'Prison Break' was a predominately male-lead cast starring Dominic Purcell, Wentworth Miller and Sarah Wayne Callies
"Prison Break" star Sarah Wayne Callies claims a pretty serious offense took place behind the scenes of the hit show.
Callies, who starred as Sara Tancredi in the FOX show, recently began a podcast with former co-star Paul Adelstein, in which they re-watch and reflect on every "Prison Break" episode. The show was on for five seasons, beginning in 2005. Its final season aired in 2017.
She appeared on the "Broad Ideas with Rachel Bilson & Olivia Allen" podcast and spoke candidly about her time on the drama series.
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Sarah Wayne Callies says she filmed "Prison Break" during a period of "rampant misogyny" on set. (Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
Callies and Bilson related to one another, as Bilson had previously worked on a podcast during which she revisted her time on "The O.C."
Callies says before starting the podcast, it was hard to revisit that part of her life.
"I couldn't get beyond the parts that were toxic and painful," she explained.
"What I found in the last few years as I've been writing and directing and like doing scripted podcasts and stuff and just moving into non-acting parts of our storytelling kind of world, I'm realizing I walk through doors that are open because of ‘Prison Break’ and because of ‘[The] Walking Dead.’" She played Lori Grimes on the hit AMC show for three seasons.
Dominic Purcell and Sarah Wayne Callies appear in a shot from FOX's "Prison Break." (FOX Image Collection via Getty Images)
"And so I'm now looking back at those shows with so much gratitude," she said. "I've always been grateful for my career because I feel like any day you get to say you're a working actor is a f---ing miracle, but it's given me the sort of medicine to go back and be able to look at those early projects… despite the rampant misogyny. Despite all of the challenges. Despite being on a show like that, being the only woman around," she said of the male-heavy cast.
Producers of the show were also mainly men.
The prison drama followed brothers Lincoln Burrows played by Dominic Purcell and Michael Scofield played by Wentworth Miller. The supporting cast included several male actors, including Amaury Nolasco, Robert Knepper, Wade Williams, Rockmond Dunbar and Adelstein.
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Producer Vaun Wilmott and Michael Horowitz sandwich the cast of "Prison Break," Wentworth Miller, Sarah Wayne Callies, Dominic Purcell and Robert Knepper, at Comic-Con. (Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)
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"There were two edges to that sword," Callies admitted, of frequently being the only woman on set. "I've had an actor on that show spit in my face. And I was like, ‘Holy s---.’ And like we will get there on the podcast. We will talk about it someday," she acknowledged, without naming her co-star.
Callies said the environment on set was so bad that her husband wanted to get involved.
"There were things, like I would go home some nights and have to spend an hour talking my husband out of going to hospitalize somebody," she revealed.
Sarah Wayne Callies says she had to prevent her husband from "going to hospitalize somebody" after telling him stories from set. (Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)
"Some of the guys were great, and some of them were totally gentlemen, but when you go from zero to 60, from nobody knows who I am to 'I'm on the carpet of award shows.' What's that thing they say that, like, ‘Any fool can handle adversity. You want to test a man’s medal, give him success.' Like, it was — and again, so much of it was also great and made lifelong friends and all the things. But I wasn't ready to look at it... for exactly that reason. Because I didn't want it to send me into a spiral of like, ‘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?’"
A representative for Callies did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Caroline Thayer is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Follow Caroline Thayer on Twitter at @carolinejthayer. Story tips can be sent to
