Robert Knepper, a career actor who cut his teeth on the theatrical stage in his hometown of Fremont, Ohio before majoring in drama at Chicago’s Northwestern University, is often typecast as a villain, but he approaches each new role as if he were playing the sweetest person in the world.

Lessons from Prison Break:
“Prison Break taught me that the writers have to break the story. They ponder it, they wrestle with it and all of a sudden they figure it out. What I realized, week after week after week of doing Prison Break, is that you do the same thing as an actor. You break the story from that character’s point of view. You break that scene down and go, `Ah-a, I get it.’ It’s kind of like a slow- moving river that’s coming to a waterfall, and all of a sudden the water starts to flow. You can’t just memorize a scene without knowing what the scene’s about. If the writing’s not good, I can’t memorize it at all. I’m like, `Damn, why won’t these words stick in my head?’ Once I break the scene, like the writers do, then it flows.”

On Heroes:
“I have a good vibe for Heroes, because I’m pulling my hair out trying to discover that character. The difference between now and Prison Break is that Prison Break put me on the map. With Heroes – it’s weird, but I haven’t talked about this before – it’s almost as if I feel the audience will be watching me develop the character as I’m developing it. I haven’t got it all developed ahead of time. I’m still fiddling with it. We’ll get to see what happens with it from one week to the next. For the audience, it’s like the theatre. It’s like watching a live performance unfold that happens to be on film.”

“What I’m doing is not radically different from what I’ve done before. Maybe, after one year of being on the show, then I’ll have it figured out; I’ll know exactly what it is. But, right now, I love the challenge. I love the craziness of not knowing what’s coming next.”

On his Heroes character, Samuel:
“He’s going to draw you in. He’s going to draw all these heroes’ stories out of them. Samuel is also looking to reclaim a part of his soul. Samuel isn’t a villain, really. He’s a hero who’s misunderstood. Hopefully, you’ll get a gleam of light into his life as well.”

Starring role or ensemble?
“I’m an ensemble guy. My whole life, I’ve been an ensemble guy, because I grew up in the theatre. Anything I can do to help tell the story as a whole – that’s who I am. And I always will be.”