Actor Sarah Wayne Callies says she faced “rampant misogyny” and, at one point, was even spat on by another actor while working on the show “Prison Break.”
In an episode of Rachel Bilson’s “Broad Ideas” podcast, released on Monday, Callies opened up about her rough but rewarding experience working on the Fox drama, which originally ran from 2005 to 2009 before being revived for a fifth season in 2017.
During the chat, she told hosts Bilson and Olivia Allen how recording “Prison Breaking with Sarah and Paul,” Callies’ new rewatch podcast with “Prison Break” co-star Paul Adelstein, gave her the opportunity to reevaluate everything that happened while making the show — good and bad.
Noting how it took years for her to revisit her five-season run on “Prison Break,” Callies said that she initially found herself unable to watch “beyond the parts that were toxic and painful.”
But the “Walking Dead” star said screening the show almost 20 years after its premiere made her immensely grateful for all the opportunities her breakout role provided, “despite the rampant misogyny” and “all of the challenges” that arose from being “the only woman around” on set.
Calling her success a double-edged sword, Callies revealed, “I’ve had an actor on that show spit in my face. And I was like, ‘Holy shit.’”
While the actor-turned-director said she’d be detailing the incident on her podcast eventually, she hinted at even more tension on the set of the show, saying, “I would go home some nights and have to spend an hour talking my husband out of going to hospitalize somebody.”
She added that while “some of the guys were great, and some of them were totally gentlemen,” the show’s success meant there were some big egos to contend with.
Callies then told Bilson and Allen that she was worried rewatching “Prison Break” would send her “into a spiral” of wondering, “What did I let them do to me? What did I let them say to me? What did I put up with? What did I not report?”
However, it ended up being a potent way for her to process the past, with the actor saying she recognizes how “so much” of the experience was “also great” and a place where she “made lifelong friends.”
Callies’ “Prison Breaking” podcast premiered in January; its latest episode was released on April 17.
