A scene from Hitman Rico Torres/Courtesy of 20th Century Fox

Sporting a look that is supposed to have visual echoes of Vladimir Putin, Robert Knepper (Prison Break, Young Guns II) is the Russian "bad-guy" FSB agent who tries to leverage jurisdiction from Whittier in the pursuit of Agent 47. He is forced to re-evaluate his priorities when trussed up in a booby-trapped bathtub.

Most audiences will recognize you from the TV series Prison Break. What is it like to be finally in this huge international blockbuster?
It is funny because Hitman will hopefully be this huge international blockbuster. Prison Break is this huge international blockbuster from television so it is kind of fun to have both mediums going at once. And I love the fact that people go: "Wait a minute! Is this disgusting, despicable racist pedophile Southern T-Bag guy in this movie Hitman? And now he's playing this very smart poker-playing Yuri Markov, a FSB/KGB kind of guy." That I love. That takes me back to my hero days when I started acting and when I loved the English actors. People expected them to switch parts and be chameleons. So it's great.

How good was your Russian before Hitman?
My Russian was nonexistent before this, and I worked with a coach named Tim Monich who I absolutely love. I did an English character in Gas, Food, Lodging years ago, and Bobby Kennedy, and a French character, and we always work on the phone. So I worked with him a little bit on the phone, and it is great because all you have is the ear. You do it phonetically. And then I go to Bulgaria, and I had a great dialect coach there, and we spent four or five hours a day, just really trying to lay into it, lay into it. Every syllable.

Have you retained any of it?
[Knepper says a few words in Russian and smiles]. The thing is…I've got a funny story to tell you. I felt like a great dictator because if I was going to control the world and I lose Russia, it will be okay because I have got 99 percent of the rest of the world saying: "He's Russian! I believe he is Russian enough for me." If the Russians say [and here Knepper effects a heavy Russian accent]: "No. He is not Russian for me. I don't believe a word he is saying," then I am sorry. My apologies to the Russians. I did my best. [Laughs]

How did you tap into the humanity of a character like this?
You know, I think that is just my job as an actor: to always tap into humanity. I can't play a guy just as a one-dimensional guy. I had to know who he was and for me, he was always defending his country, and he was always defending his family. He wanted something better for his wife and his kids. And it all makes sense in the culmination scene when Timothy drops that rubber ducky in the bathtub. And you know how much this guy loves family. And in that moment he makes the decision to do this for his family, to save his own life and let his ego go for the sake of his family. And that is the humanity of it.

Did you do any investigation into the Russian secret service?
I had no time whatsoever. It was the same with Prison Break. Nowadays, it is like: "Here is the part. Go!" And you are doing the part. I really didn't have the time to do research on the video game, and except for the Russian dialect. I had not time except put the clothes on, and [think] Let's figure it out. The hair is blonde. Okay. You look a little like Putin. Go! And that is about it. The rest of it all comes from my imagination.

And shooting in Bulgaria: what was that like?
No! Loved it! I had never been to Bulgaria. It is so funny because years ago a CIA guy came down to the Actors Theater in Louisville, Kentucky. This was 1985. [Nicolae] Ceausescu [of Romania] was still alive. And he said that the only country worse than Romania is Bulgaria. And so here I am twenty-something years later, thinking: "Oh, no. This is going to be terrible." It was so beautiful. The people are amazing. There's a very European kind of feel to the whole city, and yet it is its own city and its own country. And they are just blossoming. It was just great.