Robert Knepper – In the Bag

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

A) I am helping to form the life of my beautiful, almost four year old boy, which is the biggest project of my life right now. I am on hiatus and totally enjoying it after spending almost a year away of super intense work. T-Bag is not the sweetest guy to play and is the one of the most intense characters on television. I am relaxing and then I go back to work playing T-Bag, which is hard work. It takes up a lot of time, but I’ll have time for other stuff while I’m working. Right now, I didn’t want to do something I didn’t want to do. I turned down some things because I am having fun with my wife and my family.

Q) Tell us about your character T-Bag on the show “Prison Break.”

A) People who watch the show have been very attune to understanding the life of T-Bag. That is, he’s not a one-dimensional character. He’s not just the bad guy. Let’s not kid ourselves, though, he is a bad guy. He can be pure evil, but he’s not crazy. He’s had a lot of problems in his childhood, not the least of which is what Bellick [played by Wade Williams] brought up to everyone’s attention in the episode when we rioted against the guards. He said in front of everybody, “Your Daddy did his mongoloid sister and out came Teddy nine months later.” Not only is that horrific to bring up in front of other people, but it’s horrific to live with your whole life knowing that your dad is such a screw up. A lot of dads are screw-ups by maybe leaving home or abusive at home, but the wonderful thing about drama is that you can create these things. I am sure, somewhere in history or somewhere in time, someone really did have a father (hopefully, in a real rural country area) that did his mongoloid sister and then they had children. To have to grow up with that is a nightmare. How I’ve always played Teddy is a child that is standing outside his porch (which is a similar way to how I grew up when I was a little boy [my sister and I had nothing in common with the Bagwell family]) and when Easter came up you put on your finest suit and a hat. Girls were wearing little Easter dresses, bonnets and shoes. I imagine Teddy standing on the porch of a beaten down house (maybe there is not too much paint on the walls and most of it is coming off) and he’s got this big toothless smile on his face because he’s going to get by. You have to pretend everything is okay and you have to survive. In the midst of all of this chaos and his upside down life of which he was a part of (and he had no choice in the matter), this is how he grew up and this was his childhood. Of course he was going to get picked on, of course he is going to resort to violence, of course he was going to be in and out of juvenile detention homes (and probably foster homes). As early as he can remember, he’s been in and out of jail. I have said this in the press (Some of them said, “Yeah, right!”) that I feel for T-Bag. I’ve gotten so many letters from fans that said, “When I first started watching the show, I hated you. Now, I still hate you, but I feel for you some how.” That’s exactly where the writers went with it and I went with it. I never want to dismiss this guy and convince the viewing public that he’s an angel. There is no way! What’s fascinating about him is that he’s that train wreck that you love to watch that is about to happen and he is somebody you know. He’s a real person! There is not a person alive that does not have many different sides to them. That’s called being a human being (which is what I realized about getting older). You just realize that everybody is capable (or in this case doing) horrible things, but at the same time you go, “Oh my gosh, he is so charismatic! He has a brain! He’s so funny! He can put a sentence together!” He’s not a one-dimensional cartoon character that goes, “Hey, I’m from the South. I am going to talk like this! And everybody’s going to think I’m stupid! Oh boy, I hate black people!” He’s not that guy at all. I’ve never played him like that ever, since the beginning. I thought if I did, I would have a short life on this show. You knock those guys off in one episode; they’re called guest stars. You get a one shot deal and that’s it. The part was originally written, I think, for a guy who was 240 pounds with a gold tooth! But, all of the other elements of the character are still there, the racism, pedophilia and all those things could have just made him become a character you hate so much that he could be quickly kick them out the door. I tried to play him smart, cunning and a true survivor; just the same way he had to survive when he was a little kid. That’s someone you have to deal with and is not going to very easily go away. I’ve had several technical advisors on our show, who are actual prison guards, say, “Oh yeah, I totally know the T-Bag in our prison. There is a T-Bag in every prison. Be ware of the T-Bag because these guys are very cunning. They will lure you in, be so sweet to you, they can get anything out of you and then before you know it, you’re turning around going, “Where’s my wallet? I, honestly, just let that guy walk down that hall in the restricted area!” He’s that charming.

Q) How did you prepare for your role?

A) I had no time! T-Bag was not in the pilot, but was in the first episode (which was technically the second episode) and I read for it. When you audition for a part, you do a little bit of research on it. What I’ve learned over the years is that it is better to get a gut feeling about it and go for it. Then, when you get the part, you really dive in and do more of the research part. I got the part on a Friday, flew to Chicago on a Sunday and I started shooting on Tuesday. All I had to go on were my instincts and a hunch about the dialect that I wanted to work with and the Alabama accent. I had a hunch about how I wanted to walk and slither. Once I got to Joliet Prison, the whole character came together. I felt like, I want to put on a plain white t-shirt, I want to become animalistic (I think he’s a very primal, animalistic being. How my hair is, how I slither my tongue and how I play with a word all became sort of this animal that was a rooster, mixed with a lizard and mixed with a panther. That’s all I really had to go on. That’s basic 101 acting. A lot of us do it when we were in school. The rest sort of took care of itself!

Q) What is your most memorable moment from filming?

A) Two things stand out for me. The first is when I am with Peter Stormare (who plays Abruzzi) and I slash his throat. That was a very emotional scene for the both of us! When we were done with it, we felt very close to each other. We were like two athletes that had run the distance together. We turned to each other and said, “That was like being back at the Public Theater.” The Public Theater is a place that he and I both worked at in New York that is one of the few theaters that still tries to do Shakespeare. We really felt like you had a scene to be working on. Another moment that I have fond memories of, which isn’t even one particular moment, is when Wentworth and I really connect with each other because there is an amazing power there. Even though I’m playing the bad guy and he’s playing the good guy, I feel for him! As an actor, to know what you are going through as a character…for instance, the scene which ended the fall season and sort of began the spring season…where Wentworth is trying to get the pipe free and he says, “I can’t do it! I can’t do it!” I think he’s about to cry and I can’t take any of this so I pull out a knife and say, “Come on, pretty, you’ve got to. That ain’t gunna’ happen. You’re gunna’ get us out of here.” I get into him and see right into him. That’s a general thing, but I feel that more with him than with anyone else.

Q) What is a day of filming the show “Prison Break” like for you?

A) There is a lot of joking around and trying to break out of prison. There is one beautiful thing about it was the entire day while I was in Chicago this past year…my wife and I had a dilemma on our hands because we wanted to keep our child here in LA in preschool (so that’s why they didn’t come to Chicago). Someone I talked to suggested I keep some kind of ritual for him, which would be something I should do routinely. I came up with this idea of coming up with a cartoon drawing every day. So, in one moment, I am slitting an actor’s throat, another I’m slitting black actors with a razor blade, another moment I am getting up behind a young innocent boy and figuring out how I am going to seduce him or another moment I am thinking about having to sleep with the transsexual guy, but meanwhile anytime I have a break I am sketching out a sweet little cartoon for my boy. It was kind of a fun routine to have. There is nothing like driving home and thinking about calling your little boy because it helps you knock out those feelings of T-Bag and it’s very therapeutic.

Q) Is there anything you think fans would surprised to learn about T-Bag?

A) Fans will be surprised as I am when I first read it. Because I am constantly surprised. I am surprised and then I sort of have to not be since I have to play the part. I enjoy watching the show just as much as I love doing it.

Q) Will viewers get a chance to learn more about T-Bag’s history in season 2?

A) That’s a great question. The great thing about this show is that it is a character driven show and a plot driven show. There are such rich characters in the midst of a do or die plot scenario. The characterization for each of us are so strong because of the writing that when you are now dealing with first, getting out of prison and second, once you get out of prison, you have to survive so you don’t get caught and go back to prison (going back to the nightmare you were living in) or be killed. You can’t help, but walk into a plot. You don’t have much time to reflect. I think when you do have time to reflect, you are able to learn more and more about the character. You have time to think about the character and who you are, as opposed to what you are doing, and that helps you give the audience more insight into who you are and not if you are so caught up in thinking, “Oh my gosh I have to survive,” (which is with any character and human being since no one wants to die). Who knows? I don’t even know! I don’t get the scripts until they do them and I don’t even want to know ahead of time! I am always wonderfully shocked by everything that they write for me.

Q) You’ve been on TV, in movies and on stage. Is there anything else you would like to try your hand at?

A) I’d like to be a doctor. My dad is a vet, but I don’t want to do that because I think I’d be better at working as a physician.