Prison Break Buff

Prison Break - Robert Knepper Interview

by Nikki on October 13th, 2007

A great interview with Robert Knepper…

Crave Online: Were you worried they’d extradite T-Bag back to the states?

Robert Knepper: No, I gotta tell you, the writers are great. I think they would have let me know a couple weeks ahead of time at least. When I didn’t get any word of that at hiatus, I thought, “Yeah, he’s probably back.”

Crave Online: Will we find out why he was left in a Panamanian prison?

Robert Knepper: I don’t know if that’s resolved yet or not. We’re on episode seven. It seems pretty explained I think. “Well, you know, we had a red flag go off. You’re stuck down here. We’re not letting you out.” I don’t know if there’ll be any more talk about that or not. He’s just there and that’s it. He’s got to figure out if he’s going to live or die in that place.

Crave Online: Has he set his sights on any new prison buddies?

Robert Knepper: It’s funny because I went off to shoot something else over hiatus and I talk a lot about the show and I talk a lot about T-Bag. I got back thinking, “I don’t know how I’m going to be able to play this part because I’ve been talking about it so much that I’m going to be too objective now. I’m not going to be able to slip into the shoes.” The great thing about changing it up, to not have T-Bag be in a prison that he was the cock of the walk kind of “I Own This Part of the Prison, these are my boys, this is the guy that holds my pocket,” the great thing about it for the actor is that it’s okay to go off to shoot something else and talk about this character for a long time because he’s not in his shoes anymore. He’s not in a place that he knows. Just like after the first season of breaking out and the fact that we didn’t stay in Chicago which I really lamented because I love that town. It was my old stomping ground. To go to Dallas which was a totally new town, I’d never been there before, T-Bag’s out with all the other guys trying to survive. He’s living, he’s racing away from the cops, from the authorities. It was life imitating art because I was thinking, “I don’t know where anything is in Dallas. I got to set up a home for my family.” It was all juts part of the craziness. I’m driving in the morning to the set going, “I can’t find the set and I’m going to be late.” It would always feed into the work. Now, I’m in this prison. I got to figure out, no one’s going to hold my pocket, I don’t want anybody to hold my pocket in this prison. T-Bag’s kind of particular about the color of the skin he likes to hang around with. So all of those elements are great. There’s so much taken care of for me that all I have to do is be uncomfortable. I’ve spent the last six episodes trying to find out how to literally walk in these sandals, these Panamanian shoes that I had at the end of last season. All that new stuff is great. The fact that he’s unsettled is a good thing for me.

Crave Online: Do you speak any Spanish?

Robert Knepper: Yeah, I learned Spanish in high school. I don’t remember a lot of it for two reasons. I had a very, very cute Spanish teacher named Ms. Berman. Back in the ’70s, she wore the tightest pants that I think I’ve ever seen on a woman and I was 13 years old going blblblblblblblbl. She called me Robertito. I was her little Robertito. The second reason I don’t remember a lot of it is because I took French after that. I get it all mixed up, Spanish and French. But my little boy is actually teaching me more Spanish now than I ever thought I would know. Uno, dos, tres.

Crave Online: And your hair has gone back to normal?

Robert Knepper: Pretty much. Yeah, I think we sort of said, “You know what? The blonde was good while we were out on the run. But now he’s back in prison.” He could have it bleached. He could have it done but he’s got other more important things on his mind than doing his hair. I think actually I got a little bored with it myself.

Crave Online: Has the fake hand gotten easier to work with?

Robert Knepper: Yeah, we’re still waiting on the last hand to come in, the one that will go a little bit higher so who knows? Maybe T-Bag will eventually wear a T-shirt. Say the hell with it, I’m just going to expose the fact that I had my hand cut off. I’m in prison, who the hell cares? Right now the hand is still kind of short so I have to turn down. In big fight scenes, I’m always like, “Keep the hand over here” so I don’t have to expose it.

Crave Online: You can’t hit anyone with that piece of plastic.

Robert Knepper: Oh, you’d be surprised. I’ve got something planned. He’s going to give somebody a good wallop. It’ll be more like an embarrassing thing, just see him go badadada.

Crave Online: Has T-Bag been called to the yard yet?

Robert Knepper: He’s about to be. He’s about to be and he doesn’t want to be called because the guy that wants to fight him, you don’t want to fight this guy. He’s worse than T-Bag. When I first started the show, they said, “Beware the little guy.” The little guy in Cook County Jail, that was the guy who’d just walk right into razor blades. He wouldn’t care. The big guys are smart. They’ve had more history of fighting. T-Bag was always the scrapper probably. This guy in the prison, he’s also a scrapper so T-Bag knows, “Nah, I don’t want that.”

Source and more of Robert on Hitman

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POSTED IN: Interviews, Prison Break Season 3, Robert Knepper, Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell