It has been hinted at before, but now it’s official. President Allison Taylor is divorced from her husband Henry at the start of the eighth season. Which is really quite unfortunate because Colm Feore is a great actor.
Apparently, 24’s First Gentleman couldn’t get past President Allison Taylor’s ratting out their corrupt daughter on last season’s 24 finale. When next we see Emmy winner Cherry Jones as Madam Prez this January, she will be minus both a wedding ring and a husband!
“I’m not married anymore,” Cherry tells me of her character’s status. “I am the first woman and divorcée in the White House.” Cherry says there will be only a brief discussion of the divided Taylor family early in the eighth season before Allison refocuses on world peace. “Obviously,” says Cherry, “the marriage was not as strong as we were led to believe.”
For now maybe, but things are on the up for the actor. And next year, he’ll also appear in “24’s” two-hour season premiere, after filming several episodes as the husband of Jack Bauer’s daughter, Kim, played by Elisha Cuthbert.
“It was a pleasure to work on the show because it’s such a prestigious show and I just wanted to be involved in any way possible,” Wesley said of his small role, which began last season. “I love Elisha. She’s so sweet and I got to meet Kiefer Sutherland which is great because I’m a big fan.”
And now when he’s back in LA, perhaps, Access suggests, the two will bump into each other, series star to series star.
“I doubt Kiefer Sutherland watches ‘Vampire Diaries,’” Wesley chuckles. “Actually, then again, you never know, he was in ‘Lost Boys,’ right?”
Indeed, Kiefer was in that hit ‘80s vampire movie. And with Wesley’s help, “Vampire Diaries” could soon be just as popular.
Stephen Root has joined Fox’s “24″ for a multiepisode arc.
On the upcoming eighth season of 20th TV’s real-time drama, Root will play Ben Prady, an officer of the Department of Corrections looking into a parolee gone missing.
Root, who did an arc on HBO’s “True Blood,” will next be seen in “The Men Who Stare at Goats.”
Cherry Jones and Howard Gordon were interviewed at FOX’s Emmy After Party regarding her Emmy win and the upcoming eighth season of the show. Former 24 director and executive producer Jon Cassar was also there to congratulate his old pals.
Executive Producer and writer Howard Gordon said “the moment I saw her first set of dailies, I knew this would happen”. Jon Cassar says he “couldn’t be happier for Cherry, she just did such a great job on our show in season 7 and I think if anyone deserves it, she definitely did.”
Cherry reveals that they’re ten episodes into the season and President Taylor’s family situation hasn’t come up yet, but it may in the back half of the season. She enjoys working with Slumdog Millionaire’s Anil Kapoor who her character is “locked in deep diplomacy with” at the United Nations. “We’ve had a lot of fun together, he’s a lovely man” says Jones.
Although Kiefer Sutherland (nominated for 24: Redemption) unfortunately lost out to Brian Gleeson (Into The Storm) in the “Outstanding Lead Actor In A Miniseries Or A Movie” category, he still had a presence at the Emmys. Kiefer took the stage alongside Fringe’s Anna Torv to present the award for made for Television movie.
And of course, Cherry Jones had a triumphant win for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama series.
Thanks to Kiefersangel for the Kiefer Sutherland pictures.
The Paris Post-Intelligencer interviewed Cherry Jones, who is up for an Emmy nomination tomorrow for her role as President Allison Taylor on 24. She mentioned that her part isn’t quite as prominent as it was last season.
Jones spoke earlier this week while leaving the set of “24.” She said she had just finished filming her part for episode 10 of the upcoming season, and she offered a few glimpses into the next run of the show.
“My part is much lighter this year,” she said. “When I first got to work for episode one, the producer came to me and said ‘I apologize for your anemic storyline, but we haven’t been able to figure out what to do with President Allison Taylor.”
Jones isn’t bothered by the reduction.
“That I even got to come back this season was a gift,” she said. “I didn’t expect to come back. Presidents don’t last very long in ‘24.’”
Jones said she has been in almost every episode through episode 10, but she’ll likely be used more sporadically for the rest of the season.
She also said that Freddie Prinze Jr. will be joining this season’s cast. He walked by Jones as she was speaking.
“I hadn’t worked with him (before),” Jones said.
“I grew up watching his father, so it’s funny to see Freddie Prinze Jr. walking around. He reminds me so much of his dad.”
Michael Ausiello had a chance to interview Katee Sackhoff last night at the Entertainment Weekly and Women In Film’s 2009 Pre-Emmy Party. The interview is entirely about 24 season 8 and although Katee kept her lips sealed on plot specifics, she did share a funny story about working alongside Mary Lynn Rajskub.
The second part of Katee Sackhoff’s Battlestar Galactica question and answer session (with BSG cast-mate Tricia Helfer) was put online and it contains an interesting mention of a scene from 24 season 8:
It’s interesting, because in the character that I play now on 24, it’s like I envy what I had too [as Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica]. Because now, my character steals the gun and then Freddie Prinze Jr. gets to shoot it! I was like, “Why did you have me steal the gun if I wasn’t gonna shoot the f**king thing?” (laughs)
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Playing a computer analyst at CTU doesn’t exactly provide tons of opportunities for action scenes, but we’re hoping that Katee gets a chance to show what she’s capable of with a gun at least once during the season. With Mary Lynn Rajskub getting a chance to briefly become Rambo Chloe in a season 4 episode, it’s only fair.
If you think 24’s conflicted FBI agent Renee Walker was put through the wringer in her debut “day” on the job, things get even darker for her in Season 8.
“She comes back pretty damaged from where she ended in Season 7, definitely darker, and she has some stuff going on,” actress Annie Wersching, who plays Walker, teased to TVGuideMagazine.com at Fox’s Fall Eco-Casino party. “There is some really cool stuff happening with her, and it’s so cool that I don’t want to ruin any of it!”
Wersching will say that Renee returns very early on in the day, which she describes as “grittier and more real. I think it being set in New York helps that a little bit, and the actual crisis this year is the closest thing they’ve had to something that could actually happen tomorrow. It isn’t something that the viewers have to buy into. It’s very real.”
Leading man Kiefer Sutherland’s contract is up at the end of Season 8, and he’s suggested that the show’s format might be strong enough to carry on without Jack Bauer. What does Wersching think?
“The concept could work,” she said. “It could be one day in the life of a firefighter saving something. [But] honestly, because I was a fan of the show [before joining the cast] it’s hard for me to imagine 24 without Jack Bauer. I think the same type of show could work. Maybe a spin-off with a different twist or something. But I don’t know if fans would be into it.”
Actress Cherry Jones has been interviewed by New York Times regarding her very first Emmy nomination – “Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series” for her portrayal of President Allison Taylor in the seventh season of 24.
You’ve said you never watched “24” before you joined the series. Do you consider yourself a fan of the show now?
Completely I’m such fan! I never, ever thought I would do anything that was violent; I just hated violent things. And when I got the call to come meet [“24” creator] Joel Surnow and the gang out there I thought, ‘Well this just isn’t going to work.’ And then I rented the first season and watched the first couple of episodes and I was riveted. I loved it! And I thought, ‘Well it would be hypocritical of me to turn down something I love.’
Of course, some of the violence I just loathe. They made certain choices, certainly last season, that I wish they hadn’t made in terms of violence that I thought tipped over into really gratuitous, grotesque violence. At least my president was firmly against torture.
University of Toronto Magazine has done a profile piece on actress Nazneen Contractor who plays Kayla Hassan in the upcoming season of 24. In it there’s a brief mention of how she met her boyfriend Carlo Rota (24’s Morris O’Brian) on the set of Canadian television series Relic Hunter, and how she landed her gig on 24:
Last spring, Contractor returned to Toronto to visit family and earn the one remaining credit she needed for her U of T degree before heading back to L.A. Three days before classes started, the producers of 24 called – she had won the part of a new recurring character, the demure Muslim daughter of a Middle Eastern leader. (Contractor herself is Zoroastrian.) And she’d be playing opposite Slumdog Millionaire’s Anil Kapoor. Cameras started rolling in May and the new season will première in January. “I had the best job in Canada,” she says, still struck by the fairy-tale quality of it all. “And now I have the best job in America.”
Speaking to TV Guide at the 2009 Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Mary Lynn Rajskub offered up a small tidbit on what her character is going through at the start of 24 season 8.
Newlywed Mary Lynn Rajskub, who left hubby and baby at home to present the Emmys for sound editing, said on the next season of 24, Chloe faces, “Lots of trouble. She’s back in the C.T.U. and she has been home being a mom. When she first starts, they’ve changed all the software so she’s behind, which is an interesting thing for her because she’s always the best at everything. So the new establishment doesn’t really trust her, and then she kind of comes back and pulls it out and discovers something that no one else knows.”
Sci Fi UK has conducted an interview with 24’s Katee Sackhoff and although it mostly consists of Battlestar Galactica questions, there is one 24 question asked:
Next up for you is 24. Can you tell us anything about that? Are expecting to keep up the hard persona?
I am but with a twist. What I’ve come to love is multidimensional characters that are written one way but you can take them in so many directions and this character is no different. This is a woman who has a lot of secrets but she’s not a bad person.
Old news if you’ve been paying attention to the site and Twitter, but it’s finally been officially announced that Julian Morris, Rami Malek, and Hrach Titizian have joined the cast of 24.
Rami Malek, Julian Morris and Hrach Titizian have landed multi-episode arcs on Fox’s “24.”
On the action drama’s upcoming Season 8, Malek (“Night at the Museum”) will play Marcos, a would-be suicide bomber who is Arab American with sympathies toward radical Islam.
Morris (“ER”) will play a CTU SWAT agent. Titizian will play Nabeel, the second-in-command of security for President Hassan (Anil Kapoor).
Malek, who next appears in HBO’s “The Pacific,” is repped by Defining Artists and Kyle Fritz Management.
Morris, next appearing in Summit’s “Sorority Row,” is repped by Gersh and Brillstein Entertainment. Titizian, who also did an arc on “24″ in 2007, is repped by Defining Artists and manager Martha Avedikian.
Katee Sackhoff has answered fan questions on her blog, and she mentions 24 once again. Responding to a question by a fan named Sarah “If you could do absolutely anything you want right now (as an actress of course), what would you do?” Katee answered:
There’s things I want to do but as far as what I would do right now in this moment, I’m doing it. I’m having such a phenomenal time on 24. I love working with Freddie Prinze Jr, he’s a fantastic human being and such a fun person to work with.
You know, I love the producers and I love going to work everyday on the show. So I’m doing what I want to be doing which I think is so rare, so, I’m so lucky.
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Indian actor Sashi Bommakanty has posted an update on his Twitter account revealing that he will appear in the eighth season of 24 alongside Anil Kapoor:
Did a couple of scenes with Bollywood legend Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire) for “24″ yesterday… was amazing!
Actor Stefan Kapicic has just posted on his official websites blog and Twitter that he has finished shooting his part on 24, along with a picture of him posing with Kiefer Sutherland.
