Wentworth Miller

Ok, so now we are into Episode Three of Prison Break and I’m going to be less and less detailed about the people in the show outside of Wentworth.  Ok?  I mean, you can read the recaps yourself online.  I want to focus on the intelligence of the character Wentworth is playing.  Michael Scofield is one smart cookie.

After his toes are cut off, he is sent to the infirmary where he is questioned by Tancredi about the incident.  He simply tells her “please don’t make me lie to you”.  Once she has him bandaged up, he is in his cell with his foot elevated and the first signs of doubt start to show.

He still rakes the next day so he can speak to Linc who is infuriated about the toe incident.  Michael tells him to drop it because Abruzzi is necessary for the escape because he owns a charter flight business that operates an airstrip ten miles from Fox River.  They need Abruzzi.  Scofield questions Linc if they can trust Sucre because he needs to break out through the cell and if they can’t trust Sucre, it’s all a bust.

Michael and Sucre are in their cell, Michael is shown in a flashback in his old apartment examining the plans on his walls.  There is a single post-it that reads “Cell Test”.  Back in the present, Michael produces a cell phone from under his covers.

During P.I in the laundry room, Michael opens a small electrical box and Scure watches as Michael hides the phone in a towel and puts it in the box.  Sucre warns Michael of the extra 2 years to his sentence if he is caught with it.

Linc overhears Sucre discussing the cell phone with other inmates and uses it to hint to Bellick that he knows something and in order to give up his information, he wants some extra time outside.  Linc tells him of Sucre and the phone.

Bellick confronts Sucre who won’t talk and loses his conjugal visits over it.  Michael and Linc are in the laundry room and Sucre tells Scofield that he better get to make all the calls he wants with the phone.  Michael tells him it is impossible and breaks it in half, it was a sculpted and painted bar of soap.  Scure is livid.  Scofield explains that they did it to see if they could trust him.  Scure says that Michael continues to dig in their cell, he is tattling.

Tancredi exams Michaels foot and shows concern for his well-being.  Michael talks the doc into keeping the secret of prisoner misconduct and tells her of a story about how his brother helped him face his fear of monsters when he was a child.  The doc offers to send him to protective custody but he refuses.

Sucre packs for a transfer because he only has 16 months left and if he gets caught with a hole in his wall, he gets 5 years added.

Abruzzi prevents T-bag (the inmate from the bolt incident) from stabbing Scofield with a jagged-edged gutter.  Abruzzi tells T-bag that everything runs through him.  One of Abruzzi goons sends Michael into an empty kitchen where Abruzzi is waiting.  T-bag shows up with his gutter.  T-ag is preparing to gut Scofield and Abruzzi puts a stop to it again.  He tells Michael that he did that because he knows he has gone about getting the information the wrong way and he wants the information Michael has.

Michael reveals to Abruzzi that he needs a trade.  A plane for Fibonacci.  Abruzzi pressures Michael for information about the escape but Michael won’t talk.

Michael is in his cell now with a hollowed out book that stores his homemade allen wrench.  Before he can unscrew the toilet, Bellick brings in his new roomie who came from the pych ward and his name is “Haywire”.  Michael gets a chance to tell Linc about Haywire and tell him that he will have to work at night.  Michael tells Linc that he is 3 days behind schedule and that the margin of error for the project is zero days.

That night when he is sure Haywire is sleeping, Michael starts to unscrew the bolts on the toilet.  He feels Haywire’s eyes on him and asks what is wrong with him.  Haywire answers,

“I have a neuroanatomic lesion affecting my reticular activating system,” Haywire replies. Michael asks, “What’s that mean?”

Haywire replies, “It means I don’t sleep. At all.”

I’m not going to be so thorough with the recaps of Prison Break now that I have laid the ground work.  I’m just going to tell you how Wentworth carries off the character of Michael Scofield with greatness.

Michael exams the tattoo on his arm.  By using a mirror he is able to read the words and numbers SCHWEITZER ALLEN 11121147.  Michael write it down.

Michael is caught with a shank at a shakedown but the Warden knows it is Sucre’s and takes him to SHU.  Bellick is mad and tells Scofield that although the Warden rules during the day, that he rules at night.

Michael explains that his faking diabetes is because they will escape through the infirmary.  Lincoln explains that it’s a bad idea because Michael can’t get a key.  Michael assure him he can and Linc questions him as to “you are going to get a key”.  Michael just assures him, “something like that”.

On the yard, Michael separates from the group and locates a bolt on a set of bleachers with the serial number 11121147 on it.  (A flashback shows Michael in his office looking over blueprints of the bleachers in the prison yard.)  Michael uses a quarter to unscrew the bolt but has to leave it half unscrewed because he is approached by other inmates.

Michael returns later to retrieve his bolt but is caught by the same inmate from earlier.  That inmate take the bolt and when the group is broken up by a C.O., the bolt is given to yet another inmate and Michael walks away empty handed.

Michael approaches Abruzzi about getting the bolt back.  Abruzzi only agrees to help if Michael will give him the location of Fibonacci and Michael tells him not til they are both on the outside of the prison.  Abruzzi leaves him.

During a count, Michael gets his chance to get the bolt but again is caught by the same inmate.  He tells the inmate he wants the bolt as a weapon for what seems to be a racial war brewing.  Michael instead ends up with a popsicle stick and no bolt.

The C.O. had found Michael’s paper with the name Allen Schweitzer writen on it and questions Michael.  He plays dumb.

During what is the racial war, Michael is thrown to the ground and then attacked by the inmate with the bolt.  During the scuffle for the bolt, someone stabs the inmate and Scofield looks guilty.

This causes the Warden to put he entire prison on lockdown and during this time Michael sits in his cell and begins to rub his bolt against the floor.  The inmate from the yard taunts Michael but Michael concentrates on sharpening the bolt.  (A flashback shows Michael looking over the blueprints of Fox River and the details of the Schweitzer toilets used int he prison.  His eyes focus on “Steel Angle Brackets with 1/4” Allen Bolts”.

He reveals the tattoo on his forearm again and presses the bolt against his forearm.  The sizes match and now the obsession with the bolt is revealed.  He has used the bolt to create an allen wrench.  He uses it to start unscrewing the toilet.

Michael gets the PUGNAc from the “local pharmacy inmate” and then goes to his visit with Dr. Tancredi.  She pricks his finger and measures his glucose.  She deems him definitely a diabetic, this will ensure he gets to continue to visit the infirmary.

Abruzzi’s goons grab Michael on his way back to his cell and apparently cut his two small toes off of one foot.  Michael told him that he would only give up the information when they were “both outside the prison”.  So, Abruzzi orders the toes cut off.

LJ’s mom takes him to see Lincoln and then leaves the two of them alone to talk.  They discuss LJ’s behavior and LJ tells Linc that he is basically already dead to him.  In the infirmary the doctor looks over his chart and questions whether he is really a diabetic.  While she is on the phone, Michael investigates a telephone wire that runs from the infirmary roof to the prison wall.  The doc says she will runs some test the next time he is in the infirmary.

Michael has to get some PUGNAc which is an insulin blocker from the local pharmacy (inmate) so that he continue to fake his diabetes.  C-Note, the inmate who is the local pharmacy questions Michael’s intentions but when Michael shows him some cash, he just quits with the questions.

Michael is given a P.I. work card.  Lincoln and Michael do some painting and Linc asks about Veronica and her engagement to “that guy”.  Abruzzi is watching the two chat about how Michael plans to get them out of the prison.  Michael briefs Lincoln about the prison retrofitting job in 1999.  Lincoln questions Michael having seen the blueprints of the building Michael removes the top part of his jumpsuit and reveals the tattoo and indicates, that better than seeing the blueprints, he is wearing them.

Michael also starts making his contacts with the prison doctor Dr. Sara Tancredi who will treat the diabetes.  He asks about her relationship to the Governor but she doesn’t answer.  She leaves and he puts another swan origami into the drainage gate in the infirmary.  She tells him that since needles aren’t permitted in the cells, he will have to come to the infirmary for his regular insulin shots.

Finally Michael makes contact with Linc in the chapel.  Michael tells him tat he plans to break them out of the prison.  Linc tells him it’s impossible and Michael replies, “Not if you designed the place it isn’t.”

The warden then asks for Michaels help in building supports for his toothpick building of the Taj Mahal and Michael refuses.  The Warden reminds him that it is better for Scofield to owe him than the other way around.

As it is finally revealed, Michael’s attorney is a former girlfriend of Linconln and he asks her to find out who set Linc up for this murder he is on death row for.

The mobster had received his letter from Michael with a picture of Fibonacci and he is telling Abruzzi.  He indicates that he has no idea who found him or where the photo came from but it came with a folded up bird.

Michael had dropped a magazine in a drain on his first trip to the yard and now that he is back on the yard, he can see the swan that he dropped int he infirmary laying beside it.  Abruzzi approaches Michael and wants to talk after just telling him days earlier that he had no use for him.  Michael doesn’t do what Abruzzi wants and his goons beat Michael up.

The Warden threatens to put Michael in SHU for 90 days for fighting but Michael agrees to fix the Taj Mahal instead.  In the meantime, Michael’s attorney learns that one person who could have helped free Lincoln has been killed.

Fox River is old.  Scofield meets up with prison guard Brad Bellick who lays out the rules and takes note that Michael has Type I Diabetes.  He meets Fernando Sucre who is new cellmate and he studies all the other inmates walking around.  Sucre serves as Michaels tour guide of the prison yard.

He asks Sucre to help him find his brother who is known as Linc the Sink because he is on death row awaiting execution for the murder of the Vice President’s brother.  He can see his brother but Sucre explains that getting to talk to him takes some work.  He will need someone in the Prison Industries and former mob boss and Fox River celebrity John Abruzzi can help him make that contact.

He is then in his cell, folding another swan origami and thinking about a conversation he had with his brothers a few months earlier.  Linc swears to Michael that he did not commit the murder that it was a set up.  Sucre is busy writing a letter to his girlfriend, Maricruz, he wants her to marry him.

LJ ends up in trouble for drug trafficking and Michael starts his plan to get close to John Abruzzi.  Aburzzi is not interested in Michael and when Michael leaves the swan origami with him, he simply tosses it aside.  Michael’s attempt to get Abruzzi is met with dis-interest and Abruzzi sends Michael away. 

The pilot of Prison Break opens with Scofield getting his tattoo finished off, his entire upper body now covered completely with a masterpiece that the tattoo artist is quite proud of.  He is a smart man.  An engineer, but the brother to a man named Lincoln Burrows who is in prison for murder.  He catches a glimpse of a newspaper telling that his brother’s final appeal was denied.

Back in his apartment, an origami of a Swan is shown perched on his desk.  He doesn’t give it a second look.  Later he tosses his hard drive into the Chicago River below.  And, then, then he raises a gun in a bank, tells the clients to sprawl on the floor and he fires the gun.  He tells the bank employee to open the vault.  She indicates that she can’t without the manager and he should just take the half of a million in his bag and leave.  He doesn’t.

He ends up in a courtroom behind a table.  A no contest plea is what he enters and he tries to send his nephew, the son of Lincoln, away from the courthouse.  The judge was inclined to give Scofield probation but because he fired a deadly weapon in an attempted robbery, she wants to see him do time.  She grants his request to be housed at a nearby maximum security prison for five years.  And, Fox River was born.

Yes, you know that Wentworth was in the wonderful world of acting before he hit Prison Break, even in the Maria Cary videos but most definitely Prison Break has been a great run for him.

With that, I’m going to start with Season One, Episode one and give you the low down on how Wentworth came to be one of the biggest actors in Hollywood right now.  For me, he is the absolute biggest one out there and I’m sure you know that already.  I wouldn’t be writing this blog if I didn’t think he was absolutely awesome now would I?

So, in the coming days, here comes Prison Break the entire story.  Starting with the Pilot where Michael gets the tattoo that will lead him through the rest of the show, the entire four seasons.  So, are you ready, let’s get this party started.

I guess you are all getting a dose of  my ADD because although I keep writing posts promising to start at the beginning of Wentworth’s career and work forward, I never  keep that promise for long.  I really have good intentions ya’ll.  But, when I start searching for information and I run upon stuff, even if it is old, that has to do with Prison Break, I just get giddy.  Far and away, Michael Scofield has been the breakout character for Wentworth.

And, even if I could watch him the Maria Carey video over and over and over, Prison Break still makes me squirm.  So, I found an interview with Wentworth but I don’t know who did it or when it was published but, I found me some good interesting stuff, so hey, that’s what you are getting.

When asked if he spent anytime in a prison to prepare himself for Prison Break, his answer was a resounding NO.  But, the reasoning very well may have had more to do with the fact that he was cast late.  Like, he was cast the week before the pilot.  And, according to him, they thought it was good that he had not had time to do his “homework” and actually go to a prison, they felt he needed to fear prison just as his character did.  Ok, I’m buying that one, scarry place if you ask me.

Every interview I’ve seen or read that he has done, he has been asked about the tattoo process.  I didn’t even have to read his answer.  It is a 4 to 5 hour process and he says they only do it once per episode.  That’s a 4 to 5 hour process with two people working on him.  He says it just fits together like a puzzle.  Ok, yea, I’ll buy that but wow, 4 to 5 hours, that’s getting up awful early or going to bed might late.  He did say that once it got hot it was like saran wrap.  That’s funny.  Imagine wrapping yourself in saran wrap, better yet, imagine wrappig him in saran wrap, lol.

As for his type of woman, he is says he is attracted to a confident woman.  He also says that looks aren’t as important as confidence but you don’t see him running around town with any scags so, erm, well anyway, whatever.  He also said that he preferred brunettes over blondes.  Not that he doesn’t like blondes, but to quote him “brunettes just do it for me a little more”…ok, well, I’m a brunette, what are we waiting on?

He says women do recognize him on the street and a few of the more confident ones (after all, he just said that’s the ones he likes) will ask him to take his shirt off so they can see if the tattoo is still there.  I mean, come on people, surely everyone knew he is an actor and that tatto was not real.  Dennis Rodman he is not!

His hobbies swimming, reading and napping.  See, I just know that the two of us were meant to meet in another life, lol.  He says since they film in Chicago, he tries to go to a new restaurant each week.  I’m sure that he can find a new one too.

He said they he and Dominic get along well and that Dominic is very Americanized.  Hummm, well he seems pretty Americanized to me too. I have heard several times that he doesn’t watch Prison Break but he did say in this interview that he does watch himself so he can learn but…hey, he seems doggone perfect to me.

He is asked about being famous and he says it isn’t that you want to be famous.  He says not everyone is a Tom Cruise or a Julia Roberts but as an actor, you want people to watch your show so you kind of have to politic for your show and yourself as an actor.

And, just for the legality of it, here’s the interview but I still have no clue all of it’s background

I’ve kind of got us to a point where we can just “chat” about Wentworth like we know him, right?  Yea, I wish.  So, this round, I’m going with some more quotes from Went or general facts about him.

When asked how he would fair in prison in reality, Went says, ” I wouldn’t last long. I’d get shanked in, like, five minutes”.  And, what about his idea of being an actor, his career as actor, how did it all happen.  Well, Went says, “Acting has always been a passion, and I did it all the way up until college”

And, he did do it all through college and if you remember, he also sang with the Tigertones at Princeton.  And, if you watched the show, you know he had a full upper body tattoo and so it is only natural to wonder how he feels about tattoos in real life.  I happen to have a couple of tattoo’s now, I got them for my 40th birthday, one is the head of Mickey Mouse and it is on my right shoulder and the other is the initials of my children on my ring finger on my left hand.  I really like that even when I choose not to wear my rings, I have the branding there that says, “hey, I’m taken” even if being taken is by my children, two boys.  But, what did Went have to say about it, “No. It’s really not my thing, but it is a treat to become someone who’s 50 percent tattooed. The whole pleasure of being an actor is trying out things you don’t have to take home with you at night”

Yea, I think he has a point because thre’s a ton of stuff I’d like to try out as an actor but not have to deal with in reality.  He made a statement about how the upper body tattoo in the show made him feel like saran wrap when it got hot and well…….never mind ..I was going to make a really crass statement about being hot…..

I know that it is tough to label yourself.  I call myself a blogger and then I read places where people want to call me a professional blogger and wonder to myself, “what the heck is a professional blogger” because I mean, really, anyone can do it.  So, when asked about his status as a star, Went says, ” I’m neither sexy nor a star”.  Now, I’m telling you, he is doggone sexy as they get.  And, even without buff and brawn, the man truly is sexy.

Now, the good part…more photos……

Knowing everything I know about him from just the Internet which, I’m sure you know is not a whole heck of a lot, but I can’t imagine this photo being something he liked.

And, heck who couldn’t find this sexy?

I’m not sure, as I go through the Internet where Went was hiding out in 2003 and 2004.  I know I can find him in a few video’s and I’m going to write about that, but first, I’m going to move to his TV roles in 2005.  We’ve already discussed Joan of Arcadia but I didn’t tell you about his role in Ghost Whisperer .  And, again, I can find tons of videos of Went and the such but I can’t really say that it’s worth it.

So, instead of wasting precious space, I’m going to give you some more quotes and facts.  This stuff insterests me far more than any video of him that only last 20 seconds.  So, here goes…

I’ve read in many places where when Went meets new people, they have a difficult time seperating him from his role as Michael Scofield.  And, I mean, who wouldn’t love the Michael Scofield guy?  He’s smart, he is loving and he is compassionate to go with all that smarts.  But, Went is Went not Michael and he says, ” My character [in Prison Break] needs to be formidable. In reality, I’m not very tough at all.”

That cracks me up because honestly, his role in Prison Break doesn’t come across as formidable and/or tough.  His character is one of intelligence and I have to say, I think I love that as much as anything.  But, I’d love to get to Went.  I’ve seen photos of him with females and he will usually be very casually dressed and a huge smile on his face.  And, if you watch Prison Break, you know he doesn’t smile much on the show so seeing those photos of him, even if they are with women (that aren’t me), that big nice smile is awesome.

He is so humble too.  He talks about his co-star in The Human Stain, Anthony Hopkins, and he says, “The man is a legend and I’ve always been a huge fan of his work”  So, he acts as if he doesn’t even realize that people are just as crazy about him as anyone has been of Anthony Hopkins.

And, he does mention his relationships with women and he says this, “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.”  So, maybe when I’m old and gray or in my next life, I might get a chance to meet and chat with this awesome man.

And, my favorite part, photo time….This is my all time favorite photo of Wentworth.  I have searched the internet high and low and I’ve yet to find a picture that looks better than this…