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Q&A: William Fichtner

You might recognize William Fichtner as the dogged FBI agent who chased Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell all over America in Prison Break. Or maybe as the bank manager who stares down the Joker in The Dark Knight’s opening heist, or the lovelorn vampire scientist mooning after Milla Jovovich in Ultraviolet. Basically, if you need a slightly unmoored authority figure, you call William Fichtner.

The actor’s live-wire unpredictability is showcased nicely in Drive Angry, an action movie that casts him as the Accountant, a supernatural bagman bent on recapturing Nicolas Cage’s escaped prisoner. On a promotional stop in Toronto, the Cheektowaga-raised Fichtner sat down to discuss the finer points of being a wild card.

It seems like whenever you turn up in a movie wearing a suit and tie, things are about to get weird.

That’s cool! I love that!

How do you get into the character of the Accountant? He’s not a conventional bad guy.

I think he enjoys the chase, which he doesn’t get all the time. It’s probably a pretty boring job, being the Accountant in Hell. But when he gets to come back? Yeah, it’s kinda good. And eventually the chase leads the Accountant to really understand why it is that (Cage) broke out in the first place. Noble cause, you know? Quite a worthy adversary.

It’s a great bad-guy role: he shows up and knocks people around, but he also gets to be the picture’s comic relief.

I’ve had so many people say to me, “You know, the Accountant has some funny lines in this.” Not that I’m completely surprised by that, but a little bit. Nothing was ever played for a joke or a laugh.

Drive Angry doesn’t really fit into any one genre – it’s a chase picture, a supernatural thriller, an action movie, it’s in 3-D. How did they sell it to you?

I got an envelope from the agent one day. I sat down and I read it, and I thought, “That’s really cool.” You know, 70s road movie, tough, sexy, gritty – good script, really interesting characters, tight the whole way through.

How often does that happen?

A lot of the stuff I want I don’t get. But sometimes I read something – it could be a one-scene part – that’s really great. Not that I’m looking for one cameo after another, but sometimes it’s just worth it creatively.

Interview Clips

William Fichtner on getting his start:

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Fichtner on his compulsive side:

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Fichtner on landing his Prison Break role, and hanging on for the ride:

Download associated audio clip.

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