Prison Break

A break with his past life

It is disconcerting speaking to an Australian who admits to deliberately speaking with an American accent, especially considering the plethora of Aussie stars overseas who have retained their Strine or at least some bastardised version of it, a la Nicole Kidman and Kylie Minogue.

Actor Dominic Purcell, who reprises his role as Lincoln Burrows in the third season of action series Prison Break tonight, speaks over the phone in a pitch-perfect Californian drawl.

An Australian by sentence, if not by birth, Purcell moved to Sydney from Britain aged two and lived there until he moved to Los Angeles in 2000.

On the demanding publicity trail ahead of the launch of the latest series of the show, Purcell says he isn’t conscious of putting on an accent any more.

“I deliberately did it when I first got here because my American accent was really bad and having to audition for roles and doing movies, I got very self-conscious about it,” he says. “Then I got some advice from Anthony LaPaglia, who is also Australian and came over here 20 years back, and he said he just spoke American all the time to improve his American accent.”

But any hint of patriotic resentment is swiftly suppressed when Purcell, 37, who studied for three years at the WA Academy of Performing Arts, lets slip that he misses “Subi” and “Cott” and footy.

Graduating alongside acting bigwigs Hugh Jackman and Frances O’Connor, Purcell says he enjoyed his time in Perth and that he still keeps in touch with “Hughie”.

“Hughie’s a good friend of mine,” he says. “We both have kids and when he’s in town or I’m in town and our paths cross, we usually get together.”

But Purcell, who is married to a fellow Australian, producer Rebecca Purcell, and has three kids, is reluctant to associate himself with the Australian brat pack of actors in LA. “I got here and did my own thing and met my own people,” he says.

It’s been a busy seven years for Purcell since winning the US green card lottery, particularly after being cast in a lead role in Prison Break. “My life is all about cabs, airports and hotels,” he says. “(But) I think the excitement part has kind of worn off for me.”

For a series that was only supposed to last two seasons, the phenomenal success of Prison Break left the Fox Network unable to knock back a third season. The fast-paced series garnered Golden Globe nominations and won the People’s Choice Award for Favourite New Television Drama last year.

The new season, which only screened in the US on September 17, sees the series return to its prison roots, after the second series was spent following Burrows and brother Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) on the run after breaking out of Fox River Penitentiary.

Set in Panama, it reverses the roles of the brothers, with Lincoln this time trying to break Michael out of Sona prison.

Fans will not be disappointed by the new series, with old characters returning as well as new ones being introduced, including All Saints star Chris Vance, who joins the cast.

The action (and there is a lot of it) centres around Michael’s struggle to survive in the vicious, lawless prison after running foul of Lechero, the prison’s kingpin inmate.

“The prison itself is based on Third World prisons,” Purcell explains. “These prisons are free societies within prison walls.”

Purcell believes this is the best season of Prison Break yet and is at pains to point out he is not contracted to say this. One is tempted to believe him, especially since he also bluntly points out he doesn’t think the show will last much beyond this season. “I can’t imagine it getting better than the third season,” he says. “Season four can’t be another kind of prison because people are just going to turn off. I think for the fourth season people may be curious and I think we may limp into a fifth season.”

Whether or not the series lasts beyond this season, Purcell’s life has changed dramatically since Prison Break hit screens in 2005. He says the celebrity phenomenon is something he finds difficult to get used to and he would rather not have to deal with it.

“Some people love being the centre of attention. . . . I’m one of these people that don’t,” he says. “It’s something you can’t train for at drama school.”

And for someone who never particularly wanted to be an actor, Purcell has surprised himself as much as his parents with his success.

He decided to become an actor because he thought it looked easy. “I saw guys doing Home and Away or E Street or Neighbours and it looked kind of simple and they were getting all this money and all these chicks so I thought, ‘I can do that’,” he says. So did he get the chicks? “I got the chicks, yeah,” he laughs. Prison Break 9.30 tonight on Seven/GWN.

Source: TheWest.Com