"Please don't torture me for six episodes." - Sarah Clarke about one thing she requested for her characeter in season 3 of '24'
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KARA PARSONS: It's been such a long time since we've seen each other, I guess I'm just surprised you're taking such a personal interest in my case.
Press
"Q&A with Sarah Clarke" Monte Carlo Television
Festival (7/4/2003)
SARAH CLARKE: I'm Sarah Clarke. I was in New York, went to LA,
where I auditioned in the morning for 24, and I was
shooting in the afternoon. That's the way I got involved.
WSN: Sarah, at what point, during the first season, did you
realize that your character was the mole? Had each episode of the
series been mapped out in advance, or did you learn as you went
along, and how did you feel when you learned what you had to do?
SC: I thought I was the secretary when we started out. I thought,
"Oh, this is my desk, it's nice and big!" I really
didn't know. I knew that I had a relationship with Kiefer's
[Sutherland, who plays Jack Bauer] character and that was
something we were alluding to. I knew there was a distinct
hierarchy within the company and this was a world that no one
could really research--oh I'll go on Google and search CIA!
WSN: Sarah, when you are playing a scene in CTU [counter
terrorism unit] and you have the computers and the phones and the
gadgets, and Jack Bauer calls in, and, I'll never forget this, he
says, "Tell me what the traffic is like ahead on this
certain road." Do you ever think when you are reading the
script, "Is this possible?"
SC: Always!
WSN: Do you ever wonder if you are pushing the limit too far,
or is that part of the experience of watching 24?
SC: You have to think that the people who are in charge of CTU,
and the people who are privy to this information, have to have
top of the line technology. So I believe that [at the real CIA]
it probably goes way beyond what we have at CTU. And it does feel
powerful to know that, "Oh if I just do this, it'll look
like I really know what I'm doing on this computer!! "
[laughs]
I remember in one episode when I am patching Jack through to
Teri, and I'm speaking to Teri. I went out to the prop guys and
said, "With this computer I think I need a head set because
I'm going to be needing to move the mouse. But then I've got to
have this phone because it has the multiple line," and they
looked at me and said, "Oh we don't know, just do it!"
Then I said, "What if I take the head set and can somehow
connect it through some magic wire!" And they said,
"Sounds great, if you can make it look good then do
it!" [laughs] And I did, I practiced it, and they all
thought I was a little insane!
But that's another challenge - but also a great thing about 24
- we try to string along as many scenes as possible, so that you
do get to play the arc of the scene. And I have to be very aware
[with three or four cameras shooting me] I have to be able to
move between these different worlds and hit my mark and know what
I'm doing and not fumble. We really choreograph these moves to a
point of looking like we belong in this world. We're not
stumbling.
WSN: The series deals with terrorists. How, if in any way,
did 9/11 impact what you were doing or how you felt about what
you were doing?
SC: I remember that the morning of September 11 I had a scene.
And because we were in LA and we were watching it on TV, we
didn't really believe it. My call was at 7 a.m. [the planes had
just crashed into the towers] and my family was in New York, and
I was just floored. And everyone on the set was saying, "But
that's not really happening, we're going to shoot." And I
had a scene where I'm telling Teri that the guy that's in the car
with her is a terrorist. I remember thinking, "This is so
strange because the world is really going through this and I'm
trying to act this now." Everyone sort of got a clue and
said, "We are stopping." Because it took that time [for
us] to really realize. In New York you felt it, but in the rest
of the world we were just in shock.
