Read online here: www.wcmessenger.com
 

 
‘Break’ actor Garrison finds his way back
Published Thursday, August 10, 2006
By Don Munsch

“Prison Break” actor Lane Garrison casually mentions identifying with his character.
 
Sounds sort of odd that someone would admit to sympathizing with an escaped convict. But Garrison’s background afforded him some knowledge in tackling the role.
 
Garrison, who plays David “Tweener” Apolskis on “Prison Break,” discussed his role as a prison escapee during a break in filming Monday in Decatur. The crew of the Fox television show shot scenes in Decatur at the chapel on the corner of Hale and Church streets on Tuesday, and crews are expected to shoot one day next week.
 
A Richardson native, Garrison said his agency sent him the pilot episode of “Prison Break,” and he thought it was “a phenomenal show.”
 
“I told them that if any character comes up that is right in my age range, please let me know,” said Garrison, 26, during a break in his shooting schedule. “They said there was this character and we’ve got you an audition. And I read it, and I just knew who this kid was. He was a thief growing up, and it was very similar to how I grew up. I just knew who he was. When I walked into the (audition) room, I said, ‘you’re not allowed to see anybody else – this role is mine.’ The casting character laughed at me. ... I read, and then he said, ‘You know this character.’ He picked up the phone and called the producers and I had to read for them a bunch of times.”
 
In a People Magazine profile in May, Garrison, a 1998 Richardson J.J. Pearce High School graduate, discussed his troubled past, explaining said he how stole various items and how running afoul of the law eventually caught up with him and landed him in community service.
 
Garrison’s parents split up and the family of Jessica Simpson – yes, that Jessica Simpson – invited Garrison, who didn’t get along with his parents, to live with the family, Garrison said. Garrison and Jessica had known each other since they were 12, he said.
 
Garrison lived with Jessica Simpson’s family when both were 17. Simpson, the pop music star and actress who starred in MTV’s “Newlyweds,” also attended Pearce High School.
 
“Torture” was what it was like living with the Simpsons, Garrison jokingly said while sitting at a table at The Whistle Stop Cafe.
 
“I was madly in love with this girl, who’s just drop-dead gorgeous, and to have to wake up every morning and be around her was definitely torture,” he said.
 
Garrison described his “Prison Break” character as being on a journey – in more ways than one.
 
“He’s white, but in my mind he grew up in a black neighborhood, so he’s sort of struggling to find his identity, so he’s lost in between – that was the nickname that T-Bag (another escapee, played by Robert Knepper) gave him,” said Garrison. “He’s a kid on the loose now outside of prison. He’s sort of having to restart a whole new life, a whole new identity. He’s a guy trying to find himself.”
 
At the end of season one, Tweener and other escapees flee from prison in Illinois.
 
And what was Tweener’s crime?
 
“I was in for stealing a baseball card of Honus Wagner,” Garrison said. “And they slapped grand larceny on me. I escaped because this guy raped me in prison and was threatening to (take) my life.”
 
Garrison said he has been acting since he was 6-years-old.
 
“I mean, not professionally, but I’ve always known I’ve wanted to be an entertainer at a young age,” said Garrison, who’s single and lives in Los Angeles. “Then I left right after I graduated high school. I packed my bags and drove my car out west. I moved to L.A. and started pursuing the dream.”
 
Garrison is in a new movie called “Quality of Life,” which won awards at film festivals in Berlin and Stockholm.
 
“It’s playing in New York and L.A. and, I think, Chicago this weekend,” he said. “That was my first film to really star in.”
 
Garrison described the film as a “coming of age story” of graffiti artists growing up in the Mission District in San Francisco. More information about the film can be found at www.qualityoflife-themovie.com.
 
He said he has enjoyed being in Decatur, a place where he can chat easily with friendly waitresses in the cafe or autograph and picture seekers in front of the diner. The show set up its base camp near the Decatur High School football field.
 
Garrison said he expects the show to shoot six more months in Texas, and some segments will be done in the studios in Las Colinas.
 
Garrison said it has been both exciting and surreal to be home.
 
“It’s been great coming back home,” Garrison said. “It has been this sort of whirlwind story of growing up here. You always have that dream leaving your hometown and making it happen. It’s been great seeing it sort of come full circle, to be able come back and shoot back in Texas.”
 
Garrison said it was bittersweet to be in Texas, because both of his parents have died since he moved to California.
 
“Coming back home definitely conjures up a lot of emotions for me,” he said. His mother died in 2000 and his father died in 2004. His younger sister moved to Los Angeles and is in the entertainment business, as well. The People profile said he and his mother reconciled about six months before she died.