Robert Knepper Reminisces About Prison Break

Robert Knepper chats with Digital Spy about his character and the way that Prison Break ended.

Robert reveals that he’s happy with the way the series ended. “We talked about so many different possibilities, but I thought the show was a whole as a great book-end. We all agreed that purgatory was the best end for my character. If not, there would have been a lot of people saying, ‘Oh my God – T-Bag’s out!’ I’m very happy with it, especially the reference to the pocket-grabbing thing. We actually had the same costumes from the first season, too. It was a great way to end the whole thing for me.”

As for his favorite part of being a part of the show? “The humour of T-Bag. I loved being this kind of guy who attacked every frickin’ race on the planet! When I did the first episode, it wasn’t funny – he wanted to start a riot against the blacks. I was so worried when that episode aired – being in Chicago – that I would need security. I thought the black population would think I was a racist and beat me up or something! But they were the most vocal about it – they thought it was great! Any time that T-Bag got to shock the hell out of someone, those were my favourite moments.”

Robert says that he never worried whether T-Bag would survive, because he wanted to be present in the moment. “I never thought ahead. I wanted to do the best job I could do. I jumped through all the hoops that you do as an actor and I signed a seven-year contract. I had a friend once who said, ‘T-Bag put the prison in Prison Break’. Once the show hit, I had a good feeling that T-Bag was gonna be in for a long ride.”

So how did his tongue-flicking mannerisms come about? “I’ll tell you how that happened: it was the first part I played where I had facial hair – the crumb catcher – and it tickled me because I was just getting used to it. If you look at it from the beginning, it was really just me feeling my little whiskers! And then I kind of ran with it and it stuck.”

Image Credited to Newscom