Wentworth Miller Biography !

 

Wentworth Earl Miller II and Joy Palm met while studying at Yale. Wentworth Snr. was studying law and Joy was training to be a Special Education teacher. Their parents were concerned but supportive and on June 2 1972 Wentworth Earl Miller III was born in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, UK.

 

Wentworth was given his name by his grandmother. The decision to name both his father and Wentworth with this name was inspired by the Jane Austen character Captain Wentworth. Wentworth is in fact a surname so Wentworth has two surnames for his name. Wentworth means; ‘Went’ = a river in Northumberland, England and ‘worth’ = place.

 

The green eyed young miller spent his early years in Oxfordshire where his father was a Rhodes scholar continuing his law studies. On completion of his studies they moved back to New York, Prospect park.

 

Once back in New York his father worked as an assistant district attorney and his mother worked as a Special education teacher. In a recent interview Wentworth recalled how "I was raised with a certain work ethic. If you're going to do a job, do it well and no half-(way) measures…. "I remember my father saying one word to me as I would walk out to school every day : 'increments.' Every test, every quiz, every conversation with the teacher, it all added up to the final grade, which would affect where you went off to college and the rest of your life. All those little bits and pieces added up to something larger,"

 

Influenced by this work ethic and his first acting experience his future career choice was sealed, unbeknown to his father who unwittingly assisted in inspiring him to be an actor. "My first acting experience was in kindergarten. And we put on this little dinosaur play . . . and I was the T-Rex. . . . We were supposed to cook up these costumes, and most kids came in with some kind of paper bag over their heads, but my father went (all out) and made this huge T-Rex head out of paper-mache. . . . And on the day of the play, when I (walked) out on stage with this thing on my head, the audience just went crazy”.

 

Throughout his schooling he would act in stage productions whenever his parents would allow. He attended Midwood Highschool in Flatbush, Brooklyn where his heart would be broken for the first time. In sixth grade for a school assignment Wentworth decided to talk about his family tree in class. His girlfriend at the time did not realise that Wentworth was mixed race (African-American, Jamaican, English, German, French, Dutch, Syrian and Lebanese) and when she found out she said “go back to the plantation, nigger”. This would not be the first or last time confusion over his racial identity would cause him heartache.

 

Moving on

 

While studying at Midwood high school he lived in "Prospect Park (which) was my universe". Also during this time his parents had two more daughters which sparked a sudden change for Wentworth. He recalls how in Brooklyn "We had all kinds of people. You're rubbing elbows with just about every race, creed, religion on the subway”. Then his family moved to Sewickley before Miller's senior year. "My parents had been looking for a while to move out of the city. I have two little sisters, and there were concerns about raising children in an urban environment. There is a certain pace of life in New York City that can be exhausting, and we'd

been there for 13 years. They'd heard great things about Pittsburgh and asked me if I would mind leaving high school, and I didn't. I wanted to have the experience of a year in a suburban high school." The difference between Midwood with its multicultural students and Quaker Valley Senior High School in Leetsdale, Pennsylvania (outside of Pittsburgh) were very different. "My school in Brooklyn had 3,000 kids. It was, of course, overwhelming by sheer numbers but beautifully diverse. Quaker Valley was only about 400 students, tops. So my class rank shot up, which was great. Sewickley was an entire town operating as a community, and I found that a very powerful and supportive kind of experience."

 

While at Quaker Valley his father started developing LEEWS (legal essay exam writing system - http://www.leews.com/) which has helped many anxious law students through the difficult process of studying for their law exams.

 

After graduating from Quaker Valley he then enrolled in Princeton University because “I grew up in a very nurturing but conservative environment and it was always expected that I would go to college and follow along a certain career path,”

 

Wentworth before enrolling was concerned about whether his classmates / room mates would accept him. How would he explain the fact that he was mixed race? Would it mean that every time he met someone he would have to tell them? His parents suggested that he should put pictures of his family all over his dorm room so if his friends come to visit they would see and will know immediately. No explanations necessary.

 

It would appear that his experiences of racism and identity crisis would result in him earning a bad reputation and the nickname ‘Stinky’ which followed him from Midwood high school all the way through to Princeton. “I used to have a bad attitude, but l am a good boy now” Wentworth recalls. This bad boy attitude got him into trouble at Princeton while in his junior year in 1994. The incident would later be dragged up during the promotion of The Human Stain, here is The New Yorker’s report of the incident;

 

‘he (Wentworth) published, in the Daily Princetonian, a cartoon featuring Cornel West, who was then a professor of African-American studies there but who had just been hired away by Harvard. The cartoon depicted Muffy, a white Harvard student, imagining her first class with West, who is saying, “Today’s lecture is entitled, ‘Rhythm—Why None of You Have It, and How You Can Get It.’ ” It also described West as “newly purchased,” which is academe-speak for a new hire.

 

This did not go over well—“newly purchased” was taken to be a reference to slavery—and within days the paper had run angry letters signed by dozens of students and faculty members, including the novelist Toni Morrison, symposia had been convened, and the school had been plunged into one of those predictable convulsions of recrimination and argument. The story made the Times, and Wentworth Miller, who everyone assumed was white, was transformed into a controversial figure: the campus bigot. At no point did he bring up his background, choosing instead to mutter some sentences about an attempt to lampoon racial stereotypes. His own race card went unplayed’.

 

Wentworth recalls these troubling times while at university.

 

“Instead of stepping forward and explaining what I’d meant by the cartoon and positing my own racial background as evidence that I’d really meant no harm, I chose to remain silent. My attitude was, If they don’t get it, I don’t have to explain it, which was my way of saying that if they don’t get me, I don’t have to explain me. The people who knew me on campus and knew my background knew where

I was coming from, but I think for most people I was just a name in the paper, and they probably assumed I was white.”

 

Retreating into his studies while all of this was happening he also went on tour with the Princeton tigertones an accapela singing group. Wentworth spent time

“..tour(ing) around the country during the year, and we went to Europe in the summer. On a dime we would throw down a hat in every piazza and plaza we could find to get a little lunch money. It was just the best way to see the world."

 

In his final year Wentworth decided to do his English literature major on “the idea of doubling and the gender identity construct in Jane Eyre and The Wide Sargasso Sea--which, I guess, is also about identifying yourself; perceiving yourself through the eyes of the dominant white male hierarchy”. A theme which would later influence his work as an actor going through the casting system in Hollywood.

 

Graduating in 1995 with a degree in English literature Wentworth was faced with a difficult decision about what to do. "Princeton was such a conservative environment-a third of the class was going to med school, a third to law school or Wall Street or whatever-and acting seemed like a really risky proposition." Regardless of what was expected of him he decided to move from New York to L. A so he can enter the entertainment industry . His plan – to be an entertainment development executive. Working behind the scenes he would be able to secure a steady pay check. Concerns about the financially risky life of an actor had finally influenced his choice of career.

 

A new beginning

 

In Los Angeles he found the culture and environment different. None of the scenes appealed to him and he is still to find a place for himself in L.A. "I spent most of that first year (in development) faxing and filing, changing light bulbs and filling the boss's fish pond and the usual Hollywood entry-level whatever. I was the one they would call on the weekends when the fire alarm would go off in the building”.

 

“But every weekend I would go in to the office because I didn't have air conditioning and it was hot, and I would hang out in the conference room and kinda set up camp (laughs) and raid the company kitchen. I would just watch all our footage that we had on video coming back from various production sites. And the juices started flowing, and I realized I still had this 'what if' question to answer, and I decided to quit.”

 

“It was scary. I walked into my boss' office, and I said 'You know, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna be an actor,' and she said 'Well, I've just been hired at one of the networks as their director of motion pictures and I want you to come with me as my assistant.' And that was like forty thousand dollars a year, that was like a corporate gig, that was the brass ring, as far as I was concerned.

 

"I went back and forth. What was I gonna do, what wasn't I gonna do? It was very after-school-special. And I eventually realized that If I went and did the corporate gig, that would be great if I was successful, but I would always wonder about the acting. And if I did the acting and was successful I would never wonder about that corporate gig.

 

"So I had to tell my boss that I was not gonna come with her. And she said 'I think you're making a mistake. I think you'll live to regret it.' But I quit anyway and started temping to make ends meet.

 

While temping at Borders Bookstore "Just average minimum wage, wearing a tie and a name tag behind the counter... I value the experience I did have behind that desk because to make it in this business, you need the soul of an artist but the pulse of a bureaucrat. If you're waiting tables, waiting for your break, and you're not willing to come home every night after a long shift at the restaurant and stuff your head-shots and resumes into envelopes to send out to agents and managers, you're not going to make it. It's not going to happen for you." When he hit really low points financially Wentworth would look “at my CD collection every month to see what I wouldn't mind hocking to pay the rent. And I realized I needed acting like I needed air and couldn't walk away from it,"

 

During this time Wentworth took up acting classes in L.A for about two or three years until approx. 2002, “No kind of formal training (though)." He learned through his acting classes that “Some actors will tell you that they lose themselves in their character. I think that for me, acting is about finding yourself in your character, and exploring those parts of you that you do not allow yourself to express or are not allowed by your environment to express. I think acting classes by and large are just places where middle-class kids go to get over their middle-class upbringings; a lifetime of being told what is and is not appropriate. Of course, that appeals to me because everyone wants to be inappropriate, and why not get paid for it”.

 

He was able to secure paid work on tv shows such as ‘Buffy the vampire slayer’ (1998) in which he played Gage Petronzi (the captain of the swim team who turns into a sea monster in episode ‘Go Fish’). A role on ‘Time of your life’ playing Nelson followed a year later in November 1999 (episode – time the truth was told) then nothing for a year.

 

All this acting job uncertainty made him go back after six months of temping to his old intern job in development. “she had the grace not to say 'I told you so. I mean I temped for a lot of people in the entertainment industry. I spent three months writing up contracts for other actors working at a huge agency, which was tough, but I'm glad I have that perspective. There were some people who expected you to jump right in and do exactly what their assistant did, but by and large most people simply wanted you sitting there warming a chair. And so I did a lot of reading and kinda blended in with the wallpaper. That was my main quality as a temp, which was appreciated. They don't want someone in there making waves, doing cartwheels. I sometimes think I should have been online getting a law degree. I wasted all that time (laughs)."

 

He worked for Hill/Fields Entertainment as well as other networks and companies and is credited for tv shows such as Gone in the Night (1996), Shaunessy (1996) and Vows of deception (1996). The associate / producers working on these projects were Bernadette Caulfield, Joel Fields, Ardythe Goergens, Leonard Hill and Susan Rosner who he most likely worked with as an intern.

 

The difference between the first time he worked as an intern and this time was that he was doing this while still looking for acting work. After ‘Time of your life’ he continued auditioning until a few months later in 2000 he appeared in two episodes of the tv show ‘Popular’ playing Adam Rothchild Ryan a mysterious new student who wanted to be the first male cheerleader and was willing to do whatever it took to achieve his goal. (episodes – All about Adam and Ch Ch Changes). Another job on ‘Time of your life’ reprising his old role of Nelson in episode ‘The time they got e-rotic’ followed two months later. Four months later he appeared on E.R as Mike Palmieri a high school football player who is fatally tackled during a game and is rushed to hospital with a bleeding heart. Also during this year he appeared in ‘Romeo and Julliet a feature film by British director Colin Cox who he would later continue working with on theatre productions as an associate. (www.willandcompany.com/personnel.html) His role was Paris the jealous count who Juliet was due to marry.

 

He also worked as a press officer for the Asian American theatre in New York during this time. Valuable experience which would come in handy while promoting his film and tv projects.

 

(www.naatco.org/?productions/1994_our_town/index.html)

 

2000 was a busy year in which he worked on a few tv shows and a film and then nothing. 2001 was a quiet year. The only project he worked on in this year was a short film called ‘Room 302’ by black female director Erma Elzy-Jones. He was cast as a server (waiter) to two women who spend time in a hotel room confronting their deepest fears and resentments after the shock of the O.J Simpson verdict. It would seem that he found it difficult to find a place for himself in the Hollywood system.

 

“Everyday I’m defining myself for other people lest they define me...Then you come to Hollywood and the audition process and it’s, ‘Well, how do you see me? Where do I fit in?’ which kind of runs counterpoint to everywhere that I’ve come from.”

 

Naturally his parents were concerned. "When I've had my periods of unemployment, "I'll get these e-mails from my father: 'I've read that the LAPD has a reservist program. Perhaps that's something you'd be interested in taking a look at.' " But he didn’t. He kept his parents at bay by telling them "I learned how to break down a text at Princeton, which helps me break down a script – or at least that's the line I feed my parents when they start wondering where all that good money went."

 

He spent most of this year working in development at the ABC network until a breakthrough role came. The ABC network mini series Dinotopia. The same network where he was working as a development intern. “It all came full circle."

 

"They had been looking for the two brothers for about two months. And I came in and I read for the role of Karl, and they said 'we love you, we're going to call you back this afternoon.' So I went back that afternoon and it was a mix and match kind of scenario, where they had four David's and four Karl's. And they were kind of putting them together to see who had the right kind of chemistry. So I was reading Karl for most of the afternoon. And then the director, Marco (Brambilla), said, 'you know what, why don't you try David on for size.' So I went out into the hallway and looked over the part of David for literally five minutes or less, came back, and read it with Tyron (Leitso). And two days later, we both got the parts.

I’m glad it worked out that way because even though they’re both great characters, l was attracted to the David character because he gets to fly on the back of dinosaurs”,

 

What attracted Wentworth to the script was “Guerney didn’t just create a fantasy world, but one with defined moral code. It’s a world where tolerance of others is preached, where people are encouraged to be at one with their environment – to try and get along as best you can. That’s an important message which appeals not just to children, but also to adults which is easy to see since there are a lot of adult fans who take the world of Dinotopia and its code very seriously. I was very intrigued by that and also the fact that this is a Hallmark Production. They make quality stuff – they are just known for quality family entertainment.”

 

The themes of family and community would continue to run through the storylines of films and tv projects that Wentworth chose to audition for. Around this time his parents were in the process of divorce and the solid nuturing family of his youth was no more what it used to be.

 

His experience of shooting his first major acting role was exhausting in which he did his own stunts, did climbing, swimming, fight scenes as well as riding various dinosaurs (simulators). His experience of playing a football player, swim team coach previously prepared him for such a physically challenging role. Considering how in real life Wentworth considers himself a ‘couch potatoe’ his acting roles are the complete opposite – characters who transform from being vulnerable and inactive to strong fearless and physical in nature.

 

During and on completion of Dinotopia Wentworth featured in behind the scenes documentaries for the show and did magazine interviews on his own which would also prepare him for the future promotional work he would do.

 

Dinotopia did well when it aired on ABC and was one of the most expensive tv mini series produced ever. The CGI crew won emmy awards for their effort and off the back of the success of the mini series ABC then decided to commission a full series with different actors in the starring roles. Unfortunately the series did not do well and was promptly cancelled. Any hopes that Wentworth may have had that this would be his breakthrough role fell flat.

 

Back with his head to the grind stone he started doing auditions again until he managed to secure two roles. One as Dr Adam Lockwood in ‘Underworld’ a feature film about two waring communities (Vampires Vs Werewolves), Caught in between these two communities are two humans, the hero Michael Corvin a man who gets bitten by a werewolf and a vampire and becomes a mixed species of Vampire, werewolf and human. The other human caught in the middle is Dr Adam Lockwood (wentworths part) who betrays Michael.

 

Originally Wentworth wanted to play the lead part of Michael Corvin but lost the part to Scott Speedman. The director liked wentworth and cast him in the doctor role. Wentworth filmed this role and then another role came in The Human Stain. Would this be the breakthrough role he had been waiting for?

 

Memories come flooding back

 

When Wentworth received the script from his agent for The Human Stain he was told that the script was perfect for him. On hearing that he was worried because what if he went into audition for the part and did not get it. What would that say about him? He was also concerned about "whether I'd be typecast from now on. I want to continue getting sent out for roles of any ethnicity." But eventually he overcame his initial reservations and went to the audition.

 

He was seen by casting director Deb Aquilla who he told that he thought that the script was “a powerful story and one that wasn't told very often. I told her that I liked the script a lot because it resonated with me as a minority and I thought I knew a lot of the subtext of what was going on with this character. She was surprised”. Deb Aquila remembers seeing Wentworth and recalls that she felt uncomfortable about asking him about his racial background. While she was thinking of a way to ask him he just smiled and “told her that my father is black and my mother is white and that I understood a lot of what's going on in this story because of my own memories and experiences.” He then told her about what happened to him at Princeton university with the cartoon sketch episode and how he can relate to the character who becomes an outcast amongst former friends and collegues due to political correctness.

 

“We had a great talk, almost too good, because by the time we got to the actual read, I felt like the build-up was so big that I really needed to deliver--almost more than what maybe might have otherwise been expected from me from a first reading. Luckily, it was one of those situations where I had my best with me that day: I was in tears, she was in tears, we did all the tough scenes in the movie, and she brought me back in a month for a screen test with Robert Benton.

 

Robert Benton also recalls the audition and comments that Wentworth has the rare ability to master stillness and if he were to do a workshop with actors he would use Wentworth as an example. In all the years (decades) of directing he can only recall two special moments he has experienced during audition. The first was with Justin Henry the young boy who plays Billy in the film Kramer Vs Kramer which he directed and Wentworth. They were both perfect for their parts.

 

"It sounds weird, but they asked for proof that I was what I said I was, because an actor will say just about anything to get a role. So I literally had to go to Kinko's with the family photo album and copy the photos of the ancestors, from the great-grandparents on down. And I'm standing there at the Xerox machine looking at all these faces, and thinking about what my family has been through. And I thought, God—has all this been for me to book this role? And the answer was no, but also yes, in a strange way. It felt like just the right time and the right role and the right place." When he returned "they said, 'you're our guy. And I immediately hugged everyone in the room. And I walked out of the office onto the Paramount lot, which is where I had spent time temping over the last five years, and I thought to myself: this is such a rare moment, and I was filled with a sense of gratitude. And I called my mom."

 

“I feel incredibly honored that I am able to bring a story to the table that my family is very eager to see -- not just because I am in a movie, but because it touches on issues that touch all of our lives”.

 

In auditioning and preparing for the role he once again had to think about his past and who he was. His identity. The Human Stain “is a film that left me questioning how I perceive others and myself and further, questioning the basis for my life and beliefs”.

 

The character of Coleman silk appealed to him because he thought that "He (Coleman) is bright and very ambitious," "But he has been completely defined by his environment as a black man in 1940s America. It’s a prison and he decides to break out, which is a very bold, arrogant and ultimately destructive thing to do, because he lands in another prison of his own making. In passing as white, he embarks on a life which does not allow for intimacy, because he can never be completely honest with his wife. It’s also a life of fear, because every time he walks into a room, there’s the danger of someone recognising him for who and what he is."

 

Wentworth felt that in preparing for the role it was important that "as an actor it's not my job to condemn or condone my character. That wouldn't allow for his complexities. Coleman feels boxed in by definitions, which are suffocating him, and he needs to break free. That's something anyone can relate to. It moves the movie beyond race."

 

He was put through boxing training to play the younger Coleman Silk during his college days before he decides to deny his race as a light skinned black man and pass for Jewish. The young Coleman used to box as a hobbie. “It was a rigorous workout regimen. I worked with the same trainer that worked with Denzel Washington in THE HURRICANE. It was 3 months of training, 5 days a week, 4 to 5 hours a day. This was followed by a month of choreography. So, 4 months of preparation and about 12 hours of shooting turned into about 30 seconds of screen time.”

 

Once again his previous experience of physical training and acting roles would come in handy in preparation for this role. But nothing could prepare him for stepping into the shoes of the heavy weight A list actor Anthony Hopkins who plays the older Coleman Silk. “Very big shoes. It's an honor, but I was also like 'How am I going to approach this?' The man is a legend and I've always been a huge fan of his work. And I felt as the new kid on the block it was my place to tailor my performance to Sir Tony exclusively, rather than the other way around and to that end I went out and rented every Anthony Hopkins video I could find so I could steal little pieces of his performances and layer them into mine”.

 

When Wentworth completed the filming of The Human Stain memories of what happened at Princeton with the Cornel West cartoon incident came flooding back. He wrote a letter to Cornel West apologizing for what happened and informed him about his role in The Human Stain. He received no reply. Back to business, the producers decided that he should front the promotional tour for the film. This tour would involve him attending premieres of the film with his co stars in different U.S States / locations such as Chicago, Denver, New York and European cities such as London and Venice. By a rare stroke of luck, his co star Anna Deveare Smith who plays his mother in the human stain is friends with Cornel West who turned up to the New York premiere. “The first thing he did was give me this big bear hug, which really meant the world to me.”

 

The experience of watching himself on the big screen gave him mixed feelings and triggered once again personal, painful memories. “when I saw it for the first time at the Venice Film Festival, what I felt afterwards was very embarrassed--not at all in a bad way, but in that way where you've just put something very personal up there, very private just out there--something that had just happened between me and Jacinda Barrett or something that was still very painful for me from my own life. And suddenly, all these people were just coming up to me and talking to me about it, having this dialogue with me and I'd never spoken with them about it and, for me, these things are still very personal, still very private issues that I wrestle with and come to terms with every day. I have no idea who they are, but they have ideas about me--and I have no idea what rules of etiquette they're working with and it's frightening.

 

Despite all of these thoughts and emotions going on inside he had to continue with the promotion of the film. He did several photo shoots and interviews alone and press conferences with his co stars. The critics were confused and curious about why a young white man was being cast in the role of a character who is supposed to be a light skinned black man. Over and over again, Wentworth had to define his racial background to avoid being mistaken as a white man. Ironically Toni Morrison - who was involved in campaigning against Wentworth at Princeton for his cartoon sketch - would be the same person he would continue to quote. “There’s a great quote in Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved: ‘Definitions belong to the definers, and not the defined.’ I’m constantly having to define myself for other people, lest I be defined by them”.

 

He was also asked about his views on racism in America and his views on racial definitions. "As far as being black versus African-American, I have a problem with hyphenates, I don't want to be African-American or Chinese-American or Irish-American. My family's been in this country for generations. There is no reason in the world why I can't lay claim to just American." His nationality was also brought up in which he revealed that he had dual nationality and holds both British and American passports. Overall as far as he is concerned he is “American first, last and always.”

 

He was also asked about his experience of racism "My encounters with racism are sort of second-hand situations where I might be standing around with a group of white friends and someone makes a comment that they wouldn't make, say, at my family reunion. It leaves a cut. Someone calls you "nigger" and it's like a knife to the gut. To be in that sort of situation it's just a little nick, but you suffer enough nicks and you bleed to death just the same. So when that happens, you're confronted with the quandary: do I stop the party, do I grind things to a halt? And ideally you would each and every single time, but I have better things to do than to educate people--it just has to be a case-by-case basis and you develop a lot of scars”.

 

His views on passing - "Obviously, passing is not something that has ever crossed my mind—it has never shown up on my radar, because I am lucky enough to be born in a generation where it's ok to be absolutely proud of who I am. But being mixed race brings a different set of challenges. Not that it's more challenging than being this, that, or the other, just different. For example, I've never really experienced the 'business end' of the race stick, as I like to call it—I've never been asked to pay for a meal before I eat it, or been pulled over for driving in the wrong neighborhood at the wrong time of night. In that sense, I've been very fortunate.”

 

An upsetting incident with a journalist also brought home the reality of racism and how powerful vocabulary can be. "I just had a conversation with a reporter in New York and he told me, 'So you're a mutt,' and I told him, 'You know, I find the term "mutt" deeply offensive.' So he started back-pedaling and said, 'I'm a mutt, too. I'm part German and part Irish.' "'That means you're white,' I told him. 'But thank you for playing!'"

 

Approached by mixed race viewers, Wentworth says “a lot of them (were) glad that they're seeing a representative of themselves reflected on screen”.

 

In terms of acting he was questioned about who he perceives to be his greatest competition to which he answered Josh Hartnett. And his views on his future career? “I say that with the sobering understanding that if I were to wait only for roles that clarify my racial makeup, I'd be waiting for a very, very long time. I want to aspire to something like what Denzel Washington does which is try to find scripts written for white actors--or Jodie Foster who reads scripts for male actors. I tell my representatives that you can send me out on any ethnicity roles, or roles that were written for Caucasians if race is not an issue in the movie, I think the race of the actors starts to matter if race matters in the movie. If you want to do an all-Eskimo production of ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ I mean God bless you, I can’t wait to see it. But if it’s an all-Eskimo production of ‘Gone with the Wind,’ that’s obviously a little more problematic.”

 

Once again like so many incidents in his life like landing his first major role (dinotopia) at the same network where he interned. Meeting Cornel West after all those years and resolving their differences he bumped into development executives who he used to work for. "I have people coming up to me now at film festivals and screenings who are like, 'Weren't you the one used to stand by the Xerox machine?' now that I'm at the point where big shot so-and-so is laughing at all my jokes and schmoozing, I think 'You know I got coffee for people like you for six years,' so I know what's what as much as I can, because I've seen the other side." Wenworth’s advice to studio executives is that they should be nice to their lowly underlings because they don’t know when they will get one up on them with a studio deal.

 

With the promotion and reviews the buzz was electric and nearly all the critics praised his ‘breakthrough performance’ and were sure that he should be nominated for a supporting actor Oscar award for his role in the film. Wentworth was excited and the film was out just in time to be considered for an Oscar award nomination. The production waited with baited breath.

 

Nothing.

 

Not a single nomination. It would appear that what the critics perceived as the miscasting of Anthony Hopkins as a light skinned black man and the beautiful ‘skinny’ Nicole Kidman as the rough janitor was too implausible to digest. The academy seemed to think so also. Once again like with Dinotopia, Wentworth missed out on what should have been a big break.

 

Once again he was unemployed from 2003 to late 2004 and was back on a Pot Noodle diet. During this time he was thinking about what had happened and doing theatre work as a stand in for William Finns musical The 25th annual Putnam Spelling Bee. A play which spoofs the contests that pit children against children to determine who has the best command of their voluminous vocabulary. In this version competing adults not only battle each other for the title but also battle with their past memories of parental pressure ‘to be the best.’ In this role his English degree and love of Scrabble came in handy.(http://www.playbill.com/news/article/83889.html)

 

A Change of attitude

 

While trying to secure work during 2003 to 2004 Wentworth learnt valuable lessons which gave him a change in attitude. “I'd been told The Human Stain was going to put me on the map as an actor, and the movie did open a number of doors for me; but when I walked through those doors I suddenly found myself in competition with guys who'd been on the covers of magazines. It's very much a name game in Hollywood, and the current trend is to stock your movie with celebrities from the leads on down to Pizza Boy No. 5. It can be an incredibly frustrating experience. But at the end of the day you have to do it for yourself.

 

So he did. He did more photo shoots with big name photographers and got himself on the cover of Interview magazine and on several pages in fashionable magazines such as L’uomo Vogue and Abercrombie and Fitch’s new revamped xmas edition.

 

His change in attitude was also in regards to his approach to auditioning as well, “Only recently I've come to realize that one of the traps of auditioning is walking into that room feeling as though you're a guest in someone's house, and being really careful not to spill wine on the carpet. What you have to do is walk in there as though you're the host”.

 

"I realized the difference between most actors and Anthony Hopkins is that most actors won't make choices about a character. There's nothing better than reading a script and getting a vision of who this character might be, how fun it would be to play and how you'll dress and how you'll walk and how you'll eat and talk and all those things. Most actors make all those choices - or as many as possible - but they do it with a question mark when they walk into an audition and there's that subtext: 'Is this right?' 'Do you like me?' 'Is this working?' And that defeats them in the end. Whereas Anthony Hopkins, when he makes a choice, makes it with a period or even an exclamation mark. That shift in attitude was critical in really helping me make the most of my audition experience."

 

He also observed and analysed the Hollywood system and came to the conclusion that “it's very easy in this business to be a young Tom Cruise or a young Tom Hanks. People know what to do with you because they look at you and say, 'Ahhhh, a young Tom Hanks. This has already worked so well it'll work even better this time ...' Realising that he is different, he came to terms with his place in the scheme of things. "It's another thing to be a little bit off the beaten path because what that means is you have to go out and create something that wasn't there before."

 

These changes in attitude would help in securing work. He started working again on a short film called The Hour which was set in a prison by British director Ash in 2004. Once again irony was at play because a few months later he was called in to audition for prison break. "When I walked into my studio test (for Prison Break), I’d temped for maybe a third of the room," he says. "It’s like 30 network executives sitting there, and some of them recognized me from the copy machine."

 

It would appear that the copy machine made him famous amongst tv executives and would be his claim to fame whenever he met them at auditions (lol)

 

Wentworth recalls that the auditioning process and final securing of the role was fast. He was given the script on Friday went into audition on Monday and got the role by the Tuesday. He did not have much time to get worried because he had to get straight to work. In the last pool of actors that the network auditioned they were getting close to the end of pre production.

 

He was drawn to the character of Michael Scofield in Prison Break because He's clever and ruthless and obsessed. I'm sure there'll be moments of doubt, moments of "What have I gotten myself into?" He's in a situation where his brains and his degree are no guarantee that he won't end up with a shiv between his ribs. But he's a good man with a noble cause, and that requires him to get his hands dirty.

 

This is not just an action thriller, it's really a story about family: How far would one go to save a loved one? In Michael's case, it's all the way to the wall. And it's a great show in that we get a lot of exploration into family, into what it means to be committed to something... into what it means to be a man.

 

The theme of family, community and being imprisoned reoccur again in his choice of project but this time the imprisonment is literal where as with the human stain it was psychological and social. In prison break he plays a white man caught in between the two communities of white and black prisoners in which a race riot breaks out and he is asked to take sides. He chooses not to and as a result he is hated by both sides. Does this sound familiar?

 

Considering his policy on his choice of roles and whether race matters in the story, Prison Break presented a personal dilemna for Wentworth. Here he was playing a white man caught up in a race riot in which he had to choose a side. Either through good fortune or through design, Wentworth’s character stays neutral and therefore is not involved in any racial prejudice or violence.

 

From late November they started filming the pilot episode of Prison Break to show to the network executives. The fate of the show depended on the strength of the pilot. After filming the pilot the director Brett Ratner was asked by Mariah Carey to film two of her music videos ‘Its like that’ and ‘We belong together’ he agreed and decided to cast Wentworth as the love interest in order to raise his profile. It worked and buzz once again circulated around his name.

 

Many people online wondered who that ‘good looking guy was. The pretty’ and started to look him up to find out more information on him. They were not sure who he was and often confused him with Hayden Christiansen and or Channing Tatum. Once again the issue of race was discussed in which online surfers noticed the connection between Mariah Carey and Wentworth Miller’s mixed race backgrounds and wondered whether this was the reason why he had been chosen to feature in her two videos.

 

Luck struck once again when Wentworth was chosen to appear on the last two episodes of Joan of arcadia as Ryan Hunter the satanic type character who also speaks to God – like the main character Joan. Once again as fate would have it he was brought in to the series at the very end when the survival of the show hung in the balance. He had been in a similar situations before with Popular in which he appeared at the end of the final season before the show was finally cancelled.

 

Seeing him in the music videos and on Joan of Arcadia helped to raise his profile considerably so by the time the networks finally gave the greenlight to Prison Break many people were looking him up and looking out for his new work. While the production company were rushing around securing locations and going into pre production Wentworth did voice over work for a feature film called Stealth. He plays EDI an artificial intelligence programme embedded in a pilotless stealth bomber which goes bad when the plane is struck by lightening. In preparing for the role Wentworth was inspired by Space Odyssey 2001 (HAL) "I certainly wanted to tip my hat to what is perhaps some of the best voiceover work ever done, certainly when you're talking about computers gone mad," He also shot the pilot for Ghost Whisperer in which he plays Sgt. Paul Adams a ghost who enlists the help of a medium (ghost whisperer) in order to contact his family.

 

With all this exposure surrounding him he left L.A and rented a home in Millennium park, Chicago near his new work place where he is still filming episodes of Prison Break.

 

Promotion for Prison Break was painfully slow but when it finally took off it really took off with a flurry of billboards, promotional short film clips in cinemas, tv ads, online ads. Radio publicity stunts etc. Once again Wentworth was in the limelight but this time he was the star of the show. At press conferences he would be asked about his background and his character on the show and his role in Joan of arcadia to which he would say that it was strangely poetic that he would end up moving from playing a satanic type character on Joan of arcadia to playing a ghost on the exact same network and in the exact same time slot. Before auditioning for the role on Joan he told the producers that if Prison break were to be commissioned he would not be able to reprise his role. The producers of Joan did not seem to mind. They seemed to have bigger fish to fry. He thought it was unfortunate that Joan was cancelled and when asked he said that he was not responsible for the cancellation of Joan of arcadia.

 

A slightly different take on questions from his days being interviewed for the human stain, journalists are asking much more personal questions such as whether he is married or single. He said that he is single (Aug 2005) and "my rule is you want someone who's got both feet on the ground. An ideal girlfriend might be someone who works in the business and can understand what you're going through but is not an actor themselves - is willing to run lines with you but when you start acting crazy, they throw up their hands and take you for what you are and be accepting."

 

They also asked about his personality etc to which he answered l’m "a fairly boring person. I go to the library, I do a lot of reading, I eat at Subway. When I need some boxers I go to the Gap. I'm literally behind bars five days out of seven," When he had the time he would "as the cliché would have it, (write short stories and) a script”. Or go out to dinner with friends. Asked whether he would in the future do a comedy he believes that he is not funny and if he was considered as such it would be unintentional.

 

When the first two episodes of Prison Break were finally aired on Fox August 29th 2005 his popularity went through the roof. Critics once again – in large number – were singing his praises stating that he was well cast in the show and that this would be his long deserved breakthrough role. The viewer ratings were high, the highest Fox had had since 1998. Meanwhile in contrast to this critics were cutting to pieces the film Stealth for which he did voice over work. A few critics criticised his work but there were minor criticisms in which they compared his voice to HAL from Space Odessey 2001 which in the wider scheme of things is a strange compliment because that was what he was aiming for.

 

Back to Prison Break - hoards of fans are building in number and proclaiming love for him. They want to find out where he lives, does he have a girlfriend. Where he works. They want to stalk him. Some have already started and others have succeeded in meeting him. They think he is cute, shy, courteous and hot. Others who live too far away or don’t have the guts to search for him fantasise about him from a distance, wanting to marry him and have his babies. Pet fights have already broken out on the official Fox discussion forum (all in good fun of course) between women who want to date him saying “forget it bitch he’s mine!” On gay discussion forums, gay guys speculate about whether they would have a chance with him. Is he gay?

 

All in all things seem to be on the up and up but will this be the overdue breakout role that he has been working so hard for? That remains to be seen, in the meantime Wentworth is staying objective about the media hype surrounding the show. He has been down that road before and he is taking the whole media circus with a pinch of salt. In fact he appreciates the fact that he is ‘tucked away in Joliet, illionois’ away from the media glare. He is fully aware that they can pour their hearts and souls into the project and in the end it is not up to them what time the show airs or who they are up against or if an American mayor could be bothered to tune in and watch. Due to this he has decided to be committed to the project but not attached.

 

It is hard to ignore the amount of queries and criticisms levelled at the show such as its longevity. Wentworth noticed this also at press conferences and commented that people would look at the title of the show and assume that it was about two guys jumping over a wall. How many episodes would that take? Miffed by this mentality he also mentioned that the executive producer was intelligent and had mapped out the whole story of Prison Break into the second season.

 

Believability was another issue that a large number of audience members and some critics also had with the story. Once again like with The Human Stain the believability of the characters and the story would be brought into question. The major question is can Prison Break survive this leap of faith / believability? Will they be able to keep audiences tuned in and faithful enough to follow the characters journeys? Wentworth being Wentworth alone is enough to guarantee a large number of women and men tuning in just to gaze at the ‘pretty’ regardless of whether they like the story or not but is that enough to ensure the survival of the show?

 

That remains to be seen. So far the show is on a high, a lot of people have expressed that it is a unique and great show. So at the moment it is pretty much 70 / 30 as to its chances of survival for the first 13 episodes at least.

 

As an admirer of Wentworths talent l for one hope that this issue – like with the human stain – does not rob him of the recognition that he deserves and a nomination at next years Emmy awards.

 

Regardless of whether he finally breaks through or gets an award, Wentworth is content with just acting. Yes he would like an award, that would be the ideal “show me an actor who has not had his oscar fantasy and l will show you a liar’. Even if he does not get any awards, acting is an essential part of life for him in itself. ‘You have to love what you do, and you have to need it like you need air. And there's nothing else that would give me the same degree of satisfaction as acting, which is why I can't walk away from it. The road has been what it's been and it's taken me as long as it's taken to get here and I don't regret a second. It doesn't get any better than this."

 

 

(All quotes have been taken from articles found in the file section of the Group site.)

 

 

Wentworth’s favourite films.

 

Carrie. "I can watch Carrie again and again and again. I think it's a brilliant movie. Obviously you know how the story ends, but en route to that, every single person in the movie, whether they're operating from goodness or evil, has a part in the disaster that occurs. It's a very complicated and beautifully tangled web."

 

The Trip to Bountiful. "Geraldine Page won the Oscar for that in the late 80s and it's just a very sweet and heartfelt movie about an elderly woman making a bus trip back to her home town in texas. Just beautiful work."

 

Time Bandits "was one of my favorite movies as a kid, a kind of Monty Python for kids."

Jesus Christ Superstar, "if I have to throw in some kind of musical. It's just hippie-licious is the word that always comes to mind."

The Shining, "but you gotta watch it like in a cabin in the woods at night"

 

Dangerous Liaisons. "Up until that point I think I had a very clear-cut, black-and-white view of how movies were supposed to go. The good guys won, the bad guys got their asses kicked. But in this movie the bad guys got their asses kicked and it broke your heart."