Interview: Robert Knepper
The Prison Break star on reprising T-Bag and playing Frank Sinatra.
He played one of television's greatest villains, so we jumped at the chance to interview Robert Knepper.
In four seasons of Prison Break he thrillingly made the flesh crawl as Theodore 'T-Bag' Bagwell, and is set to reprise his iconic role in new series Breakout Kings (from same producer Nick Santora).
Before then he was seen as Samuel in the last season of Heroes and played Simeon in SGU Stargate Universe. We spoke to Knepper at this year's London Film and Comic Con about his new roles, which include Frank Sinatra.
Do you do get to do many conventions?
This is my fourth. I did one while in Bulgaria, shooting Hitman while Prison Break was still filming. I love doing them so much. I love the Q&As, I love the connection with fans, and the great questions. I did one in Sweden, and I just did my first American one in New Jersey.
Ever encountered any strange T-Bag fans?
It attracts people who love good storytelling and who like far-out characters. When the show was shooting, people on the street would be a little bit scared of me, before they realised. The show still resonates with people but it's not in their face all the time, so it's more... aah, I miss that show. An appreciation. I don't think it's as fear-rendering as it used to be!
We haven't had Breakout Kings yet, so can you tell us more about reprising T-Bag?
I did one episode. The writer and the showrunner called me up about four months beforehand, and said we're thinking about bringing you back, what do you say? I said as long as you don't kill me, because T-Bag now lives forever, out there. They honoured that, and the character picks up right where we left off in Prison Break. I did Heroes, then four or five different roles, in Stargate Universe, and a movie for SyFy [Earth's Final Hours] which comes out this fall - I get to play the hero, actually! It was like putting on the glove again. It was great.
You've been in superb shows like Carnivale, but which of the series you've been in were you saddest to see end?
I think the closest I've come to it was Breakout Kings, as I kind of felt like... I mean I thought Prison Break was the last time I would see T-Bag, but Breakout Kings will probably be the last time - unless there's a huge idea to bring him back. If the fans say there should be some way to resurrect T-Bag. When I was in my twenties, and I was just a theatre nut and purist, when the play closed, it was like a funeral for me. I was mourning the death of this character. As I've gotten older and done more films, and got residual cheques for films that I don't even remember doing, that gets tempered a bit, and you don't get so emotional about a job. But the thing with T-Bag, was like aaaaaw.
Can you tell us about a short film you've done called The Mourning Hour?
This was a friend of mine [Shevaun Kastl] that had worked on Heroes, and she had a character who was a waitress on that, and my character was really pissed off and causes this huge earthquake. She and I hit it off and became buddies, and she said I've written a script, will you take a look at it? I was going to one job to the next and didn't have much time, but I finally took a look at it, and I loved it! We shot in January in Wisconsin, and it's beautiful. We've got to get to some money to finish it, editing and stuff. She put all her money in it. It's a short. It's about a woman, and her husband who she's told dies, in the 1950s. This woman gave up everything in her life to have a family, and while she is going through the mourning process, on the first hour of the morning, these dreams of what could've happened in her life start pouring out of her. She could've been a cellist for an orchestra. It's a great story about a typical Fifties woman who gave up her career, and now her husband is... I don't want to give away the ending!
[At this point we ask about his listing in Into the Americas on IMDB, and he's never heard of it] Can you tell us what else you've got coming up?
I did a pilot, and we're shipping it around as NBC didn't pick it up. It's called Reconstruction, and it's a huge $9.5 million dollar Civil War thing. Some other networks are looking at it now. I just played Frank Sinatra in a French film about Claude Francois. It's about this famous French guy in the Seventies who brought disco to Paris, and he wrote the song My Way. He actually never met Sinatra - Paul Anka met with him and bought the rights, and Frank made it famous. They had two chances to meet and it never worked out.
For information on further Showmasters events visit showmastersonline.com and find out about their conventions at massiveevents.co.uk.
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