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"From bad to worse" Scotsman.com (3/8/2003)

By Carla Parks

Sarah Clarke doesn’t look like the hardened, steely criminal she portrays in the new series of 24. In fact, she looks positively pixie-like in a dainty V-neck cardigan, a beautifully tailored tweed skirt and leather boots, artfully worn with multicoloured stripy socks.

At only 5ft 4ins it’s hard to believe that this petite woman can appear so menacing on television screens, even ruffling the cool demeanour of ex-boss Jack Bauer, played with expert precision by Kiefer Sutherland.

24 buffs last saw Nina Myers, whose true identity is Yelena - a Serbian with a mysterious past - taken away to a high-security prison for being a double agent and killing a few people, including Jack’s poor pregnant wife. But Nina or Yelena (take your pick) is back, and Clarke couldn’t be more thrilled at the prospect of getting into the mind of this femme fatale.

"I have to say that I’m very excited to play the Nina Myers you only get a glimpse of in the first season," says the 30-year-old actress.

"I was really playing three roles in one because I had the role I played at CTU [Counter-Terrorist Unit], which was my official government job; and the private life which reveals that I had a relationship with Jack; and now I’m involved with terrorists! - it adds a whole other layer. I think it’s going to be shocking to see what happens."

Certainly 24, the first three episodes of which are repeated on BBC2 tonight with part four following tomorrow is known for its shocks - even shocking the actors themselves. Clarke admits that she didn’t actually know she was going to turn out to be a villain until about five episodes from the end of the first series.

"I was so shocked at first because what I’d been playing was so true to Jack . . . but I went back and looked at the previous episodes to see if it really tracked and I thought it did," she says.

"There are some double agents who, to be truly convincing, have to forget their identity and take on another, and so in that way they [the writers and producers] made me look really intelligent in ways that I don’t think I’d have been able to convey had I known."

Even though she sounds modest, a lot of credit for the show’s success must lie with Clarke who, intentionally or not, managed to pull off one of the biggest surprises on television last year. But for someone who is such a natural, it is hard to believe that she almost didn’t become an actress and only fell into it while studying in Italy during her senior year in college.

"One of my best friends was in acting school there," she explains, "and being new to the language I had to rely on other instincts, physical instincts, to communicate. Your personality is sort of lobotomised because you can’t speak, so you find that you become a very astute listener and observer of behaviour to integrate into society."

After returning from Italy, Clarke had truly been bitten by the acting bug. She did a stint as an architectural photographer in her native St Louis, Missouri, but continued to take acting classes in return for photographing a cultural arts centre. Laughing, Clarke says: "I knew I had to get out of St Louis if I was really going to do it, and so I went to theatre school in New York - Circle in the Square - and I studied there for two years." Although Clarke has acted in short films, commercials and even Sex And The City, she seems pretty convinced that 24 was her big break.

"Surely, it [24] was the one that broke me out of obscurity and said: ‘Okay, now you’re going to get paid!’ I was doing odd little jobs in New York and then doing theatre for a year and barely getting paid, but I definitely learned a lot in those years," she says philosophically.

Now there doesn’t seem to be any looking back, especially since Sarah’s role in 24 has truly changed her life - in more ways than one. Not only has she abandoned the teeming metropolis of New York for the sprawling streets of Los Angeles, but she also met the man of her dreams while shooting the pilot episode of 24.

Adding yet another layer to her already-complicated character, Sarah hid an off-screen affair with Xander Berkeley, or George Mason as he’s known on the show. The two tied the knot last September after publicly admitting their affair to the cast and crew.

Sounds like love at first sight?

"It really was. It definitely was fascination at first sight," says Clarke with a girlish giggle that’s a million miles from Yelena/Nina’s hard-assed persona. "He is a painter and a sculptor, been in the business before and has another life, friends. It was exhilarating and exciting; it was just nice to have a ready-made family, because it [LA] can be very alienating."

Although Clarke says she loved New York, she’s also very fond of her new home and it’s not necessarily just because of the glorious California sunshine. Speaking frankly, Clarke says: "I think if I hadn’t been working it might have been a little strange to go out to Los Angeles. Coming out with a job and meeting Xander and a normal community of people through him was a major transition; but now it’s my home and I can get a dog, have a yard and a garden.To have a garden, I can’t tell you how great that is, because in New York you just don’t."

Sarah certainly looks ecstatically happy and is making the most of some time off to enjoy London and Paris for a bit of a second honeymoon. "We got married and then went to Mexico for a few days, which was beautiful and very needed rest and relaxation, but then we went right into work and we’ve been rolling ever since, so this was a chance to spend some time together," she adds with a smile.

With Clarke’s new-found fame, time is one thing she does not have an endless supply of, but she has managed to make a movie called Thirteen during a bit of a hiatus, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year. Breaking away from the villainous role, Clarke gets to challenge herself in the not-exactly-saintly role of a drug addict mother, playing opposite Holly Hunter.

Although Clarke may not be able to audition for all the roles she likes because of time pressures, she doesn’t seem to regret a moment of her life as the evil Nina.

"It’s very cathartic to go in and just be a bitch!" she admits, laughing. "The only apparent downside to playing Nina is that the delicate-looking Clarke does get "roughed up".

"People don’t treat you nicely," Sarah says emphatically. "I have to say I have a lot of bruises this season."

Sarah may be bruised but she’s certainly not beaten. She steadfastly assures me that she doesn’t know what will happen to Nina this season, but she does make one admission: "I have to think that Jack will be vindicated, otherwise people will not think it’s very believable!"

But, then again, whoever said 24 had to be believable?


Source: http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=286112003