Wentworth Miller Quotes & Sayings

I had a brief experience in the food industry. I was a bus boy in a Mexican restaurant in Arizona, scraping re-fried beans off people's plates. It teaches you a bit of humility and the importance of a good deodorant. — Wentworth Miller

I'm one of those actors who's going to have to create a space for themselves. It's very easy to be the young Tom Cruise, because Hollywood knows what to do with you. But if you're someone who's bringing someone slightly left of center to the table, you're not a sure thing. — Wentworth Miller

I noticed that I got a better space in the line in Starbucks when I had my tattoo. People associate tattoos with a certain edge. Then I open my mouth, and something completely different comes out. — Wentworth Miller

Entertainers are there to entertain. They aren't there to teach your children the lessons that you haven't bothered to teach them at home yourself. — Wentworth Miller

I'm very pleased with being a part of the Bean Pole family. It's a relationship that makes sense to me. I'm very pleased to have my name associated with Bean Pole Jeans. — Wentworth Miller

I didn't come to Hollywood to get on magazine covers or start my Porsche collection or to enjoy that kind of lifestyle, to go to the right parties and meet the right people. — Wentworth Miller

I want to aspire to something like what Denzel Washington does, which is try to find scripts written for white actors - or Jodie Foster, who reads scripts for male actors. — Wentworth Miller

I feel extremely lucky, extremely grateful, and a little bittersweet, too. — Wentworth Miller

When I've had my periods of unemployment, I'll get these e-mails from my father: 'I've read that the LAPD has a reservist program. Perhaps that's something you'd be interested in taking a look at.' — Wentworth Miller

Professionally speaking, the proudest moment was when I booked the 'Human Stain.' I knew it had Nicole Kidman, Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris and Gary Sinise on board, and the director Robert Benton was an academy award winner for 'Kramer vs Kramer.' — Wentworth Miller

Confidence is at the root of so many attractive qualities, a sense of humor, a sense of style, a willingness to be who you are no matter what anyone else might think or say and it's true, I do have a certain fondness for women that have dark hair. — Wentworth Miller

I'm pretty much a couch potato. — Wentworth Miller

It was just expected that I would go to college. Both my parents are teachers and they tolerated acting, but I was going to go to a school of quality or bust. Which made my downshifting back to acting afterward a little difficult. — Wentworth Miller

Everyone has their challenges. — Wentworth Miller

You might look at my CV and see I've had 12 jobs, but I've been to over 450 auditions so I've heard 'no' a lot more than I've heard 'yes'. So if I go in looking only to meet my own standards, then that will make taking that rejection a little bit easier. And when I do get that job it will seem like icing on the cake. — Wentworth Miller

There's so much we can't express in our day-to-day interaction with people because it's considered inappropriate. And acting is all about being inappropriate. — Wentworth Miller

You develop a lot of scars, being interracial. — Wentworth Miller

Four months of preparation and about 12 hours of shooting turned into about 30 seconds of screen time. — Wentworth Miller

You only cry for help if you believe there is help to cry for. — Wentworth Miller

You have to love what you do, and you have to need it like you need air. And there's nothing else that would give me the same degree of satisfaction as acting, which is why I can't walk away from it. — Wentworth Miller

There'll be moments when I'm out in the prison yard, chatting with the cast and the crew, getting ready to shoot a scene. And then I'll remember if I were actually an inmate, I'd only be out there an hour. The other 23 hours of the day, I'd be in my cell. It's kind of a downer. — Wentworth Miller

My rule is you want someone whos got both feet on the ground. An ideal girlfriend might be someone who works in the business and can understand what youre going through but is not an actor themselves - is willing to run lines with you but when you start acting crazy, they throw up their hands and take you for what you are and be accepting. — Wentworth Miller

I think there's something about evil that is thoughtless and relentless and incredibly frightening because it can't be reckoned with, reasoned with or stopped. — Wentworth Miller

I'm hoping that what I am or what I'm not ethnically doesn't limit me in anyone else's eyes. I guarantee you it doesn't in mine. — Wentworth Miller

When I got to college, acting suddenly seemed like a very risky proposition and all my friends were going to law school or med school or Wall Street. — Wentworth Miller

My first gig in the business was a guest star on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' so I'm neck deep in sci-fi. It's been a very good genre to me. — Wentworth Miller

Unfortunately, I'm allergic to all animals and even some people. — Wentworth Miller

There was no script, but I said, 'I'm in, regardless' and was committed to Legends before I saw a single page.It was a lovely surprise to find so much meat on the bone. — Wentworth Miller

This role is more visible, and I grew up without a lot of that sort of modeling so I'm relieved and proud to have done this film. — Wentworth Miller

I made a decision not to work out because I'm lazy and also, the character is not a superhero. I didn't want him to be a buff guy with Jackie Chan moves because the point is he's smarter than your average Joe. — Wentworth Miller

I have to laugh internally when I'm asked in interviews what nightspots I like to hit. I just don't have answers ... so sometimes I make them up. — Wentworth Miller

I think what you learn, working on a film or TV set, is how to tune certain things out. You've got 60-100 people swirling around you, each of them with a very important job to do. — Wentworth Miller

Nobody's ever asked me to pay for a meal before I've eaten it, I've never been pulled over just because I was driving the wrong kind of car in the wrong kind of area at the wrong time of night. — Wentworth Miller

My father is black and my mother is white. Therefore, I could answer to either, which kind of makes me a racial Lone Ranger, caught between two communities. — Wentworth Miller

It's the way the business works, you're not just an actor, you're a diplomat and a publicist and a politician, and there are certain expectations. — Wentworth Miller

I have very high expectations of myself. I'm a very competitive person but competitive with myself. I want to be the best that I can be and if that means that I'm eventually better than everyone else then so be it. — Wentworth Miller

I have my own personal wish list. — Wentworth Miller

My definition of cool is finding your own definition of cool and not necessarily taking your lead from what other people tell you or from what you might read from magazines or see on TV. — Wentworth Miller

I had my one guest star on The Flash, and that became several guest stars, and then they mentioned this new show. — Wentworth Miller

I think that's the beauty of the current setup, is that Legends is meant to be a bit of a revolving door. — Wentworth Miller

My experience is that I find myself having to constantly define myself to others, day-in, day-out. The quote that's helped me the most through that is from Toni Morrison's "Beloved" where she says, "Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined" - so I find myself defining myself for other people lest I be defined by others and stuck into some box where I don't particularly belong — Wentworth Miller

Growing up, I was a target. Speaking the right way, standing the right way, holding your wrist the right way. Every day was a test, and there were a thousand ways to fail, a thousand ways to betray yourself, to not live up to someone else's standards of what was accepted, of what was normal. — Wentworth Miller

I've never seen American Idol but I am grateful to them. That show is one of Fox's biggest moneymakers, and some of that money goes to pay for shows like Prison Break. Simon Cowell's been signing my paychecks and for that I say thanks. — Wentworth Miller

I'd like to go back and revisit the Flash/Captain Cold relationship, because that to me has been the heart of it all along. My impression is that The Flash is a show about a boy's journey into manhood. For the Flash character, there is a variety of male models presented to him, and Captain Cold is one of them. — Wentworth Miller

To be honest, I find going out pretty scary and intimidating. Got all those people checking you out, with only one purpose: hooking up. I'm quite the dork, I'd rather sit home and play Scrabble. But that doesn't get you a girl, does it? — Wentworth Miller

Prison Break is so far-fetched, I had to make viewers believe that Michael is capable of making the impossible possible. — Wentworth Miller

Acting was something I needed like air. It wasn't something I could walk away from. — Wentworth Miller

An actor's job is to embrace emotions and situations that in real life we spend all of our time running away from. — Wentworth Miller

I hadn't worked for a year when I had my Prison Break audition and it was the easiest audition I've ever had. I got the script on Friday, went to the audition on Monday and got the part on Tuesday. I was shooting the pilot a week later. I didn't have time to be nervous - it happened so quickly. — Wentworth Miller

I'm neither sexy nor a star. — Wentworth Miller

My encounters with racism are sort of second-hand situations where I might be standing around with a group of white friends and someone makes a comment that they wouldn't make at my family reunion. — Wentworth Miller

[asked if his suicide attempt was a cry for help]
No. I told no one. You only cry for help if you believe that there's help to cry for. — Wentworth Miller

On Flash, I thought of myself as a spice character; come in, do a little dance, and I go. — Wentworth Miller

I worked with the same trainer that worked with Denzel Washington in THe Hurricane. It was three months of training, five days a week, 4 to 5 hours a day. This was followed by a month of choreography. — Wentworth Miller

I'm a very competitive person, but competitive with myself. I want to be the best that I can be, and if that means that I'm eventually better than everyone else, then so be it. But I don't go around comparing and contrasting myself with other actors if I can help it. It's also, I think, the key to my success. — Wentworth Miller

They told me at the end of that test that they wanted me to be a part of this project. I walked out and had a moment of clarity where I thought, not many people will ever have this moment. — Wentworth Miller

I feel as though we're living in a time where there is very little distinction paid between the personal and the professional. — Wentworth Miller

I revise obsessively. It's important to me to have a clean page. — Wentworth Miller

A racial community provides not only a sense of identity, that luxury of looking into another's face and seeing yourself reflected back, but a sense of security and support. — Wentworth Miller

Michael Scofield is someone everyone can relate to, but nobody would want to be in his shoes. — Wentworth Miller

A great book provides escapism for me. The artistry and the creativity in a story are better than any drugs. — Wentworth Miller

There has to be a measure of faith. That's what this business is all about: trusting in something that may never show up, that you have no concrete proof of. — Wentworth Miller

I acted all the way up until Princeton. It was just one of my favorite extracurricular activities. Then I got to Princeton and had a really conservative vibe. All my friends were planning on law school, med school, or Wall Street, and suddenly acting seem like a really risky proposition. — Wentworth Miller

I certainly learned how to break down a text at Princeton, which helps me break down a script - or at least that's the line I feed my parents when they start wondering where all that good money went. — Wentworth Miller

I don't think you need to watch Arrow and Flash to appreciate what it is Legends has to offer. The beauty of this show - and they do this on Flash, and they did this on Arrow - is that we do spend time on character. We do spend time on backstory. We do take a moment in between the sci-fi special effects to tell you who these people are, so that when something happens to them, you actually care. — Wentworth Miller

It's very much a back and forth conversation between the fans and the writers, between the writers and the powers that be. Their opinions, especially when expressed online or via correspondence, are important and are taken into consideration. — Wentworth Miller

The mail amazes me. I sometimes get these letters that are ten pages, and handwritten, from women pouring their hearts out and, for security reasons, I can only respond with a headshot and 'Dear so and so, be good. WM.' It never feels like enough. — Wentworth Miller

Thank you for your kind invitation. However, as a gay man, I must decline. I am deeply troubled by the current attitude toward and treatment of gay men and women by the Russian government. The situation is in no way acceptable, and I cannot in good conscience participate in a celebratory occasion hosted by a country where people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly. — Wentworth Miller

I think it's necessary when you're dealing with a dark show that has explosion and violence to have defined moments of lightness and humor, even romance. It's important, and it deepens the character, of course. — Wentworth Miller

I surrender the idea of having some kind of control over the arc of my career a lot of the time because you never know what tomorrow's going to bring. — Wentworth Miller

You're confronted with the quandary: do I grind things to a halt? Ideally you would, but I have better things to do than educate people. — Wentworth Miller

A ghostly side note Soldier boy Miller played a Lucifer-like character in the final two episodes of Joan of Arcadia. Coincidence I do find it strangely poetic, ... that a character who shows up on a show about God to play something kind of satanic winds up in the very last two episodes of that show, and then appears in the show that replaces that show on its exact time and night the following season. — Wentworth Miller

I wanted to be involved in TV and film in some capacity, so a compromise, because acting seemed unrealistic, and so risky, was to get into the production side. And it was a really fortunate, smart move looking back on it, because it gave me perspective on another side of the business. — Wentworth Miller

I spend my weekends sleeping and watching DVDs, and eating at restaurants within a 2-block radius of my apartment. — Wentworth Miller

I'm kind of a dork. I don't have much game. I'm not particularly comfortable in bars or clubs. I much prefer being home playing Scrabble, having dinner with a couple friends, going to see a movie, or losing a whole weekend to Season 14 of Law and Order or The Simpsons. — Wentworth Miller

In my career as an actor, there is a catchphrase that Scofield always says often in regards to his brother, 'Have a little faith.' In my own career as an actor, there were times when I was the only one who believed in myself in the face of the odds. — Wentworth Miller

My family put a lot of emphasis on homework, so there weren't too many comic books or video games for me, when I was growing up. — Wentworth Miller

There's nothing the Internet can tell me about myself that I don't already know. The rest is foolishness and people killing time. — Wentworth Miller

I've never read a book or attended a class on screenwriting. I'm not opposed to the idea, but I like what I've got going on naturally and want to protect that. The one question I will ask myself as I'm re-reading a script for the 60th time is, 'Am I entertained? Still?' If the answer is 'yes,' I'll assume other people will be, too. — Wentworth Miller

If I were to wait only for roles that clarify my racial makeup, I'd be waiting for a very, very long time. — Wentworth Miller

Prison has a universal fascination. It's a real-life horror story because, given the right set of circumstances, anyone could find themselves behind bars. — Wentworth Miller

I think it's a very dangerous game to play when you assume that just because someone's an entertainer, they're automatically a role model. Entertainers are there to entertain. They aren't there to teach your children the lessons that you haven't bothered to teach them at home yourself. They're just doing their own version of entertaining. — Wentworth Miller

I've never tried writing at a coffeehouse. I just know instinctively it's not for me. — Wentworth Miller

I am a workaholic, have always been. — Wentworth Miller

I know what it takes to go from the point where someone's looking at a newspaper article, and thinking, 'Oh, this would make a great TV series,' to the point where you're actually on a set and there's a camera aimed at someone. — Wentworth Miller

I've been spared to a large extent the business end of the race stick. — Wentworth Miller

I broke my nose in gym when a ball hit me. I took a girl to her debutante ball the next week wearing a tux and a big, honking bandage. Not the romantic night she had in mind. — Wentworth Miller

I've been spoiled by this project. I was given the script and went in to read, realizing that this was a powerful story and one that wasn't told very often. — Wentworth Miller

I think ultimately that's why the audience will tune in longterm, for the characters and the relationships. — Wentworth Miller

My character in 'Prison Break' needs to be formidable. In reality, I'm not very tough at all. — Wentworth Miller