Why Berg From Blood Red Sky Looks So Familiar
Look, there's some bad news for the world of Netflix's "Blood Red Sky," and it seems like it might be worth ripping the Band-Aid off before we get any further: Vampires exist, and at best, they're flying Economy Plus.
That's bad news for flight attendants trying to be respectful of passengers' dietary restrictions, and even worse news for the film's scrappy gang of terroristic underdogs. Said rabblerausers spend a fair amount of their flight under the management of Berg, a growly, ill-tempered, solidly built man of the shouting and leather jackets persuasion. His leadership — spoilers ahead — doesn't last long, what with the "vampires" of it all, but it's a memorable tenure nonetheless.
If Berg seems familiar, it's probably because he's played by celebrated performer Dominic Purcell. And if the name Dominic Purcell seems familiar, it's probably because you've watched one of the following movies or television shows. Alternatively, maybe you know him personally, having attended school with him or shared an apartment building with him for a while. It's probably the "movies and TV" thing, though.
Dominic Purcell started out as Constable Rogers on Home and Away
Every actor has to start somewhere. When you grow up in Australia, the odds are good that you'll cut your teeth on one of two long-running soap operas. You could go the route of Margot Robbie, Ben Mendelsohn, and Russell Crowe by appearing on "Neighbors," or you might stop by "Home and Away" for a few episodes, just like Naomi Watts, a few dozen Hemsworths, and Dominic Purcell.
Purcell might not have had the same tenure as some of those listed above — he only appeared in three episodes of the series in 1991 — but there's one thing he did have: A police officer's uniform. Also, maybe two dozen lines. The role of Constable Rogers wasn't necessarily a star-maker, and what dialogue the actor got is a little difficult to make out over the heavy dramatic synthesizer music and a startlingly Australian accent. Like we said, everyone has to start somewhere.
Dominic Purcell got his first taste of vampirism in Blade Trinity
"Blood Red Sky" isn't Dominic Purcell's first exsanguination rodeo, not by a long shot. For a brief and glorious moment in the early 2000s, he got to do some blood sucking of his own as the vampire GOAT — not to be confused with a "goat vampire." That's called a "chupacabra," and it's a whole different thing.
2004's "Blade Trinity" meant a lot of things to a lot of people. To fans, it meant the promise of a capper to a trilogy of films that brought Marvel Comics adaptations a long-awaited modicum of box office success. To Patton Oswalt, it meant enough behind-the-scenes stories about Wesley Snipes to get him through a decade's worth of dinner parties.
And to Purcell, it meant landing his biggest Hollywood role to date, playing the newly resuscitated Dracula, first of the vampires and staunchly unenthusiastic browser of Hot Topics. The part even afforded him on-screen the opportunity to hold Ryan Reynolds hostage, a feat that his Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts classmate Hugh Jackman has only ever dreamed of pulling off.
Purcell broke prison in Prison Break
From 2005 to 2009, then again for a hot second in 2017, television audiences were pinned to the edge of their seats. While viral marketers dared to ask "Will it blend?" and the Black Eyed Peas wondered "Will I am?," only one program had the tenacity to posit the query "will Prison Break?"
Prison would Break, of course. It had to. The prodigious mind of Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) demanded that it do so. The sharp-witter engineer with the glare of a man intent on killing Superman was dead set on freeing a man wrongly accused of murder and sentenced to death — his brother, Lincoln Burrows, played by Dominic Purcell.
"Prison Break" became a mammoth success for Fox, pulling in millions of viewers on a weekly basis for it initial five season run and racking up wads of award nominations for its cast and crew. What's more, it would help to solidify Purcell's place as an internationally recognizable television performer, and pave the way for another long-running collaboration with Miller down the road.
Dominic Purcell brought Mick Rory to the Arrowverse
Utter the name "Rebecca Silver" in mixed company and see what happens. You'll either get blank stares, or wind up talking about the plot of "Uncaged Desire" with a group of suddenly talkative new friends-for-life. It's a long story.
Basically, back in 2014, the CW's Arrowverse introduced viewers to Mick Rory, AKA Heat Wave, partner-in-crime and thermodynamic flip side of the coin to Leonard Snart's Captain Cold. In stark contrast to Snart's freezing-stuff technology, Rory sported a handheld flamethrower and a love of watching stuff burn.
Across five series and seven years, Purcell has continued to play the part of Mick Rory, frequently opposite his "Prison Break" co-star Wentworth Miller in the role of Leonard Snart. Rory would go on to become one of the few main players on "Legends of Tomorrow" to appear in the pilot episode and avoid being written off during subsequent seasons. The character's gruff exterior has since been revealed to be the candy coating on the heart of a true artist, and his work as a romance novelist under the pen name mentioned above continues to plumb the emotional depths of the DC family of characters. Also, he still likes burning stuff.