Adina Porter – Making A Break For It

Q.  What are the current projects that you are working on?

A.  I am working on “Prison Break,” it’s a new TV show on FOX.

Q.  What can you tell us about the show “Prison Break” and your role as Leticia?

A.  “Prison Break” is about a brother who breaks in to prison to break his older brother out of prison.  I play sort of an informant, I am trying to bring to light why my boyfriend who was an associate of the president’s brother who was killed.  I let them know that things aren’t what they seem, I propose sort of a conspiracy theory.  No one believes me because they are like, “Who is this chick?”

Q.  What made you want to be a part of the show?

A.  Well, I worked with Michael Watkins a few times before on “NYPD Blue,” on “American Dreams,” as well as another project “Brooklyn South.”  I’ve gotten to work with him quite a few times and he takes his work very, very seriously and he listens to what the actor has to say when you’re working with him.  It was great to work with him again, he’s one of the executive producers and he directed the first episode of “Prison Break” that I was involved in.

Q.  What is it about this show that sets it apart from other dramas?

A.  Well, you know, it’s a show that you can’t help watch.  Little secrets are constantly being revealed and there are all these twists and turns.  So, it’s a thinking man’s show and I think that is what sets it apart because if you kind of miss a little piece of the puzzle here or there you can get kind of lost.  They don’t spell it out for you so you have to pay close attention so you can get all of the intricacies.

Q.  Do you have a most memorable moment from filming “Prison Break”?

A.  Maybe there was a scene that aired the other day that was in Chicago’s New Millennium Park.  In one of these sculpture garden’s there were these fountains that changed faces.  Water squirts out as these faces change and it’s a great place to bring kids, kids play in the water and that kind of stuff.  I remember Michael giving me some direction that really just kind of hit home.  It really kind of made my character a lot more clear to me, why she’s putting herself on the line.  I found some surprises in that so I guess that’s my most memorable moment.

Q.  “Prison Break” is in a long succession of movies recently and in the past about prisons like The Longest Yard and The Shawshank Redemption.  What do you think it is about shows and movies of this nature that captures viewers attention?

A.  That’s a very good question, I am a sucker for shows like “American Justice” where they talk about the American justice system and prison and people who commit crimes and are incarcerated.  In one way I have nightmares about it, and another way I completely am enthralled with what happens.  I guess because it is quite a to-do, you really kind of put too many people in one location and they are already angry as all hell.  I think we watch unfortunately, for the same reason we watch a car wreck on the other side of the road.  I think people tune in to “Oz” and “Prison Break” because it’s like how they survive under this much pressure and what it forces them to do.  I think the audience is watching with one hand over their eyes.

Q.  What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

A.  I just do other TV shows as well as I run my own business, I run a marketing company.  I also bought some real estate, some rental investments.

Q.  Finally, you were on the much beloved show “American Dreams.”  What can you tell us about your time on the show?

A.  I loved that show!  I loved working with the crew on that show and when I was killed off the producers and the crew threw me this goodbye party that was just great.  I felt like a part of the family, the crew members had on their badges pictures of their families.  A lot of the dancers that were on the show, the background dancers, were kids of the crew members.  It was a family show, it was just a great family atmosphere and great to be able to talk to my parents about that time.  I felt honored to live what my parents had gone through.