Episode Report Card Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT "Penny is not a diva, but Sherry is"
By Gustave | Season 2 | Episode 25 | Aired on 07.16.2003
So last year I asked you who you were basing your performance on -- the first black First Lady -- and you said, "Hillary and Lady Macbeth." Who were you thinking about this year as the first divorced First Lady…who is also African-American. This season was just about rejection. [laughs] And actors suffer that a lot, so we become masters of handling that. Sometimes it's not pretty. And in Sherry's case it's never going to be pretty. Pretty is boring. It's gotta be nasty and drawn out. But you know she wanted to be in that White House so bad she could taste it, so anyone who was in that White House was going to be her enemy until -- or unless -- she was there. That was a driving force for her. Was Lynne a threat to you? Was something going on between Palmer and Lynne? At least in your mind…or in Sherry's mind? [laughs] Well, it's a choice an actor makes in her head. And I have to make a choice that's actable. No woman in her right mind is going to let another woman walk in her shoes. No woman. And that's a simple choice to make but it is so very tangible and actable. So you literally thought they were sleeping together, or you felt that she was fulfilling duties that you were supposed to have performed had Palmer not left you? All of the above. No one should fill Sherry's shoes. It's the same thing with the Jack Bauer character. Last year, her husband makes a decision based on Jack's advice. That's a big slap in the face. You spend all this time being the confidante of an individual in the most intimate way and someone who is not as close in your eyes can come in and give advice and it's taken over yours. It's the biggest insult ever. So revenge is what you act upon. In Lynne's case, she's female, so it's "you're not going to take my man." What happened to your kids? What did happen to our kids? [laughs] I asked that question a bunch of times! Can I please mention my kids? No, but seriously, the focus simply went somewhere else, but still, I did miss at least mentioning the kids because we were established as this wonderful, tight-knit family. I think it's unrealistic to go through all of this and not mention, "Oh, Nicole's away in college and we don't want to disturb her," or something like that. Our son was in the first episode, and he did come for the final episode but I didn't see him in it. [laughs] A few things were cut out.