Exclusive Interview:
The award-winning actress talks about playing the President once again and giving orders to Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer
By
ABBIE BERNSTEIN, Contributing Writer
Published
12/29/2009Cherry Jones is known to Broadway lovers as the winner of two leading actress Tony Awards, in 1995 for THE HEIRESS and in 2005 for DOUBT. Filmgoers have seen her in features including SIGNS and THE PERFECT STORM.
But television viewers likely know her best for her Emmy Award-winning portrayal of beleaguered but determined U.S. President Allison Taylor on this past season of Fox's 24, the role Jones originated in the 2008 telefilm 24: REDEMPTION. President Taylor survived the bedlam of 24’s seventh season to return for its forthcoming eighth debuting on Fox this January 17th.
Naturally, Jones is sworn to secrecy about most of what she’s doing this season, but here’s what she can tell us about what’s happened so far and how involved she is with the show this year.
iF: When you started 24, you were saying that you wanted to look really tired, because you could see that President Barack Obama was so tired in his first month in office, his face was shaking.
CHERRY JONES: [laughs] That’s right.
iF: Did you feel after awhile like, "Okay, enough with looking tired?" Because your President Taylor did wind up looking fairly put together despite the day she was having.
JONES: She did get a brief period where she got to change clothes, have a shower and proceed, but I think if you notice at the very end of the series, I may look put together and clean, but I’m pretty tired-looking. She starts [the day/season] having lost a child, having survived a U.S. presidential campaign, and she’s about to launch an intervention in another country. So I wanted her to look pretty shitty from the get-go [laughs].
iF: Did you know at the outset that Tony Todd’s General Juma was going to show up in the White House?
JONES: Certainly not.
iF: What were some other big surprises between the TV movie and your first full season on 24?
JONES: That I had a grown daughter [laughs]. I had no idea until about the third episode that I had a grown daughter. And I remember this one – Mr. [Howard] Gordon came up to me in the grand corridor of the White House one day and said, "Your character is I think a very noble person, but she is a human being and a world leader and therefore also probably flawed [laughs]," and my Achilles heel apparently was my family. But honestly, when I started, I didn’t know if she was going to end up being another Greg Itzin, another President Logan, or more in the David Palmer mode. I had no idea. And I was delighted to see the strength that they gave her. Every single episode, it was such integrity.
F: Were you rooting for her to go one way or the other?
JONES: Well, I became invested in her being an honorable human being. And I have to say, if she had turned out to be a bad guy, I would have been really disappointed, because I bought into her integrity.
iF: Well, having had an evil female vice-president on PRISON BREAK, maybe Fox felt, "You know, we can’t have another …"
JONES: Bad woman [laughs]?
iF: "We can’t keep doing this with the idea of a woman as president." After all, there’s a theory that believes David Palmer helped pave the way in people’s minds for Barack Obama.
JONES: Culturally, it certainly didn’t hurt. I don’t know if they literally paved the way, but it certainly did no damage in that department.
iF: Do you feel at all like you’re maybe making people a little more comfortable with the idea of Madame President?
JONES: Well, I do think television operates as an educational tool and opens our minds – the best of television opens our minds. In that instance, presenting a strong woman leader certainly opens a few minds, I hope.
iF: You play President Taylor with such intensity …
JONES: Well, the situations that these guys give me are so insane and they’re so intense that I always try to put myself in the position of this woman in these impossible situations and it’s always very easy to give them a little loft. It’s there. The situations are so outrageous [laughs].
iF: Obviously, you are sworn to secrecy about what’s happening now, but did you have a particular favorite scene from your first season on the show?
JONES: I loved being in the safe room with Kiefer [Sutherland as Jack Bauer] – that was fun. As a new fan of 24, because I had not watched the show before I was on it and I was catching up with all the seasons and I found myself completely star-struck with everyone I was having to go and work with, being in that safe room with Kiefer, that was a greatly enjoyable scene. He’s the big cheese of 24, but in the final analysis, he works for me [laughs]. [Those scenes] were fun. When I got to say to Jack Bauer, "Open that door," he had to open it.
iF: What did you do during the hiatus between 24 seasons?
JONES: I actually had a fun day a few months ago – I have a little part in the film AMELIA with Hilary Swank and Richard Gere that Mira Nair directed. I play Eleanor Roosevelt. I shot on 24 all day one day and I got on a plane, flew to Toronto and by nine the next morning was playing Eleanor Roosevelt. So in a twenty-four hour period, I got to play the President and the First Lady, which may never have happened before.
iF: That may be some sort of Guinness World Record.
JONES: Yeah, I think so. I was excited about that. There’s just one other little film that’s coming up and probably it’s going to be a great film. It’s starring Annette Bening and Naomi Watts and Kerry Washington and David Morse and Jimmy Smits and S. Epatha Merkelson, and it’s directed and written by Rodrigo Garcia, a wonderful writer and director. It’s called MOTHER AND CHILD. It’s a beautiful, beautiful script..I got to work with Annette and Kerry Washington, and they were just superb. So I think that will be an exciting film.
iF: When in the process was it decided that your President Taylor would be coming back for another season of 24?
JONES: Initially, we just thought I was going to be back maybe for a couple of episodes and then it seemed like maybe there would be a few more and then suddenly, it was at least the first half. I don’t know beyond that whether they’re going to need me or not, but I’m personally so thrilled to be back, because I love this crew and the people I work with when I get to go to Chatsworth and do this show. I don’t get to go as much as I would like to, because I wish I were there every day. I love to act and I love to be with these people. But just to come back for a few days every month is heaven for me.
-->
websites, but since they never worked for a living, all they could offer is some lame content and beg for donations..
by a mile!
so I go on a nature hike at the Bluffs and what do I see..three fat girls walking their dogs...I go up the usual trail of ruts and dirt and spy them on the man made trail by the train tracks..you know that trail? the crushed yellowy rocks that get in your shoes..I don't know why they put these sidewalks in..I guess to allow people who don't normally hike or exercise an opportunity to check out Mom Nature without too much effort and strain...kinda defeats the whole Bluffs experience..anyway, I spy the fat girls and my oh my, they are porkers..I'm 500 yds away and I can hear them yacking and see them waddling behind the dogs, who were leashed..very good! One girl had black spandex pantjeans on and I could see her big fat ass as she ambled over the train tracks..she looked like a cow..a big fat cow from behind. Wow...then I see a fat guy walking 
behind me. He's carrying some camera gear on his shoulder...he's wearing baggy shorts down to his ankles, his legs are fat like sausages, and he thinks he's cool..Wow..what is going on? Are we starting to let people from Oklahoma into Carp now? Fat southern trailer park people...pork and grits...it's disgusting to see that when I'm trying to exercise rigorously on the trails..Oh wait, there goes a cute chick with a hat on..thank God!!maybe the hill folks are just here for the holidays..one can only hope
The Good Shepherd Foundation is a non-profit, 501(c) 3 organization, founded in 1949 in California by a wonderful, compassionate woman named Rosalie Gordon. Responding to the cruelty of animal research, also called vivisection, Rosalie waged continuous compaigns to save animals from suffering in the name of science. She labored to stop the sale of homeless animals for use in research, and she started a no-kill humane shelter for abused and unwanted dogs and cats. Rosalie also was a great promoter of spay and neuter programs, and the Good Shepherd sponsored local spay and neuter efforts in California by helping pet owners pay for these services. The Good Shepherd Foundation also worked to protect wild horses and other wildlife in our National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries and helped pass the first legislation in the U.S. banning the use of steel-jaw leghold traps. In addition, the Foundation started Childrens Gardens, a pre-school for children with a focus on animals and nature. 
the problems relating to so-called "invasive species" and the hazards to the environment, humans, and non-target animals and plants associated with attempts to eradicate and control these populations. Since 2001, we have been trying to end efforts to eradicate Hawaiian coqui tree frogs, which have been under attack by Federal, State and County agencies. Our position has been the acceptance of the frogs, and we have helped balance the anti-coqui hysteria with sound reason and science. To address this issue, the Foundation launched a new program called, C.H.I.R.P., (Coqui Hawaiian Integration and Reeducation Project), and ISCD Press has published a book on the subject, entitled, Panic in Paradise: Invasive Species Hysteria and the Hawaiian Coqui Frog War. We also created a website, www.HawaiianCoqui.org , which has helped educate the public about the reasons why the coqui should be accepted as part of the Hawaiian environment. C.H.I.R.P. has been featured in numerous publications and on several television specials, and has helped mobilize Puerto Rico in its efforts to end the war against their beloved coqui. hey..I wonder if the Channel Islands have enough froggies??
bananas..bananas are all I have...bananas
artists behind these endeavors. Now, we all know Wendy's claim to fame is divorcing a rich guy and the con is she calls herself a business woman! A publisher even! Well, what kind of a paper doesn't print an editorial section? A bad one, that's what kind. Monday's News-Press had no editorial section, no letters, no nothing! just two full page cryptic ads about NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING!! and after soliciting letters for months about the new city council, they got seven letters on Sunday from the usual anti-city hall suspects!!
is rotting...there is nothing to do but get a new banana and make sure the same thing doesn't happen...you do that by consuming it before it rots and making it a part of your nourishment..the News-Press, however, is only poison..poison poison poison..when you ingest poison, the passion goes, the love goes, the life goes..all you got left is a moldy rotten banana, that is dying & crying to be heard..
invasive" species..(where have I heard that before?)..among the demon species they list as bad are Mexican Fan Palms. The story was in OVN and the head biologist is Brian Holly..let me break it to you Bri...the restoration is a scam but somehow you managed to convince the city council, Fish and Game, and private property owners in Ojai that it will benefit the creek habitat. Ok, so I got no problem with you planting sycamores and other non-bastard trees, but I do have a problem with you ripping out Mexican Fan Palms and deporting them..why? I'll tell you why: THEY ARE HOME TO HOODED ORIOLES EVERY SPRING!! GODDAMMIT..LEAVE 'EM ALONE!!!!!!!!! GOT IT BRI...
LEAVE THEM THE FUCK ALONE!!!!!
Christmas season...emulate a Catholic priest..so I went down to the local laundrymat , stole some ladies underwear, took 'em home and put 'em on...they smelled so fresh and clean! Then I stapled two overcoats together and painted them bright colors; then I made a hat out of cardboard, then I picked up a bible and was off to the races! whoops, I forgot shoes..hmmm, high heels is what I need..so I went over to mom's house and picked them up...so now I'm dressed up like a pastor and ready for anything..."HEAR MY WORDS FOR THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE" I started shouting at the street corner as cars whizzed by..some slowed to look and I would open my coat and flash 'em the goods! I continued preaching at the street corner for an hour and was arrested and thrown in jail! which is where all pastors belong!
from 
A Little fir grew in the midst of the wood 
at his dress was the poorest of all. 
