Dominic Purcell is a British-American actor who is well known for his role in Prison Break, The Flash and legends of Tomorrow. He became a TV star in Australia before debuting in America as the title character in John Doe (2002)
How does it feel for you to be back with Prison BreakIJ
Dominic: For me, Prison Break is brilliant. I’m indebted to the show. It’s, you know, a very special part of my life, and I formed great friendships. I know a lot of actors say that, but this is actually true. A lot of these guys are my friends, and especially Wentworth. And it was interesting coming back to see how we had all matured in the last eight years, and I think because of that, our choices as actors have changed as well. So I think you’ll notice, a different tone to our performances somewhat, and I think that has just a lot to do with our maturity and life experience.
How much did you all keep in touchIJ
Dominic: Well, Wentworth and I were always in touch via email. We kept bumping into each other here and there, with the guys.
Did you feel like, with the closure from the original series, that you felt there was something left over there that you wanted to finish offIJ
Dominic: Not really. But we’re in the land of making believe, so Sara didn’t have a head at one point, somehow it miraculously appeared. No, we just thought that with today’s climate, the world and stuff, that there were some really interesting ways of doing the show.
How do you feel Prison Break reflects the world todayIJ
Dominic: Well, it takes place in Yemen, so you have lincoln and Michael and the team dealing with ISIS, and ISIl. So it has a political and contemporary component and something that’s happening in the world.
Did you enjoy getting another opportunity to play lincolnIJ
Dominic: lincoln’s, by far, my favourite character that I’ve ever played. I love the fact that he’s a dangerous, volatile and disturbed individual. But he also has that redeeming quality in him. He wants to be a good guy, but trouble keeps following him, because he just hasn’t got his life together. As an actor, it’s really interesting to play that. I’m playing Mick Rory now on legends of Tomorrow. They’re both kind of similar, in a strange kind of way. I think Mick’s just got a better sense of humour.
And you kind of have something unprecedented, I think, that your friendship is so strong that you’ve taken that to another show and created whole new characters and now have gone back to this. The fact that you have gone through all that, does that make the history that we see on screen between these guys in this Prison Break even more effective than it might have been otherwise, you know what I meanIJ like, is that weariness that you guys have carriedIJ
Dominic: That’s a good question, because when we did Prison Break, we were kids. The last time we shot Prison Break was eight years ago. So, life experience outside of that has informed different choices as actors. And I think that’s one of the things you may notice in the series, that our performances were, I would say, a lot more grounded than they were when we were kids. My old drama teachers used to say that the older you get, the better you become.
What makes this show appealing to so many audiencesIJ
Dominic: I think one, you’re dealing with the prison and that’s always interesting. As humans do like to see other humans suffer, secretly. And then you have the universal theme of love, how far would you go for a loved oneIJ
What is the biggest difference between the last one and this oneIJ
Dominic: This version we’re dealing with ISIS and ISIl. I’m trying to get my brother out of Yemen, one of the worst prisons in the world. So you have all that going on, and then we have the backdrop of the Sahara Desert, Morocco, and it’s on another level.
Prison Break season 1 - 3 airs on
Star World and Star World HD at 8PM