This is part one. Part 2 will be coming soon and will detail how producers, composers, directors, and designers stage '24' through the audience’s point of view, and why they created very different tones, and points of view. Also, it will explain how the 911 terrorist attacks affected “24”
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences presented “Behind the Scenes of 24,” on Thursday, January 29, 2004. This is part one of two parts about what actors, producers, the most central director, and the people who create the look of the show said about making 24. Participants included:
Kiefer Sutherland, Actor/Producer
Dennis Haysbert, Actor
Carlos Bernard, Actor
D.B. Woodside, Actor
Joel Surnow, Executive Producer
Jon Cassar, Director/Producer
Joseph Hodges, Production Designer
Rodney Charters, Director of Photography
Sean Callery, Music Composer
Moderator: Dan Snierson, Sr. Writer, Entertainment Weekly
The actors started the evening with a pre-vent cocktail party in the Academy’s seminar room. First DB Woodside, Dennis Haysbert, and Carlos Bernard were interviewed on the edge of the sidewalk by the folks from Extra and Entertainment Tonight. Inside the Leonard Goldenson Theatre (named for the founder of the ABC Television Network), In the lobby, Academy events personnel were putting out copies of the Emmy Magazine with Kiefer Sutherland on the cover, free for the taking.
After the show, many people swarmed the stage and Kiefer was generously autographing that picture. DB and Carlos were also shaking hands. Just for the record, I didn’t meet Kiefer or shake his hand or the others’ (Joel, Carlos, DB) because I do get shy. I just took some pictures. Here's a newsflash! I did catch cult favorite 24 fan Jim Prufrock shaking Kiefer’s hand.
Please remember this is all paraphrased and not exact, 100 percent quotes. Good enough for the web!
The Leonard Goldenson Theatre is a glamorous structure reminiscent of the best theatres in the days before multiplexes dominating moviegoing. It has a screen that is at least two stories tall. The seats are overstuffed and comfortable row chairs; the big concern is tripping over the many steps that comprise the 50 or so rows.
Tall, wiry writer Dan Snierson came on stage and did a comedy type warm up routine. He made jokes about amnesia, torture scenes, and Kim Bauer’s perils of Pauline scenarios. Then he presented two haikus, counting on his fingers as he went along:
Triple crosses
Hmmmm
Lots of questions
Like
When does Jack get to pee?
and
No more torture scenes
I'll confess
I like to shout
Run
Kim run run run
Snierson showed the video clip that previewed the show’s third season, the same clip that was visible from the Internet in October. The scenes foreshadowed Jack Bauer at work at CTU headquarters and at the prison where bad guy Ramon Salazar was held in custody. It showed his new partner Chase Edmunds and announced Chase’s relationship with Jack’s daughter Kim. Next, two newer scenes were played: 2:30 pm and 8:15 pm. These focused on interaction with Wayne and President David Palmer and about the virus threat that is central to season 3’s theme. .
Snierson (to Joel): I heard the show began at IHOP?
Surnow: Actually, the show began in the shower. I was thinking that 22 episodes are a drag to get through. I thought 24 episodes, 24 hours in a day.
Then I met Robert Cochran at IHOP. I had the Grand Slam. I think he had the Short Slam but I might be wrong. The problem was finding something that could keep someone up for 24 hours—what would be cranked up enough to make someone stay up?
We liked shows like 3 Days of the Condor and Day of the Jackal about assassinations and a guy on the run. Bob and I both have teenage daughters. I thought what if the character had a teenage daughter who was missing and that along with an assassination attempt would be enough to be cranked up enough to keep someone up for 24 hours.
Snierson: Once you had the concept, I heard this was an unusually quick sale? Even for Fox?
Surnow: “They just loved the novelty of the format. A script is easy to take a chance. It’s not like committing to production costs. They loved it.”
Surnow said Fox had three high concept shows also in development that year. 24 was just one of the pack, but each script had to be converted to the screen to get approval as a Fall series. “We were this little exotic experiment for them.”
The show was greenlighted for a pilot episode and Fox committed to a pilot episode.
Snierson: How did Kiefer Sutherland become attached to the project?
Surnow: For four to six weeks we were reading actors for the elusive 30 to 40 lead that everyone wants to get—with no luck. Then we got a call out of the blue that Kiefer was interested in the script. We never thought that it was something he was interested in.
Surnow said he wasn’t even on the radar.
Snierson: You had done a pilot for L.A. Confidential, but you were generally considered a film actor. Did you want to cross over into television?
Sutherland: Over the past 10 years, I had watched the types of films I wanted to do get smaller and smaller and TV get much better. With channels like HBO doing great work. I liked the work in NYPD Blue, The Sopranos, and West Wing. I really like West Wing.
It was not something per se that I decided to do television. It was just that I was reading scripts, looking for a good script and I liked that script.
It said all events take place in real time and I just went over that—I didn’t know what that was. The script was interesting on its own—I thought the script was great. The real time thing was embarrassingly explained to be about three days later. This is the first time I owned up to that!
Snierson to Dennis: You have a really lofty role, playing the President of the United States. Did you look at all the old portrayals of presidents to prepare for the part—anyone in particular?
Haysbert: No I didn’t think I was anyone in specific because I was a senator running for president when the show began. Once I became president, I looked at these three men:
Colin Powell, who would make a great president if his wife would let him run for the office, Jimmy Carter, and my favorite, Bill Clinton. So I try to encompass all these three men and I take THE BEST of all of them.
Snierson: What did you think about your character becoming the first African American president of the United States?
Haysbert: I look toward the writers. They give me great material. At some point it becomes symbiotic. We all know this man and what he has to do and where he has to go.
Snierson (to Carlos): In the first season, no one knew whether or not we, as an audience, should trust you. Did you trust yourself?
Bernard: When I was a kid, no one knew if they could trust me. I grew up that way and I like that. I like giving the director and the producers and the editors different types of takes so they can use what they want to use. To this day, I still work that way.
Snierson (to D.B.): What did you think about joining the show in its third season? Did you know a lot about what was going on going into the show? Did you learn anything from the staff or actors?
Woodside: I knew very little. Joel said to me, “I want you to know that your character is good but he is a motherf****. I dig the relationship that these two fellows have. He is going to protect his brother no matter what he has to do and that’s what attracts me. What was the question? We are all in the dark because we get two scripts at a time. The first two episodes I memorized all my lines, showed up on the set, and focused on the words. But I didn’t know what was going to happen next. So I changed that and started focusing on the guy so! he could go forward with whatever curves are thrown at him. That seems to work very well in this situation. In fact, it works well as a technique for me and I think I will use it in whatever roles I do after this.
Snierson (to Kiefer): Characters change a lot on this show. They are doomed to death. They escape. They die. They come back to life. How did you feel about being dead? Was that frightening? Did you think it was the end for your character? Is there an atmosphere where the actors are pumping the writers and producers for information to see if their characters survive the season?
Kiefer: I was more concerned about being naked than about being dead. I’m not concerned. Whatever happens to the actors is for the good of the show and the way the audience connects with the story is more important than the actors. I remember a script with Sarah Clarke in the first season where I take her to an abandoned area in the show and I shoot her. We didn’t have an advance script to know if she survived. After we read the script for the show, she said to me, “Did Joel or anybody call saying they had a problem with me?”
There is nothing I want more than to continue to do this show. We have a very committed audience. A lot of people didn’t like that I lost my wife the first season. I was one of those people. I didn’t like it at all. But Joel was right. It helped the show and set the tone of what could happen at any time in this series.
Snierson: Is it frustrating not knowing where your character is going?
Dennis: I love playing the truth at that moment. You really have to know full well that the truth can change any moment.
Snierson (to Dennis): The season two ender, Palmer shares a handshake and it looks like you are going to die. Did you know the outcome of that storyline at the time?
Haysbert: NO!
Snierson: How did you feel when you found out?
Haysbert: I WAS QUITE PISSED! You can’t kill me!
Snierson (to Carlos): How did you feel when you heard you were going to get shot?
Bernard: They said to me, you’re going to get shot. I said OK. They said you’re going to be in the hospital. I said, how long? They said 10 episodes. I said, 10 episodes? Did you see The Bone Collector? A guy lying in a bed isn’t very dramatic!
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