Wentworth in edicola

Q: What made you decide to become an actor, and not any other career?

Acting was my childhood dream. I did a little play in the kindergar?en. It was a dinnasour play for school, and I just picked up on a very special relationship between the performer and the audience. Something very intimate about that experience. And it gave you a kind of buzz, a kind of high, and that I hadn't been able to find anywhere else, so I'd always wanted to be an actor, but in college, I went to very good school. It was very conservative, and I moved away from those dreams, because they suddenly seemed to be unrealistic, because I knew how?hard it was to make it in that particular business.?But after graduating, I moved out to Los Angeles, to work in Tv and movies, because I still loved entertainment. But I thought I would work behind the scenes, in development, maybe as a producer, and it wasn't long before I went on my first audition.

Q: At the press conference yesterday, you said you were a well-planned, research-a-lot-kind-of-guy like Mike Schofield,?when you sort of get a job, but how did you carry out the research for this part in Prison Break?

It's funny you asked because I didn't have time for the research. I didn't have time for preparation. I got the script on Friday, I did an audition on Monday, I had my call back on Tuesday, and I had my part Tuesday night, and we're filming on the next week. I was actually the very last person to audition for Micheal Schofield. So, there was really no time to get a hand on the character in the way that I usually like to prepare. Suddenly I was in Chicago, filming in a real prison, in the middle of December, so was zero degree outside.

And it was as though everything had been turning up side down. But that worked my advantage because that's exactly my character's experience in the pilot. So my own experience on shooting the show, mirrored my character's journey, pretty much exactly. So I was able to put everything that I was feeling and thinking into the world.

a me ha fatto venire in mente la canzone di elio e le storie tese "fossi figo" fossi figo starei ignudo alla finestra (cit.) che in realtà è un pensiero perverso

??Wentworth Miller is an overnight success ten years in the making. The Ivy League scholar paid his dues with bit parts including a student-turned-sea monster in Buffy The Vampire Slayer before landing his big break playing the young Anthony Hopkins in The Human Stain. However, it was his role as brooding jailbird Michael Scofield in Prison Break that catapulted him firmly on to the TV A-list. As the US drama returns for a fourth season last week, we serve up a few tantalising titbits about the man behind the tattoos.

1. Wentworth was born in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, but his family moved to Brooklyn when he was just one year old.

2. Wentworth's ancestry is complicated enough to put even Johnny Depp to shame - his mum is Russian, French, Syrian, Lebanese and Dutch, while his dad is African-American, Jamaican, English, German and Cherokee.

3. Speaking of ancestry, Wentworth is determined to keep the family name going strong. He is Wentworth Miller III and his dad is Wentworth Miller II, so no prizes for guessing the name he's picked out for his future offspring.

4. Wentworth is every bit as brainy as his TV alter ego. He studied English literature at Princeton University, where he was apparently nicknamed "Stinky" because of his sarcastic attitude towards his friends. Charming!

5. When not burying his nose in a book, Wentworth sang baritone in the internationally-known all-male a cappella group Princeton Tigertones, who busked through Europe and the Middle East every summer.

6. Wentworth worked as a temp for studios, agencies and production companies before landing a role in The Human Stain. He recalls: "There were some lean years. I remember going through my CDs figuring out what I was willing to hock because I needed an extra $15 to make rent."

7. Wentworth confesses that he receives some eye-popping fan mail but is not always able to write back. "The mail amazes me," he says. "I sometimes get these letters that are ten pages, and handwritten, from women pouring their hearts out and, for security reasons, I can only respond with a headshot and 'Dear so and so, be good. WM.' It never feels like enough."

8. Wentworth claims to be "deathly allergic" to cats - and that's not all. He explains: "Unfortunately, I'm allergic to all animals and even some people. There was a scene where I had to give Dominic Purcell a hug - you know, a touching embrace between the brothers - and at the end of the night I had a rash on my neck. I got a lot of teasing on that."

9. Wentworth has made no secret of the fact that he wants a wife and kids, contrary to those rumours about his sexuality. But what is the most romantic gesture he has ever made? He reveals: "This one time I had a girlfriend that was out of the country a lot. So I gave her a watch and set it to ‘my time’ so wherever we were, we’d always be on the same time. I thought that was pretty romantic." Aww, how sweet!

10. Wentworth fancies trying his hand at a Superman villain after unsuccessfully auditioning to play the Man of Steel himself in the past. He says: "I'd definitely love a crack at General Zod. So I'm hoping that Bryan Singer makes a sequel to the Superman that's coming out and casts me." Since a sequel was confirmed earlier this year, we're keeping our fingers crossed!