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"Secrets and lies" Culture (January 2003)

by Fiona Morrow

Deception, treachery and murder are all in a day's work for 24's Nina Myers - and the actress who plays her is not above a little subterfuge herself.

Nina Myers is trouble. Big trouble. First she has an affair with her (married) boss, then she comes on as a loyal-to-the-core CIA employee, only to be unmasked as a traitor. As moles go, this woman is as treacherous as they come.

Okay, so the petite, pretty woman sitting on a sofa in London's Athenaeum Hotel isn't, in reality, a danger to national security, nor is she actually a double agent. The only thing Sarah Clarke is guilty of is having convinced millions of viewers that 24's Nina was a good gal. It's hardly treason. In fact, for an actress, it's a measure of a job well done. As for romance, Clarke went one better than Nina: between seasons, she tied knot with a colleague, Xander Berkeley (aka CTU director George Mason).

On paper, 24 sounded like complete madness: a television series spread over 24 weeks, each episode running in real time. By the final closing credits, 24 hours in the life of Special Agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and his colleagues in the Counter Terrorism Unit had passed with more mayhem and convoluted plot twists than most mortals experience in a lifetime. "I don't think anyone fully fathomed the implications of the whole series making up just one day until we started shooting," smiles Clarke. "Certainly, I didn't really take it in."

It's not surprising. Clarke's introduction to the show was a complete whirlwind. The US pilot season is always intense - the first episodes of dozens of new programmes are shot, with a complete run only greenlighted after test screenings - but in 2000, there was the added pressure of a potential writers' strike. "The studios wanted to push everything into production really fast," recalls Clarke. "I had done some filming in February, and about a month later, I was home in New York when I received a telephone call saying there was one script still to be shot, and I had to fly back to LA the next day. So I hop on a plane, read the script, meet the director early that morning and do a test with the network. Then I'm booked and on set by the afternoon." Such alacrity meant Clarke had barely figured out her character, let alone the premise of the show. "I was just focusing on Nina and the atmosphere in which she worked - the CIA is so mysterious. It was very basic. I was just trying to get hold of something tangible."

Meanwhile, the wardrobe department was in crisis. "They couldn't find anything for me to wear," laughs Clarke. "They were so desperate to start shooting, they decided the shirt I was wearing worked - of course, they hadn't considered that if the show was picked up, I'd need 25 of them." The shirt's "funky East Village" designer was less than impressed with the idea, so the costume designer had to come up with another version. "When I look back at the pilot, the original shirt was a little flat and less professional," says Clarke. "The new one was more elegant - it lifted Nina's status a little."

Couture is the least of Nina's problems in the second series: it's prison garb all over. For those who can't recall - or didn't see - the finale of series one, it ended with Nina not only having betrayed all her colleagues and been complicit in an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate (Dennis Haysbert), but also being guilty of the murder of Teri (Leslie Hope), Bauer's wife.

As Nina, Clarke was mystertious, sexy and tough - she filled the screen. In the flesh, she is small: about 5ft 3in. She lets out a peal of laughter when I say I'd expected someone much taller. "I love that - everybody says the same thing, I've always had this thing about being short, so to be perceived as tall is really thrilling."

Learning that Nina was the mole was something akin to discovering that Margaret Thatcher was in cahoots with Castro. Famously, of course, not even 24's writers had any idea who would turn out to be the bad guy until they were way down the line. "They didn't tell me until about five episodes from the end, and at first, I was really shocked," recalls Clarke. She flings her arms wide and lets out a melodramatic shriek - "I felt betrayed, like everyone else" - before tucking her legs underneath her on the sofa and adding: "No, not really. But I did think, 'Wait a minute, I've been playing this so differently.' Later, I decided it was brilliant: it allowed me to play something really substantial. It had come to the point where Nina had about run dry of reasons to be concerned about Jack, to be asking how Jack was and figuring out how to put Mason off, so it was perfect timing for me. I became really excited about how to do the last episodes, because it allowed me to play more than just one character. It allowed me to have a whole other life - to which, as you see in the next series, there is a third side."

She did have concerns, however, that in retrospect, the revelation would make no sense. "I asked Joel [Surnow, 24's co-creator] if it tracked, and he said: 'Yes, and we're in the process of typing up a memo to prove how and why.' They had only decided themselves about halfway through, but if you look at the opening credits, you'll notice that when the voice-over says the traitor might be someone inside the agency, the line is always spoken over a shot of me." she gives an exaggerated open-armed shrug. "They gave it away the entire season". She's predictably tight-lipped about what happens in the new series.

Though the producers were signed up for another run before the first 24 episodes were played out, there was a lot of discussion surrounding the form a sequel might take. "They did talk about having other themes," nods Clarke. "A survivor situation, 24 hours in the life of a hospital ward - they were interesting ideas. At one point, I heard they were considering keeping the same cast and using them like a theatre troupe, playing different characters in a different milieu. I thought that would be fantastic, really gusty move, but still..." She trails off.

She's not complaining: 24 has proved to be the 30-years-old's big break. Originally from St Louis, Missouri, Clarke became interested in acting while on a university exchange year in Italy. On graduating, she worked as an architectural photographer, eventually receiving free acting lessons in exchange for photographing an arts centre. She moved to New York and did stage work, including some with the director Robert Wilson, while still taking lessons and paying for them by temping. 24 is the first secure acting job she has had, but, considering that the writers tend to make it up as they go, even that's not entirely predictable. It all comes down to the contract, Clarke explains. "Last year, I was "series regular", so I knew I'd be there to the end at least. Then it came down to the final episode, and I had no idea if I'd make it or not. This year, we negotiated -" she pauses to choose her words carefully "- a certain contract, but it was open-ended, so who knows? We're up to 13 or 14 now, and I'm still around... It's good, it keeps me guessing. It's also easier not knowing, because I don't have to keep any secrets."

Not that she isn't capable of keeping important information under wraps: her romance with Berkeley was decidedly hush-hush. "We were very secretive in the beginning," admits Clarke a coy little smile crossing her face. "We met on the set of the pilot, and it was pretty immediate," she recalls, flushing gently. "I wasn't looking, and I don't think he was either, but we both knew we'd meet someone special." So why all the secrecy? "Well, at the time, I was a regular, and he was 'recurring' - and I didn't want to influence the protucers' thoughts as to how or why he should come back. I thought that if they knew we were dating, they wouldn't put us together, and I wanted to work with his so much."

Completely in the dark, the producers played into the budding romance completely. "When I came back to start filming, they told me they had decided to bring Xander back, and the first episode he was in, his character would spend the whole time interrogating me." Once Berkeley was estabilished in the role, their resolve crumpled. "I think we lasted another two days. Once I could see he was going to be used a lot, I lightened up about it, and it was fun letting it go."

What if she's offered a third series? "I really don't know. I'd be curious to see what they could possibly come up with - I didn't think they would even manage a second series." She laughs, throws open her arms once more and shrugs: "I mean, how many times can Jack Bauer have such a ridiculously bad day?"