SUBMITTED BY Timbo

October 30, 2003 — Wentworth Miller shares what went into his portrayal of Anthony Hopkins' character in "The Human Stain" as a young man.

First, Miller rented every movie Hopkins had ever done so he could "steal little parts of his performances and layer them into mine." And then, he met with Hopkins for the first of several casual confabs to discuss their joint role as the young and then septuagenarian Coleman Silk, an African-American man who passes himself off as white. The drama opens in theaters on Friday.

"We had lunch in Los Angeles and I was nervous as hell," recalls Miller. "I'm having crab cakes with Hannibal Lecter! The first 10 minutes, it wasn't a conversation. It was Anthony Hopkins talking and me scrambling to come up with something witty and profound to say."

In fact, Hopkins proved to be funny and gracious. And now, the very articulate Miller, 31, has plenty to say about what could well be his breakthrough role, shot in four weeks a year and a half ago. The racially ambiguous-looking son of an African-American father and a white mother, Miller can distantly understand Silk's decision to deny his race and pass as a Jewish classics professor well into his 70s.

"I was aware that I was bringing a degree of authenticity to the table, but to be clear, passing is something that has never crossed my mind," he says. "But I know what it's like to be between two communities."

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