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Prison Break's Robert Knepper

T-bagging time.

EurogamerHave you tried amassing a huge collection of fake beards? That'd solve the problem.
Robert Knepper

I shot Transporter 3 in Paris a couple of years ago, and in France if they don't know my name they call me Monsieur T-Bag. They show the scumball some respect. They're ravenous for Prison Break in France. I thought there was two ways of dealing with this experience in Paris. I can keep my head down and cover up, and look like a bum in a beard and hat, insulate myself and call home and say, "honey, they have amazing old sidewalks here, these cobblestone streets," because I never looked up.

Or I can admit that I never like wearing sunglasses. Sunglasses don't help anyway. I've tried it, and they just make people wonder who's behind them. So I said here I am, and of course everybody came up to me. But I'd rather do that than look down the whole time.

EurogamerIf, heaven forfend, you ended up in a situation where you couldn't land high-profile parts, would you consider more videogame voicework a viable career, or do you think it's still too far away from traditional acting for you?
Robert Knepper

I don't know the world well enough, the videogame world, to even know what that is. I think voiceovers are great - we always say it's easy on the face. It's nice to do commercials, and it's nice to do commercial campaigns. I hear my buddy Kiefer [fixes me with knowing look], I hear Gene Hackman doing it all the time. I'm sure it's the same for videogames.

It's a nice fantasy of mine to think a friend of mine might call up and say, "the TV was on last night, and I heard this guy talking and I was all like oh my god, that's Rob. And it was some other character in something else." I don't think of my voice as being distinct just by itself until I play a character. Then you know you've made it, because people know your voice. Like you always know it's Jaaaaaack. [Slips into note-perfect Nicholson impression.] Jaaaaack's gonna do a commercial, and you know it's hissssssss."

EurogamerSo the shows you're most known do the Lost thing, forever posing questions that take years to answer. A lot of big games series have started doing it too. Why do you think we're stuck in that cycle?
Robert Knepper

The cool thing about serialised TV shows is that I always do one fraction of a movie every week. I don't have to know the ending. In movies you would. I don't have to know the beginning, middle and end of that story. I'm right there. That's all I have to know.

A director told me once that one of his favourite days of directing was when he was shooting a pilot, and he had the whole thing done, the locations planned, and all of a sudden at the last minute the writers rewrote a scene. So the day they shot it, they had to work out right there and then in rehearsal where they were going to shoot it, what set they were going to put it on, and have the actors perform it. And he said it's one of the most amazing scenes he's ever shot. Everyone was on the same level - no-one was prepared. Sometimes if you don't think too much about something, it's better.

Prison Break: The Game is out today.

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