On last week’s season 3 premiere of Prison Break, viewers were treated to several new facesm including Robert Wisdom who plays the menacing Sona kingpin Lechero. The Panamanian prison is ruled by the inmates, and Lechero is the de facto leader, the man who tries to keep a group of the worst felons in line.
BuddyTV got the chance to speak with Robert Wisdom at this weekend FOX press junket in Los Angeles, and unlike his character on the show, he could not be any nicer. As an added bonus, members of the press who woke up early enough for breakfast were treated to seeing Wisdom talking on the phone while, right next to him, a TV showed the Prison Break season premiere. Side-by-side, it’s stunning how different the man is from the character.
Below you will find the mp3 audio file of the interview as well as a brief summary of what he revealed about his character on the show.
-Robert Wisdom discussed how he was cast on Prison Break this year, and his feeling that we would get the role because he had a strong understanding of the character.
-Lechero is based on or inspired by a number of historically ruthless dictators, such as the Shah or Iran, Idi Amin and Benito Mussolini. In other words, Lechero is not someone to be taken lightly.
-Having previously played a death row inmate on Boomtown and a member of the Baltimore police department on HBO’s The Wire, Wisdom talked about the different ways in which he approaches characters on either side of the law, and how he always tries to find the center.
-Wisdom respects the other actors on Prison Break, and is impressed how seriously they all take their jobs. Also, though he didn’t watch it originally, when he was hired he got the first two seasons on DVD and sped through them and got hooked right away by the cat and mouse aspect of the first season and the expanded conspiracy of the second.
-In his free time, he is very passionate about music and plays several instruments.
-Wisdom confirmed that, in the fifth and final season of HBO’s The Wire, premiering in January 2008, is character, Bunny Colvin will return, and Wisdom assured fans that this season will be “extraordinary.”
-Interview conducted by John Kubicek
(Image courtesy of FOX)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
