Episode Report Card Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Jalapeno speaks
By Gustave | Season 1 | Episode 14 | Aired on 03.07.2002
What was your work schedule like?
Some days were really long. Like, sometimes we'd have to get all the scenes that took place at CTU done within three days. But then I'd get entire days off, because during the rest of the week they'd be doing the scenes that took place at the other locations like the Palmer suite, for instance.
Did you have any idea how good the show was going to be?
When I read the script of the pilot, I was bummed that I didn't have the next episode. I read it and I was like, "Well, what happens? I gotta see that next script!" [laughs] I just knew that the writing was terrific because it left me wanting more. I knew that I loved the pilot. And I knew that the acting going on around me was really good.
But usually, I can't get too concerned with how good the show will turn out. If I think about that too much, I'll get tripped up. The only I thing I can handle is worrying about my performance and then everything else is beyond my control. I try not to think about it.
In general, how different is the finished product from the original script that you're given?
Certain episodes went through a lot of changes. Certain ones didn't. I can't remember everything that changed but I know, for instance, that they rewrote my character so that she was a lot more sympathetic. Originally, she was just psychotic, and her reasons for doing what she did were motivated by revenge as opposed to needing money for her son. She mostly had issues about the fact that she had less power than anyone else.
So she was really more like Linda Tripp? [laughs]
[laughs] Yeah. I was terrified, because I was like, "How am I going to play this? She's nuts!"
It's interesting because on most television shows -- take Family Ties, for instance -- when someone becomes a big star or they notice that certain plotlines are more popular with the viewers, the writers will cater to that. Originally, Family Ties was supposed to be this vehicle for Meredith Baxter Birney, but then Michael J. Fox got so popular that the show became about him. And then they made Mallory really stupid. There doesn't seem to be much of that happening on 24 because the plotline is the most important thing.
Yeah, it's like a pure art form. And that's why it's easier for them to kill people off.
Right, like they had Brenda move to London on 90210 because they had fired Shannon Doherty, but they never would have had Brenda leave just to make some artistic statement.