NEED TO KNOW
Dominic Purcell’s son is enjoying his own moment in the spotlight.
The oldest of the Prison Break actor’s four children, 25-year-old Joe Purcell, is going viral on TikTok for his role as Hunter in the vertical short His Nerd.
The short, which brings soap opera levels of drama, is a coming-of-age dramedy following two teens from different walks of life feigning a relationship and falling for each other in the process. It’s hosted on the CandyJar App, based on an Inkitt story by Sir Ellious.
Joe, named for Dominic’s father Joseph who died in April 2024, recently opened up about his TikTok fame and pursuing acting in an appearance on stepmom Tish Cyrus’ Sorry We’re Cyrus podcast as Tish and her daughter Brandi Cyrus teased him for fans talking about his “hotness.”
“I don’t really know what to think about that,” he admits.
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Joe explains that the short is “a vertical,” and tries to explain the concept.
“A vertical is basically like a medium-length movie, but it’s split up into one-minute episodes. So you get the first 10 episodes free, and then you pay like $5-$10 for the rest of the movie,” he explains, noting it’s broken up in the editing process.
The young star also admitted that he only recently came around to acting.
“I’ve been taking acting classes for about a year and a half, two years, but I’ve had a year off auditioning and doing short films. But the verticals, they’re such a good way for young actors to just get into the industry kind of, and for my, it’s honestly such good practice being on a set. The way they run it, they’re going 4-5 scenes a day and it’s like BootCamp.”
Joe also admits that being an actor’s son made him hesitant to enter the field himself.
“Because of my dad, people would always ask me if I wanted to act, and it was the one thing I never wanted to do,” he explained.
“It was the only thing I didn’t want to do ’cause I was super shy as a kid, and I wanted to be a professional athlete. It didn’t happen till I was 20 that I thought maybe there was a road [in acting]. And then literally, the first time I ever acted, I was in my college apartment and me and my friends pulled out a scene from Dark Knight and we did it in the room. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, 100% this is what I want to do.”
