That Time A Woman Thought Prison Break's Dominic Purcell Actually Escaped From Prison

dominic purcell prison break

Prison Break is one of the many reboots and revivals that has been in development at the major TV networks and is scheduled to return this season. The drama will feature a slew of the original cast members, and series lead Dominic Purcell recently shared a story from his early days on Prison Break, describing a pretty strange encounter he had with a woman who was a fan of the show, but who also didn't really seem to grasp the difference between fiction and reality. While filming the first season of Prison Break in Chicago, a fan of the show actually thought Dominic Purcell had escaped from prison.

The completely comic story starts out innocuously enough, with Dominic Purcell filming scenes for Prison Break in Chicago. A woman saw him and recognized him as a convict from TV, but instead of making the very reasonable association between the actor and her TV viewing habits, she went ahead and located some police who were nearby. Purcell told the audience at a panel at San Diego Comic-Con that the police actually approached him and asked him a few questions:

Basically this lady thought I was an escaped convict. She'd been watching Prison Break. The cops came up to me and they looked at me and looked at her and said, 'I'm not seeing it.'

Even though the police proceeded to tell the woman that Dominic Purcell is an actor, she still didn't really believe either the actor or the police. She kept proclaiming, "No I've seen him" and getting frustrated when the police refused to haul the prison escapee back to where he allegedly came from. Dominic Purcell has been around the acting block for a long time, now, and has played a variety of memorable characters that resonate with fans, but he told audiences at Comic-Con that this is one fan interaction that has really stuck with him.

Dominic Purcell isn't the only actor who has ever dealt with a weird fan interaction. We've heard of Walking Dead actors getting bitten by fans, and even during the panel Purcell appeared in, Straight Outta Compton actor Corey Hawkins spoke out about how some fans will scream that "Dre" is in the room and other random passerby will be disappointed that he's not actually the real Dr. Dre.

It's pretty weird being a celebrity sometimes.

As for Dominic Purcell, he'll be back and breaking out of prison when the series returns to Fox at midseason in 2017. You can also catch the actor on Legends of Tomorrow this fall. To find out when the rest of your favorite shows are returning, catch our Fall TV premiere schedule. And stay tuned for more Comic-Con 2016 coverage.

Jessica Rawden
Managing Editor

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.