Lee Tergesen

Lee: A 70-year-old woman stopped me on the street downtown in New York a couple of years ago, and she was like, "Oh my God, you're Beecher!" And she went into this whole thing about how she loved the show so much, and you know, "It's so great! I can't believe I'm standing here with Beecher!" She was 70! And I said, "What are you doing watching this show?!"

Lee: I'll never get a script that will shock me the way those Oz scripts used to shock me.

(On why the Emmy committee has consistently ignored his character Beecher, as well as the series) Lee: I don't know, how do you give an Emmy for this? It scares people. And nobody wants to say, 'for his role as the sodomized prisoner ...' But I'm proud of my work.

Lee: I was the first man ever to be branded with a swastika on TV.

(On his OZ Character Tobias Beecher) Lee: At first, I saw him as a poor guy in the wrong place. Now, after having everything stripped away from him - his freedom, his family, his profession - he's evil. He's using what's at his core. Lawyers play with power. They're opportunists, and they can be vengeful.

Lee: There was this moment, I think I was about 4 years old, and my parents and their friends were having a party and they were all sitting around the living room, the music was playing and I was sort of dancing wildly. I mean, I was really into it and everyone there was entertained. And I remember I was like, 'Wow, man, I'm watchable!'

Lee: I would go in and read for these parts, and it never excited me to play the guy who doesn't have any sort of point of view and edge. I think I knew I wasn't what people looked at and saw in me. I love characters. I love things that have dimension and depth, that are hard to figure out.

Lee: One of the things I realized early on was that the leading man, very clean-cut-good-guy-type was never something I was drawn to.

Lee: I know what it's like to be ignored, and I think that is the big problem about the prison system: These people are being thrown away. There is no sense of rehabilitation. In some places, they are trying to do things. But, in most cases, it's a holding cell.

Lee: Before I did Weird Science I definitely wasn't thinking, 'Oh my God, I'd LOVE to do a series for four years where I got to be a loud, obnoxious, militaristic asshole!' And certainly when I finished that, I didn't think, 'Oh man, if I could play a lawyer-turned-convict who gets anally raped and learns to love it...'

(About which is the better kisser: his wife, or OZ co-star Christopher Meloni) Lee: Definitely Meloni. When I kiss my wife, I don't see any cash.