WQED Multimedia

Sewickley Heights' Wentworth Miller plays it
tough in the hit TV series ‘Prison Break.'

by Christine O'Toole

With the most seductive scowl on television, Wentworth Miller, formerly of Sewickley Heights, has come a long way from his 1990 starring role as Quaker Valley High School's Li'l Abner in the musical of the same name. He's ditched that leading man's overalls for a jailbird jumpsuit in "Prison Break," which begins its second hit season on Fox TV this fall. This season, his character, Michael Scofield, goes on the lam with the brother he's committed to free from death row.

Does that mean audiences will finally see Scofield crack a smile?

"That's really funny," Miller acknowledged in an e-mail interview. "You'd think he'd have a reason to smile now that he's out of prison, but I think things are just going to get darker and more complicated. He's got a government conspiracy, crooked FBI agents and a bounty hunter standing between him and getting his brother safely to Mexico. So all in all, he really doesn't have a whole lot to smile about these days."

By contrast, Miller's career is looking mighty bright. Following graduation from QVHS in 1990 and Princeton University in 1995, Miller landed his first Hollywood role in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." He landed roles in ABC-TV's "Dinotopia" in 2002 and the big screen's The Human Stain, with Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman, the following year. In the latter role, in which Miller played a black man who looked white, he drew on an ethnic heritage that includes Arab, European and African-American. This year, he was nominated for a Golden Globe for his Scofield role in "Prison Break."

"I think people are drawn to prison stories because they're really horror stories," says Miller. "I think we're fascinated by the dark side of human nature, and prison is a place where people do terrible things."

When the Millers moved to Sewickley Heights at the beginning of Wentworth's senior year, he and his father created a book of cartoons gently lampooning their new hometown. "He'd do the writing; I would do the drawing. A few of our cartoons wound up published in the Sewickley Herald. For me, the experience was mostly about getting the chance to spend a little quality time with my father."

A college English major, Miller reads mainly scripts these days, as his daily pace for "Prison Break" is intense. "Our shooting schedule is 12 to 15 hours a day, five days a week," he explains. "We shoot an entire episode, which is about 45 minutes long, in eight days. On a movie set, 45 minutes of screen time would take about a month and a half to shoot. And on days when we have to put the whole tattoo on" - that would be Scofield's well-muscled, full-body schematic of the prison floor plan - "I'll come in to work three hours earlier than everyone else. Those are long days."

Based in L.A. for the past decade, Miller says he returns to Pittsburgh about once a year - but only to visit family. Chances of his shooting on location at the now-deserted Western Penitentiary, just upriver from his old Sewickley Heights home, are slim. "It's unlikely. But you never know," he says elliptically. "We might wind up back in the slammer down the road. These stories have a way of coming full-circle."

Catch Wentworth Miller in "Prison Break," Monday evenings at 8 p.m. on Fox.

< Back to PITTSBURGH magazine home