So I didn’t get to work but I did get to see Milla in action. She’s an inspiration and a bedrock of this thing. I knew automatically just by watching her kind of navigate the set what the stakes were and what kind of game I had to bring.
Q: It’s got to be a challenge physically to keep up with these girls. Was there an extra special workout routine? Because you had to bring it.
WM: There was an exercise regimen that I put myself on for a couple months prior just because I wanted to have the stamina to keep up with what was required. That said, four years on “Prison Break,” that was a fairly rough and tumble show that was a pretty good introduction/education as far as stunt choreography. There wasn’t anything we didn’t do on that show and all of that came to bear on my work in the movie.
Q: And was the fact that this was going to be shot entirely in 3-D, was that a part of the draw for you, that it was such a new experience?
WM: It was. I think an actor has to stay abreast of the trends and this is clearly a new and powerful direction that the industry’s going in, so I do want to stay current. At the same time, I’m not an actor who tends to geek out on the technical, necessarily. I’ve always been more interested in what story we’re telling as opposed to what gadgets were using to tell that story. And what I liked about Resident Evil is it seemed to have a balance of both. It had the great technology that James Cameron was using on Avatar but it also had characters that had depth and weight and backstory.

Q: Do you think 3D added any elements to the story?
WM: Well it just makes it more kick ass, you know, the gore is that much more gorier, it's in your face. I think they're very clever in the way they use 3D to enhance the story as opposed to distract from it.
Q: Can you talk about working with Ali and the brother sister relationship in the movie?
WM: That was something we were very interested in exploring together. A movie like this I think you can appreciate it on one level that it's simply about the action and horror and the thrills and cool stunt sequences all of which are incredibly satisfying, but there's also the question of character, also the question of do you care about the people you are seeing on screen so when something horrible happens to them it registers in a meaningful way. I think the sibling relationship is something new in the franchise because it's a family bond and everyone in the audience can relate to that automatically, so I'd like to think that the work we did to flesh out that relationship deepened the narrative and the impact to the story as a whole.
Q: Did you play video games to get an idea of the character at all?
WM: I didn't want to embarrass myself. I'm not a gamer, I never have been but I did sit and watch extended sequences from the video games so I could get an understanding of what mythology and history were laid out beforehand, what fans were familiar with, and what they might expect in terms of an onscreen Chris Redfield.
Q: With so many action films and horror films the relationship is between a love interest and yours is a brother sister relationship. How much more interesting is it to play a brother sister than a love interest?
WM: It's a great question. I think there's obviously a certain protective element that comes in, not that there isn't a protective element in a love interest relationship, you know as the zombies are coming and the bullets are flying, but for me having Claire around was a chance to show a protective, tender side to my character that you otherwise might not see because this Chris Redfield is many miles down the road from who you see in the first video game, for example, my impression of that character was he was still kind of shiny in some ways, a little bit bright eyed and bushy tailed. This is not that Chris Redfield, a lot of things have gone down, he's a changed person and there's a lot more edge and darkness and having Claire around is a chance to add a few more dimensions that weren't just about, if it were a love interest the emphasis would be romance, the fact that it's a family bond, someone you would instinctively lay your life down for like a sibling really took it to another level.
Q: How does that compare to Prison Break which was the brother brother aspect?
WM: Right, well on Prison Break I was definitely about saving my brother, but there was also the sense he could take care of himself. If you've met Dominic in person you know Dominic can definitely take care of himself. I think the interesting kind of push, pull in Chris's relationship with Claire is that Claire can also clearly take care of herself, but Chris is the older brother and probably second guesses that in a way that annoys her, but it's just something he can't help but do, because he's the older brother.

It was hard to hear the reporter's questions, but I did my best and I'm sure there are mistakes, but I think it's pretty close.
Q: Do you think Prison Break will ever be turned into a film. I've heard from a lot of fans that they would like to see that.
WM: I question whether or not that would happen. It would be great just from the sole purpose of being able to reunite with all my cast members and work together with those people, but the story was so kind of complex I don't know how you would do it justice in 2 hours. I feel it would be more of a tease and potentially leave the audience dissatisfied as opposed to what we did over the course of 4 years that was pretty layered.
Q: Were you surprised after the 1st year of Prison Break that it did run for 4 years? Because the original concept was set up as a great one season, but they came up with a way to continue it. Were you surprised?
WM: I thought that the 1st season was something special, definitely, and then there was the big question what would happen when we jumped over the wall and we all had concerns about that, but the underlying themes of family and sacrifice, the thrill of government conspiracy and dark forces swarming against this small ragtag band of characters, those are elements of story that strike a chord all around the world and clearly did so, the response that we got internationally especially, was gratifying.
Q: Did the cast share the audience's anticipation of the cliff hangers, because the cliff hanger would happen and you just couldn't wait for the next week, did you guys share that until the next script came in?
WM: I shared it and I sympathized with the audience. I don't think as a viewer I could stand to be teased in this way and have to wait another week. I thought if I were going to tune into Prison Break it would definitely be a DVD experience where I could just shovel episodes down one after another over a course of a long lost weekend.
Reporter: Very similar to Lost.
WM: Yea, so I heard, so I heard.

Q Did you actually have time to keep up on the tv series or is that how you consume your pop culture in a mass quantity over the weekend?
WM That's how I like to do it. At the moment there's nothing on my DVR except for a couple of, uh, reality competition shows, so...
Q. Which ones?
WM. Uh, Top Chef and I'm also watching Work of Art.
Q. [woman] A couple of round-up questions. What was the last movie that you saw?
WM. The Long Hot Summer on VHS.
Q. What was it about [laughing cannot understand the rest of that, but Damn, Woman! You've never heard of the movie, play, or remake? sheesh!]
WM. [laughing] Well... It's Paul Newman and Joanne Woodard, so as far as classic couplings it really doesn't get any better than them.
Q. And what was the last book you read?
WM. Um, I just picked up The Little Stranger, so I haven't read it. I'm carrying it around with me and I intend to read it. [mumbles something "I will"?]
Q. The last one. The last CD you bought or song you downloaded.
WM. I had to download, what was it...? It was a CD of old standards by a singer named Patty Page who was popular back in the day.
Q. [man] So you said you were not really, uh, into the gadgetry behind the movies, and you've proved it now that you are watching stuff on VHS. [WM laughing throughout] The last movie that I was sent a screener on was in VHS and I had to go back and buy a VCR. So are you, uh, do you listen to LPs and...
WM. [laugh] No, no. It doesn't go quite that faaarrrr [he sounds a bit like my brother there LOL]...
Q. So why VHS?
WM. Well that was the only copy I could find. It's not actually on DVD..
Q. [woman] You still have a VCR?
WM. I do.
Q. [woman] Wow.
WM. Yeah, yeah, yeah...
Q [man] [couldn't quite hear] It just means it hasn't broken yet.
WM. [laughs] Exactly. Good luck replacing it. Right.
Q [man] Being at Comic-Con [something about comic books - reading? movies? couldn't quite hear]
WM. I don't I don't...I was talking about comic books with my agent the other day and she was talking about that kind of shift in the industry and the new emphasis on comic books. You know there was a time when the guy who headed up the comic book department at a large agency sat at the back of the room at staff meetings. These days that person has a front row seat.
It's easy to understand why, there's a very rich, relatable mythology. Like I was talking about before, that balance of special effect and character and the need for people to take a break from their lives, live vicariously through someone they can relate to onscreen, find one's self on some extraordinary situation. I mean you cannot deny the appeal of scifi.
Q. Could you see yourself playing a costumed hero?
WM. Absolutely. Absolutely. A costumed hero- Certainly before someone who was in some sort of masked prosthetics situation, I had my fill of the applied experience on Prison Break with the full body tattoos, so, yeah, I'd sooner wear a cape and a mask...
Q. [woman] How long did it take you to do the makeup for that one...?
WM. When we put on the whole thing? That was four hours...
Q [woman] Wow.
WM Four hour process and then an hour and a half to scrub it off with special solvents.
Q. [woman] And how often would you have to do that whole process?
WM Maybe once an episode and then we'd shoot all the scenes requiring the tattoo THAT day because it would disintegrate almost immediately.
Q [man] And then you found yourself in the second season filming.. where were you guys filming [WM In Dallasss] where it was super hot [WM In Julyyyy...] and you were in long sleeves...
WM In the 120 degree weather. I mean I had to sell it that I still had the tattoo on underneath and fourth season [laughs] I forced the writers to get rid of the tattoo [laughs] It was a certain jump in story or logic of suspension of disbelief the way in which my character got that tattoo removed which was basically one long sitting. I don't know if they specified how long [laughing] he was supposed to be - it seemed like maybe an hour or two, but it was necessary for me just to A- get some relief from the wardrobe and B- unbutton my collar literally and figuratively for the first time in four years as far as the character and the character's development goes.
Q[man] Does that give a lasting skin problem or whatever...
WM It doesn't... I think it helps that you take it off really quickly. A couple of nights I did have to wear it to bed and then you just kind of slather yourself in baby powder otherwise you stick to the sheets. It's a lot like wearing fly paper. That's how it feels.

Q: Would you like to do something maybe that involves a leading man in a romantic comedy or drama, or more like the movies that presumably you might have grown up watching, like where you might maybe wear a costume maybe not a cape. Something like a costume genre?
WM: Absolutely, I ‘m interested in exploring other genres if there opportunities present themselves. I saw ‘Please Give’ at theaters not too long ago which is this amazing and well thought out and quote/unquote small movie which unfortunately doesn’t get nearly as much attention as other big budget extravaganzas that aren’t really worth the price of admission but definitely something character driven is where I would like to find myself.
Q: Do you think that, you know, with Prison Break and now Resident Evil that you get typecast as, you know, we need someone to fight the cons and aliens or you know…
WM: You’d be amazed how many scripts are out there with prison involved somehow and I’ve seen them all. I’ve seen movies where my characters been to prison, or he’s going to prison, maybe there’s a tattoo, maybe he makes origami cranes on the side. It’s kind of intense how you can be typecast from after four years on television but when I said yes to Resident Evil it was because there is something sort of amusing and wink-wink about the context. I think if you are a Prison Break fan watching this movie you are going to be amused, if you don’t know me from Prison Break than its just business as usual.
Q: Do you do a lot of fighting in the film?
WM: Yeah, there’s a fantastic sequence at the end with Claire and Chris and Wesker that’s directly inspired by the video game and we had a lot of fun choreographing that and a lot of fun shooting it, because it’s three people going at it at the same time.
Q: There’s such a trend right now for vampires and that superficial - Not superficial - Supernatural kind of world. What’s your stance on the whole vampire craze?
WM: There is just something obviously classic about these monsters. I think they speak to us in ways that we can rationalize and ways that we can’t. I think the appeal of zombies in particular for me is that there’s this mass evil that cannot be rationed with, they can’t be reckoned with, they are just coming for you and the idea of looking under the bed that can’t be stopped that taps into your deepest childhood fears. I think there is something thrilling about seeing that expressed on tv or film.

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