Kirk Acevedo

Acevedo: (his thoughts on theater acting) I would say doing theater by far. I get asked all of the time, "What's harder TV, film or theater?" TV's hard for the hours. Film is hard because you just wait around all day. With film if one take didn't come out the way you wanted it to you've got 50 other takes from different angles. In theater you have one chance every night to get it right.

Acevedo: (On his role in "The Thin Red Line") I play a scout who's out to get a regiment of men to the battlefield, and he's a bit scarred by the war. It's a totally different movie.

Acevedo: (On his character in "Oz") People are seeing you as a character and not a person doing a character. That's the great thing about being an actor.

Kirk Acevedo: (on his 'Oz' and audience reaction to stereotypes) We're talking about a specific group of people who have committed crimes -- whether they be white, black or Hispanic. We're not singling any groups out. In the second season, for instance, Luis Guzman tells my character he's 'too white' to be part of the gang. For me personally, it's happened throughout a large part of my childhood where I went to school, in East Harlem, and everyone thought I was white when I'm Hispanic. We incorporated that into the show. But I don't really think it perpetuates stereotypes. I've never had an experience where someone accused something about the show that they thought was racism.

Kirk Acevedo: (on his 'Oz' character Migel Alvarez ) I have to admit, it was fun for the first two or three seasons. Then it got really difficult trying to go to that same place over and over just because the first three seasons he was put into situations that were beyond his control. As an actor, I would say those are the scenes I love to do the most because they're more challenging and I'm able to show the sympathetic side.

Kirk Acevedo: (on 'Oz' narrator Augustus Hill) If I could switch roles, I'd probably wanna switch with that.

Kirk Acevedo: (on 'Oz', Tom Fontana and the penal system) You would have to say that Tom's views about the penal system definitely weigh toward the left and so do mine. I think there's a theme about rehabilitation throughout the whole thing. I definitely think that in the right facility with the right programs inmates can be rehabilitated to live a normal life in society. I think Tom just leans toward that without knocking you over the head with it.

Kirk Acevedo: (on 'Oz' writer and creator Tom Fontana) What I enjoy about Tom's writing is that it's very accessible for the actors emotionally. He allows them to go certain places that you wouldn't normally be able to go on some other TV shows.

Kirk Acevedo: (his chances on a scale of 1-to-10 of surviving a real prison) I would have to say a '1' just because I think I'd be someone's cupcake.

Kirk: Because I'm seen on Oz, a lot of the urban cats in the city are like, 'Yo, I thought you'd be rolling in a Mercedes?' And I'm just like, 'Not at all!' This is cable money. There is a big difference between that and a network. But still I can't complain. It's better than doing a 9 to 5 any day.