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.

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.

That is very true for any walk of life and very true for my character in 'Prison Break' because he's a structural engineer. I did a little bit of reading about that. And structural engineering is the art and science of connectivity. The pieces of a building are all interdependent. My brother in the story is behind the wall and every brick in that wall represents the conspiracy that put him there. My job as his brother and as an engineer is to find that one brick and loosen it. And another and another and hopefully the whole thing will come down.

The prison helps a great deal in keeping me grounded in the character, ... When you're surrounded by 3-foot thick walls, you really understand how impossible his task is.

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

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.