The ObserverMoviesWho: Wentworth Miller
What: Actor
They say: 'A sensational new talent', Pete Travers, Rolling Stone magazine
We say: Ivy League scholar with old-school appeal
Wentworth Miller's mellifluous accent and perfect grammar give few clues to a Brooklyn childhood, and his striking looks are equally unplaceable. He is of mixed race, but, as he explains, 'It's a little bit more complicated than that. My father is technically African-American, Jamaican, German and English. My mother is Russian, Dutch, French, Syrian and Lebanese.'
Miller is being called upon to explain his ethnicity rather a lot these days, thanks to an eye-catching performance in his first feature film. The Human Stain, based on the novel of the same name by Philip Roth, tells of a light-skinned African-American man who decides to 'pass' as white to facilitate a life and a career that would otherwise be inaccessible to him in 1940s America. While Sir Anthony Hopkins plays the character in later life, Miller gets to play him in his troubled, transitional period.
'There were a number of things I understood automatically about this character,' says Miller. '"Passing" is not something that has crossed my mind. On the other hand, being of mixed race you do have this question of, "Well, maybe I don't have to answer to any particular community, since I'm not really a part of any particular community. Maybe I only have to answer to myself." It makes you a kind of racial lone ranger.'
Miller's affinity with the character does not stop with his ethnic make-up. There's also the fact that he went to Princeton, a university that he affectionately describes as 'wonderful, but very conservative'. A member of the university's a cappella group, the Princeton Tigertones, Miller performed throughout the US and Europe with a band similarly clean-cut, preppy young men in matching blazers.
Miller has graduated swiftly from a bit-part television actor (Buffy and ER to name but two) to Hollywood leading-man status. 'A lot of doors have opened for me, but I'm trying to be as careful as possible. Unfortunately, films like this are not made every day.' One thing is certain, however: 'I never want to be a celebrity. There's a quote I heard the other day that "Celebrity is fame divorced from accomplishment." Once your personality becomes larger than any performance that you can give, you have painted yourself into a corner.'
ยท The Human Stain is released on 23 January.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoKyaqpSerq96wqikaJ6Zobpwfo9pa2iikaN8cn2On5yarKWnsrR6zJqemrKZo7I%3D