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Thursday 26 October 2006

New pics

Added Today Enjoy ;-)

Promo > Book

Promo > On The Set

Sports > Golf

Public Events > The 9th Screen Actors Guild Awards (09/03/2003)

Public Events > The 61st Annual Golden Globe Awards (25/01/2004)

Public Events > The 56th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (09/2004)

Public Events > The 45th Monte Carlo TV Festival (30/06/2005)

Public Events > The National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts Event (13/09/2005)

Public Events > Discuss Fact vs Fiction in War on Terror (23/06/2006)

Public events > The World Poker Tour (22/02/2006)

Public events > The 58th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (27/08/2006)

Sports > Baseball

Promo > Photoshoots - Others

Public Events > The 2003 Johnnie Walker Blue Gentlemen's Suite (18/09/2003)

Thursday 12 October 2006

Happy Birthday !!!


from Paris....

Thursday 5 October 2006

Holy Hill


Thanks to the LA city who agreed to change the sign for us :D

Holy Star

Because he deserves it more than ANYONE else...

Holy Beach

Wednesday 4 October 2006

Carlos Bernard (2006)

Long days Bernard fully admits he's amazed with his character's story arc last season, which took him from a disgraced, disgruntled and drunk former agent to a decisive man of action at the top of his game in just 24 hours. "You've got to suspend disbelief a little bit," he said. "The story arc, if you really want to chart every season, is pretty fantastic. For an actor, it is great fun because of the changes that happen within the character. Usually, on television, you don't get that kind of evolution." It takes about 10½ months to film a season that unfolds over the course of a single day. While Bernard said he gets his share of nicks and bruises filming the action sequences, it was an off-camera injury in the second season that nearly sidelined the character for good. "I severely dislocated my ankle playing basketball over a Christmas break. The foot was pointing the wrong direction. The doctors had to insert a screw to hold my foot and ankle together." Bernard said he was concerned that the injury could easily be the end of Almeida. "I tried to concoct a story to make it seem less drastic. I just had a bag of bones at the leg and I was calling the producer saying I sort of sprained my ankle really bad. They ended up having to write the injury in for the rest of the season. Because I couldn't put weight on it for three months, I had to be on crutches. "Jack and Tony were supposed to film a fight scene the day after we got back from Christmas break, but it turned out that Kiefer had broken his knee cap and I had this, so they orchestrated this really lame fight where he ends up kicking me in the ankle and that's how they explained it on the show."

High school reunion Having faced some of the toughest bad guys on television, Bernard recently stepped up to the potentially grueling challenge of dealing with his own past by attending his 25-year New Trier East High School reunion in November. "I don't feel like I got the star treatment. There were definitely people who wanted to take pictures with me and get autographs for their kids, but it felt pretty normal. "I have about a dozen really close friends from school, and we see other every time I come back. The rest of the classmates, it was great to see people I hadn't seen in a long time." Bernard, a member of the varsity baseball team for four years, said he didn't do any theater in high school. "I was too chicken ... because the theater program there was pretty fantastic, and I was very intimidated by that," he said. Born Carlos Bernard Papierski, his childhood was spent painting, drawing and playing baseball in Evanston, Skokie and Mexico before the family, which had roots in Poland and Spain, moved to Wilmette. While attending Illinois State as an art major, Bernard appeared in a few stage productions. But it wasn't until after college, while working as an art director for a local magazine, that he accepted a dare by a colleague to audition for Second City and studied there for a year and a half. "I wasn't the greatest at the improv comedy, and shortly thereafter I applied for graduate school and went to the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco in 1988 for a graduate acting program in classical theater." When Bernard moved to Los Angeles in 1993, he found it difficult to find work and representation, so he decided to go with a more marquee-friendly name. "My agent thought Papierski was confusing the casting directors. And also my grandmother, on my Spanish side, had always called me Carlos Bernard, and so I went with that." Starting in 1995, he began to appear in small roles in television and straight-to-video movies, but his first big break occurred when he was hired for a recurring role of Rafael Delgado on "The Young and The Restless" in 1999. "The part was supposed to last a couple of days, and the next day they called my agent and offered me a three-year contract," he said. "Seeing as I was absolutely penniless at the time, I decided I might as well. Ten months into it, they wanted me to play the character as stereotypical dark, brooding Hispanic bad guy, and I just didn't want to do that. He was a Spanish painter, so they sent him back to Spain."

Later this year, Bernard will be seen as a heroic field hospital doctor involved with the president's daughter in the NBC miniseries "10.5 Apocalypse." The project also will features Kim Delaney, Dean Cain, Frank Langella and Beau Bridges as the president.

Pioneer Press

Carlobucks

Tele Loisirs (09/2006)

Source: Tele Loisirs

Tuesday 3 October 2006

El actor Carlos Bernard asegura que la serie "24" le cambió la vida 3/2/2006

México, 2 mar (EFE).- El actor estadounidense Carlos Bernard dijo hoy que la exitosa serie televisiva "24", en donde interpreta al agente antiterrorista Tony Almeida, le cambió la vida al darle una gran proyección internacional. "Es una gran serie, me ha dado mucho, me ha cambiado la vida en varios aspectos, durante los diez meses que dura una temporada, trabajo casi las 24 horas en el set, es un trabajo muy intenso, muy fuerte, pero muy satisfactorio", reveló el actor en conferencia de prensa. Bernard está de visita en México para presentar la quinta temporada de esta serie de la cadena de televisión Fox, que durante las cuatro anteriores ha sido candidata a numerosos premios "Emmy" que se conceden en EEUU a las mejores series de televisión en EEUU. El actor dijo que esta visita a México le trae buenos recuerdos, pues "aquí viví de los 8 a los 11 años, y aunque fue poco tiempo, me dejó muchas cosas y aprendí otras". Sobre el personaje que interpreta en "24", un estrecho colaborador en lucha antiterrorista del protagonista de la serie, destacó que necesita una preparación mental más que física. Bernard, quien participó en la película "Vegas, City of Dreams" (2001), de su compatriota Lorenzo Doumani, explicó que debido al arduo trabajo en "24" no puede estar en ningún otro proyecto, pero precisó que prepara uno propio, también para la televisión, que se enfocará en la comunidad latina. Al respecto, el actor no dio mayores detalles, pues aclaró que apenas está en su planeamiento. "24" es una serie narrada en tiempo real, emitida y producida por la cadena Fox, que trata sobre la vida del agente federal de una unidad anterrorista (UAT) conocido como Jack Bauer, que interpreta Kiefer Sutherland. La serie también trata las actividades de los otros agentes de la UAT, las acciones de los terroristas y la reacción de la Casa Blanca. Cada temporada se compone de 24 capítulos de una hora que conforman un único día y la acción transcurre en tiempo real. Bernard ha tenido algunas participaciones en cine y televisión, en esta última con apariciones en series como: "Walker, Texas Ranger" y "The Young and the Restless." Sin embargo, la serie "24" ha sido su catapulta a nivel internacional.

La Oferta

Source

Carlos Bernard 2006

Long days Bernard fully admits he's amazed with his character's story arc last season, which took him from a disgraced, disgruntled and drunk former agent to a decisive man of action at the top of his game in just 24 hours. "You've got to suspend disbelief a little bit," he said. "The story arc, if you really want to chart every season, is pretty fantastic. For an actor, it is great fun because of the changes that happen within the character. Usually, on television, you don't get that kind of evolution." It takes about 10½ months to film a season that unfolds over the course of a single day. While Bernard said he gets his share of nicks and bruises filming the action sequences, it was an off-camera injury in the second season that nearly sidelined the character for good. "I severely dislocated my ankle playing basketball over a Christmas break. The foot was pointing the wrong direction. The doctors had to insert a screw to hold my foot and ankle together." Bernard said he was concerned that the injury could easily be the end of Almeida. "I tried to concoct a story to make it seem less drastic. I just had a bag of bones at the leg and I was calling the producer saying I sort of sprained my ankle really bad. They ended up having to write the injury in for the rest of the season. Because I couldn't put weight on it for three months, I had to be on crutches. "Jack and Tony were supposed to film a fight scene the day after we got back from Christmas break, but it turned out that Kiefer had broken his knee cap and I had this, so they orchestrated this really lame fight where he ends up kicking me in the ankle and that's how they explained it on the show."

High school reunion Having faced some of the toughest bad guys on television, Bernard recently stepped up to the potentially grueling challenge of dealing with his own past by attending his 25-year New Trier East High School reunion in November. "I don't feel like I got the star treatment. There were definitely people who wanted to take pictures with me and get autographs for their kids, but it felt pretty normal. "I have about a dozen really close friends from school, and we see other every time I come back. The rest of the classmates, it was great to see people I hadn't seen in a long time." Bernard, a member of the varsity baseball team for four years, said he didn't do any theater in high school. "I was too chicken ... because the theater program there was pretty fantastic, and I was very intimidated by that," he said. Born Carlos Bernard Papierski, his childhood was spent painting, drawing and playing baseball in Evanston, Skokie and Mexico before the family, which had roots in Poland and Spain, moved to Wilmette. While attending Illinois State as an art major, Bernard appeared in a few stage productions. But it wasn't until after college, while working as an art director for a local magazine, that he accepted a dare by a colleague to audition for Second City and studied there for a year and a half. "I wasn't the greatest at the improv comedy, and shortly thereafter I applied for graduate school and went to the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco in 1988 for a graduate acting program in classical theater." When Bernard moved to Los Angeles in 1993, he found it difficult to find work and representation, so he decided to go with a more marquee-friendly name. "My agent thought Papierski was confusing the casting directors. And also my grandmother, on my Spanish side, had always called me Carlos Bernard, and so I went with that." Starting in 1995, he began to appear in small roles in television and straight-to-video movies, but his first big break occurred when he was hired for a recurring role of Rafael Delgado on "The Young and The Restless" in 1999. "The part was supposed to last a couple of days, and the next day they called my agent and offered me a three-year contract," he said. "Seeing as I was absolutely penniless at the time, I decided I might as well. Ten months into it, they wanted me to play the character as stereotypical dark, brooding Hispanic bad guy, and I just didn't want to do that. He was a Spanish painter, so they sent him back to Spain."

Later this year, Bernard will be seen as a heroic field hospital doctor involved with the president's daughter in the NBC miniseries "10.5 Apocalypse." The project also will features Kim Delaney, Dean Cain, Frank Langella and Beau Bridges as the president.

Pioneer Press

Carlos Bernard Dishes About Five Thrilling Seasons of '24' 12/27/2005

Dec. 27 -- Last season on '24,' when Tony Almeida came to Jack Bauer's rescue, it was only seven hours into the superagent's day but it felt like a lifetime to fans.

Well, everyone can breathe a sigh of relief. Carlos Bernard is back as Almeida for the fifth season of '24,' which begins Sun., Jan. 15. But for how long and in what capacity are being kept under wraps.

Bernard chatted with AOL Television editor Kelly Woo about the "amped up" season premiere, his favorite '24' moments and his status as a sex symbol.

When you first started on '24,' did you imagine it would get to its fifth season?

No, I never imagined that we were going to make it through the first year. Each step of the way, I've been amazed. That first of all it got picked up. Then, we were waiting for that 13th episode to see if we were going to get picked up for the rest of the season and we did. And every year, it's gone on and gotten better.

Tony's surprise entrance last season was one of the best moments from the show.

Can't ask for a better entrance than that.

Fans were really excited when he burst in to rescue Jack. That was a nice surprise. That was very nice, I've heard that a lot. Jeez, we work hard on the show, we work a lot of hours over a lot of months. It really makes you feel good that people enjoy what you're working on.

How much of the storylines do you know in advance?

There are certain things that I know of. Tony's storyline for this year was really worked out between the head writers and myself before we started. So there are major things that I know that I've talked with them about, that are going to happen, but the specifics of it and how it's executed, that I'll get when I read the script.

So what IS going to happen this season?

First episode is pretty crazy. Laughs I can't believe how much goes in the first episode this year. It's amped up a whole 'nother notch. That's as much as I can tell you. Anything else is going to ruin it for people.

But you and Reiko Aylesworth as Tony's wife Michelle Dessler are definitely back at least for the premiere?

Yes.

Tony's been shot in the neck, he was branded a traitor, he lost his wife. What's it like playing someone with so many issues? It's great, it's really great. That's one of the wonderful things about working on the show. A lot of TV shows, you can get into this feeling like you're on autopilot, like you're almost doing the same episodes over and over again for years. The great thing about this show is every year it's different, the character's in a different place. You can accumulate all those things like you listed that happen to the character, so that when you come back next year, there's a whole other chunk of baggage to mix into the character. It just makes it more fun as an actor.

Do you have a favorite season of '24'?

I really like the third season. I don't know… there are elements of each year that I really love. I had a lot of fun last year. Third season was really great. That would probably be my favorite.

What do you think is the craziest thing that's happened?

I love when the bomb went off, I think that was second season. I thought that was great, that they actually did that. And then they had Air Force One go down. The one thing I love about the show is they're not afraid to take risks and try something most shows would resolve. In other words, on another show, Air Force One would've been saved, would've been rescued. And on this show, it went down. So did the President. Those are moments that stick in my mind.

Do you think '24''s success started a trend of more serialized dramas on TV?

I'd like to think it has. I don't know for sure, but there are definitely a lot more since we came on the air. I remember when we were starting, part of the big thing about the pilot being picked up and renewed was the argument that a serialized drama just won't last. They were worried about being able to syndicate it in reruns. And that's done great.

What's it like working with Kiefer Sutherland?

Kiefer, he's just a big baby. I love Kiefer. We have such a great time working together. I just love him. He's my brother. At this point, we're the only ones left from the first year, that have been here the whole time. And we're just really close and love working together. We have fun together and we push each other.

Did you enjoy voicing your character in the '24' video game?

That was a lot of fun. And that's pretty cool. I think for people who like video games and fans of the show, it's going to be great. You can play different characters and it's sort of a natural for a video game.

What's it like being a sex symbol?

I don't know really... It's flattering, and it's great. Most people come up because they're a fan of the show, because they enjoy the show and my character, and that's always gratifying.

I saw you on 'Celebrity Poker Showdown.' Do you play much poker?

No. In fact, I haven't played since then. I'm not very good at it.

TV Tattler Archive

Source

Carlos Bernard

ahhh...high school reunions. A scary time for some; an ego trip for others; but mostly a chance to see who actually recognizes you. For Carlos Bernard, who will be attending his reunion soon at New Trier High School in Chicago, this likely won’t be an issue. Bernard is a star on possibly one of the most addicting shows to ever hit television. For those who own the DVDs, it’s often more difficult to watch just one episode of 24 than give into the temptation of continuing on to the next. In the spirit of the fast-paced spy show, which plays out critical national security events over a period of 24 hours, when Bernard landed the role of Tony Almeida on 24, his life also changed “overnight.” Far from Los Angeles or even his childhood playground of Chicago, Bernard recently found himself at a department store in Tokyo. He traveled there on a press tour promoting the show, which is very popular in Japan. And everytime Bernard would exit one department and enter other, an employee would politely approach him, say, “Hello, Mr. Tony,” and bow. Indeed, Bernard certainly has a recognizable face. But he’ll be the first to tell you that before his appearance on the show, “no one knew who the heck I was.” Like the rest of the cast of 24, Bernard was an actor but never hit anything nearly as big as his current role. Yet he was determined to remain positive, even after being fired from the soap opera The Young and the Restless. And unlike many other actors in this city who are often hesitant to tell people what they really want to do because their own self image is as cliché as most of the movies released, Bernard says, “I love actors and respect them. I am very proud to be one.” However, this wasn’t always his mindset. New Trier High School has a wonderful drama program. “I remember seeing a play and being completely intimidated,” recalls Bernard, adding that seeing is all he did. Even though the thought of acting excited Bernard, he never participated in high school drama. Having been raised by loving parents who only wanted him to have a nice, normal life in the Chicago suburbs with a full-time job, he “never wanted to fess up to anyone that I wanted to be an actor because I’d be afraid they would talk me out of it.” Instead, Bernard played sports, was an art major at Illinois State college, and became an art director for a magazine once he graduated. Nevertheless, his dream of performing never faded, especially after having been given a small taste of stage work in college. “I would walk into a theater thinking one way and I would leave changed,” says Bernard, using the play Our Town as an example. “After seeing it, you walk out wanting to seize the day. The small things in life become a lot more precious to you.” Bernard finally did give into his temptations after a friend dared him to try out for the renowned Second City comedy club which launched the careers of such comics as John Belushi, Mike Myers, Bill Murray, and Gilda Radner. Getting into the comedy club and preparing himself to pursue the life of a thespian wasn’t the difficult part for Bernard—it was breaking the news to his mother afterward. “I told my mom I was quitting the magazine job, going to work freelance, pursue acting, and move out,” Bernard says with a smile, remember the expression on her face. “She called me crazy over and over again in a million different Spanish ways.” With his mother’s two cents behind him, Bernard proceeded to complete his education with Second City, earn a master’s of fine arts degree from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, and finally arrive in Los Angeles to find an agent and get work—a task that didn’t prove to be too easy. Like most other actors—successful or not—Bernard has had his share of discouraging moments. Perhaps his lowest moment was finding himself going to temp agencies at the age of 36, broke, after losing his job with The Young and the Restless. After four months of not working, he finally got a job in graphics design which he began working on the day of New Year’s Eve. As to his state of mind—let’s just say the relevance of being recognized by his high school class let alone people across the world wasn’t exactly being contemplated. With that said, Bernard not only looks at his past, but also toward the future with the same positive attitude he had when he first moved to Los Angeles. “People try to take down your self-esteem all the time,” he says. “The point is that none of it matters. It has no bearing on anything. The difficultly, the adversity, and the ‘no’s’ are part of the fun.” As for now, Bernard just feels fortunate to have a job he loves and can go to every day. Someday he would love the opportunity to work with actors such as Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, Denzel Washington, and George Clooney. Coming from an actor who hasn’t been killed off a show like 24 after five seasons, he must be doing something right. But wherever his career takes him, Bernard takes comfort in knowing he will always have the love and support of his actress wife, Sharisse Baker-Bernard, and their two-year-old baby daughter. Oh, and we can’t forget Bernard’s mother. Somehow she has managed to come to grips with his career. “She loves the show 24,” says Bernard with a smile. “She’s my Chicago publicist.”

David Krissman

Source

Bernard Will Return on '24' 7/27/2005

Carlos Bernard's Tony Almeida has had a rough go of it over the past couple seasons on "24." He's only a couple years removed from getting shot in the neck, recovering his strength miraculously, being dubbed a traitor to the United States, getting out of jail, losing his wife and any variety of other plights. Apparently the actor is ready for more. Bernard has just inked a deal to return to "24" for the drama's upcoming season. Normally the return of starring cast members to a hit television show isn't necessarily news, but "24" is rather unique, given its tendency to shed dozens of actors and characters each season, a plight Bernard knows all too well.

The finale of the show's fourth season saw Almeida helping Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer play dead, evade deportation to China and escape to Mexico. It's unclear whether Bernard will be a regular on "24" next season, or just recurring, just that he will be back. The actor has appeared on the show in both capacities in recent years.

Bernard recently completed work on NBC's miniseries sequel "10.5 Apocalypse." His other credits include a run on "The Young and the Restless."

Source

Clocking Back In 6/2005

"When we last saw Tony Almeida, he was being carted off to the local nick for treason. But in Season 4 of 24 he's back, with some rougher edges and something to prove. Carlos Bernard explains further.

Ruggedly handsome actor Carlos Bernard has never faced terrorists or made the kind of life and death decisions his character Tony Almeida regularly makes on the suspense show 24, but as it turns out, all that covert work may be in his blood after all.

"My dad and my uncle were both in counter-intelligence, so I got a lot of info that way, reveals Bernard during a break on the series. "My uncle, who has since passed away, was actually on the ground floor of the CIA, but was in the OS, which led into the CIA. My father was in counter-intelligence but didn't go into the CIA. It let me know what that world was really like to work in, which really helped me when we shot the pilot, to help build the character."

Tony certainly received some hard knocks during his stay at the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU), most notably at the end of season three when he was charged with treason after assisting terrorists who had kidnapped his wife Michelle. It was slammer time for Tony, then he came charging in like the cavalry to save Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and his girlfriend Audrey Raines (Kim Raver) in the current, fourth, season.

"The producers were pretty up-front with me about what was happening with the changing cast," says Bernard about his return. "They always planned on bringing my character back, they just knew it would take a few episodes to work him in because of what happened last season."

But Tony isn't the same man he used to be. His fall from grace caused him to hit the bottle, and, when he became emotionally distant, Michelle divorced him.

"It made sense to me because this is a guy who had poured a lot of his life into protecting this country," says Bernard. "He was trained in the military, brought up working in the field and putting his life at risk. Then to have to face a decision like that which he knew was wrong, at least as far as his job goes, and then to be pardoned and get out of jail...Even though he knows he made the wrong decision, there is still bitterness in the fact that after all the work he has done for the country, he felt like everyone had turned on him. That resentment and bitterness can creep in on people. And then to have his wife still carrying on with her career while he can't get a job, that is not a great situation to be in and different people handle it in different ways."

Despite the spiraling situation, Tony couldn't refuse Jack's desperate call for help when Bauer was cornered by gunfire.

"Tony probably got involved to help Jack out, but at the same time feeling here's a chance to redeem himself, which I think has taken over," offers Bernard about his alter ego's motives. "As the day goes on, there are situations that arise which have him switching back and forth. He wants to redeem himself but he's trying to watch Jack's back. After all, he'd be rotting in jail if it weren't for him. " The two weren't always best buds, though. In fact, back in season one, they were frequently at each other's throats. "Well, the are both hot-headed and have a lot in common," explains Bernard. "They feel they know which is the right way. A lot of the time, males in that alpha male category do not get along. They butt heads. I was talking to a friend about the same thing. When I think back to when I was younger, my family moved around a lot, and every time I moved, I would get picked on and get into fights. Well, it's funny that once you are done with the fight part, you usually become good friends. There's some sort of respect or mutual admiration that goes along with it and a friendship springs out of it. Maybe that is what happened with Tony and Jack. "

Along the way Tony picked up some of Jack's rogue tactics, especially when he plotted to exchange terrorist Saunders's daughter for his own wife last year.

"That all started in the second season really, maybe in the first season, " says Bernard. "He was younger in the job and you are right, he was military trained by the book, and felt this is the way this job should be done. He's learned over time that sometimes, to do your job well, you have to break rules. And he's definitely learned that from Jack. In season two he started breaking them, and in season three you know where he wound up."

This year Tony has once more proven to be an invaluable asset by pitching in at CTU and even temporarily heading the organization. However, things are never that simple. Michelle, his ex, was also called in, and to make matters worse, she was promoted to be his boss. The tension between the former couple keeps escalating, so it is no surprise that Bernard isn't even sure he'd like them to kiss and make up.

"You know what? I personally don't have a preference if they reconcile or not," offers Bernard. "What is more important is that they run smack into each other, that they have to deal with each other. As an actor, that makes for interesting scenes to play, that with their history they have to work with each other. What comes out of that, we'll see."

However, Bernard states that one thing he would prefer is to get out from behind the desk and become more involved in kicking some terrorist butt.

"It is funny the way Tony's field time gets parceled out," he reflects. "I used to feel I'd like more field time, but what is interesting is, the way the writers have built the story towards Tony and Jack is they sort of build our own storylines and then throw us together for a while, then pull us apart and continue what is going on in their own worlds, and then throw us back together again. If Tony and Jack were out in the field all the time, it wouldn't be as interesting."

At the time of this interview, Bernard is on set shooting the 22nd episode, so what can devoted 24 fans expect from Tony? "I can't tell you that but it does involve Jack and getting into the field," says Bernard. That's not much of a spoiler, but even those close to Bernard have quit digging for that kind of information.

"My wife doesn't want to know anything about it," he chuckles. "She read the scripts the first year and it ruined it for her, so she doesn't want to know anything. Same with friends and family. Even my publicist doesn't want to know anything, and that is rare because usually those people in the business are a little jaded and beyond caring about the show itself but my agents and publicists all love 24. I have to sort of conduct business without letting them know why we can do certain things and not others."

In a final attempt to get Bernard to spill something, he's asked if he will be popping up in season five, but it's possible even torture wouldn't break his vow of silence.

"I don't know," he says. "I can't tell you that. It all depends with what happens at the end of this year, don't you think? That was a good try though. I can appreciate that."

Changing gears, the conversation quickly turned to People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the World, a list Bernard graced in 2003.

"It was pretty strange but they've kicked me off that list since then," he jokes. "I was booted last year. I got more grief from it than you'll ever know! From friends, family, producers, you name it. They love to give me sh1t whenever they can because usually that is what I'm doing to them."

24 is one intense series and no one could ever claim their day was nearly as bad as Jack's, but Bernard wraps up by thinking back to a recent event where everything seemed to go wrong for him.

"I'd say the last time I had to renew my license," chuckles Bernard. "I had to go to the DMV. Ever been to the DMV in California? Oh my God! It's such an affair! And then after I got it, I lost my fricking license within a couple of days. Now I am walking around with my expired license because I don't have the energy to go back."

Bryan Cairns"

Source

Carlos Bernard on 24, Day 4; The 'misunderstood drunk'; Tony's emotional blows 5/14/2005

From Zap2It:

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) On Monday, Jan. 31, in hour seven of this season of FOX's "24" (in which each episode is an hour in real time), things looked pretty bleak for former CTU operative Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and his girlfriend (Kim Raver), daughter of the Secretary of Defense (William Devane). Terrorists had them pinned down, and Jack was forced to call on an old friend for help. Scant moments later, in charged Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard), guns blazing.Since Bernard was uncredited in the episode, it's likely that at least a few fans those who don't haunt the Internet for spoilers let out squeals of surprise and joy. "That squeal thing seems to be a general sort of response," says Bernard. "Everybody was squealing. I always knew I was going to come back. We had it planned that way, how he'd have to come in after five or six episodes, because of the way it ended last year. So I was happy about that. And you couldn't have a better entrance written for you."

At the end of last season, Tony, then the head of CTU, wound up being carted off to jail for breaking the law to save his wife, CTU agent Michelle Dressler (Reiko Aylesworth), from a deadly virus.In the years between seasons three and four, Tony spent six months in jail, was pardoned, got divorced, became a drunk and acquired a skanky girlfriend.

"I was a misunderstood drunk," Bernard says. "Let's put it that way. It was a great setup. I didn't know specifically how it was going to happen, but I was really happy about it.

"We talked about the fact that we'd probably pick him up where he was down and out. He was unemployed and divorced and not in good shape. I liked that a lot."

Bernard doesn't appear to suffer from an excess of thespian vanity, since Tony was looking pretty rough around the edges when he first appeared -- which was the actor's choice.

"I felt like he's probably a little soft looking," Bernard says. "He's probably not going to be in the best of shape. I concentrated more on the insides of what was going on with him, but as far as the outsides of him, I thought, cut off his hair, shed some past, and he just wasn't in the best, tip-top shape."

While Jack Bauer has absorbed a lot of body blows and managed to stay somewhat consistent in his behavior (except for his brief, scruffy, mountain-man period at the beginning of season two), Tony has gone through huge changes that have affected every aspect of his life.

"The thing that happened with Tony," Bernard says, "is there have been a lot of emotional blows. Jack's gone through a lot of physical blows. Obviously, he lost his wife in the first season, and that's a huge emotional blow. But Tony's just been through the ringer."

And then there was prison. "And prison, right. Although it was only six months of prison, still it's prison. That kind of stuff changes people. That's why I still enjoy doing the show, because it allows this evolution of characters.

"We have this year-and-a-half to three-year gap between the seasons. Things that happened in the day that was on television and in the show affect the characters. Then there's this time that passes by, in which characters are going to change.

"I love daydreaming about what they do between seasons, how that affected them, and how do they pick up again?"

One thing that hasn't changed for the actors is that they spend most of their 10 months of filming time wearing the same clothes.

"You know what," Bernard says, "I keep thinking, 'This is the year that I'm going to pick something that I can live with for 10 months.' And you just can't do it. You just get sick and tired of something after the first month.

"Jack changes. He's the star of the show. The star gets to change clothes. We don't. I think I get two changes this year, so I can't complain about that."

Bernard also had to cope with a new working environment. Over the hiatus, the show shifted from its original San Fernando Valley sets in Canoga Park, Calif., to a new location further north in Chatsworth.

"I felt like I'd been off on some foreign exchange program," Bernard says, "then we started at a new high school, and I was the last one to show up. I was literally getting lost everywhere."

Now that Tony is reinstated in his job at CTU morphing from embittered drunk to competent professional in the space of hours the question arises of what's next for the beleaguered agent. There are even hints he may reconcile with Michelle, who's currently running CTU.

"I still have to go through negotiations for next year," Bernard says, "so we'll see how that works out. We started to talk about next year, possibilities, depending on how this year ends. That's the thing about it. It's really loose talk because they don't know what's going to happen at the end.

"And really, when you get toward the end of the season, somebody's got to go down. I have lasted this long, but what are the odds of lasting another one?"

Fans will find out how it all ends in the season finale on Monday, May 23. Although he doesn't know specifics, Bernard has heard rumors.

"I think you'll be surprised how they end it this year. I hear it's pretty cool. It's pretty surprising for television. You're not getting any more out of me. That's all I'm saying."

Source

Tony’s Back: Carlos Bernard’s On The Clock 2005

He plays Tony Almeida, the CTU agent who came plunging back in a surprise twist on Fox’s last season of the critically acclaimed action/drama, “Twenty Four.” A day earlier, he was an alcoholic who was convicted of treason for trying to save his wife and CTU partner, Michelle Dessler (played by Reiko Aylesworth) from terrorists – only to have her dump him because of his burgeoning depression, fondness of alcohol and that rather large ink stain on his resume. Something you think actor, Carlos Bernard, could play on a daytime soap opera, right? Instead, we meet an ambitious theatrical, film and television actor whose commanding performances and abilities to win over audiences withformidable, yet subtle characters like Tony Almeida, has earned Bernard the status of a respected rising star in Hollywood. Carlos Bernard talked with us about some on and off camera tid bits that die hard 24 fans would most definitely appreciate. And those who are still virgin to this show, which publishes one of television history’s most impressive displays of guts and aptitude, will probably want to find out what the big fuss is about. Although he plays best friend to central character, Jack Bauer (played by Kiefer Sutherland), Tony Almeida has increasingly become the mystified, always engaging character credited by rich performances each week by Bernard. My wife, Lisa, and I are glued to our television sets awaiting every perfect hour that ticks by on “Twenty Four.” Come, let us invite you to this compelling world, according to Carlos Bernard.

MT: You grew up in Chicago. What was it like getting adjusted to Hollywood? It must feel like a totally different world.

CB: Yeah, you know what it really is. I originally started off in theater in Chicago, and I decided that I wanted to get some formal training in a graduate program. So I applied at the American Conservatory Theater In San Francisco and went there for three years. When I moved to San Francisco, I immediately felt at home. It’s very much a city like Chicago or New York is, but when I moved down to Los Angeles, it took me about 2.5 years to get adjusted. At first, I couldn’t stand it. I’m used to cities, and it is just so spread out. It’s hard to build your life there, but now I love it.

MT: Now, with the success of “24,” and with it being such a high profile show, have things changed at all? Is daily life more difficult now that you are much more recognizable to the public?

CB: I don’t think so, not really. The great thing about this show is that people only come up and talk to you if they love it, and it has such a high IQ to it that people who watch it tend to be pretty well-educated. They just want to talk because they love the show, and there is nothing wrong with that. It beats the hell out of being on some piece of crap that I am embarrassed about. I’m very proud of the show so if people want to talk and I have time, I’ll definitely talk with them. It is part of the career that I have chosen. So I certainly can’t start complaining if people want to come up and talk to me in the streets. And for the most part people are very respectful.

MT: That’s a good point that you make about the fans of the show. My wife and I sometimes use the shows that we watch as a barometer of judging people. And if they like “24,” they are cool with us, usually.

CB: Yeah right…”You what?… you watch “The Bachelor?” (laughs). Some of these shows are like, “Different Strokes” you know?

MT: Definitely! Do you get to watch much TV yourself, and if so, what are some of your favorite shows?

CB: I don’t watch that many, typically, but I finally joined the 21st century by getting TIVO recently. I watch “Medium.” I used to watch “Six Feet Under.” I’m trying to watch “Rome” I just haven’t been able to watch enough to get into it. I love to watch Jeremy Piven on Entourage because he is having such a great time. Mostly I watch a lot of sports. I am a sports hound.

MT: We really make “24” and event at our house. We live and die by the twists and turns of the show, and being the way the show is everything is pretty much up in the air from week to week. You never know if your favorite characters are going to be killed off.

CB: laughs…They’re not…they’re not safe. That is how it goes on that show.

MT: When you showed up last season on “24” it was an exciting week for us. My wife cheered “Alright, Tony’s back!” Do you ever watch the show and get caught up in the action?

CB: No, I never watch the show. I can’t really watch it because, I’m not really big on watching myself, and also with this show, I get my viewing when I read the script and find out what happens. This show is a lot about finding out what happens, so it kind of ruins it for me to know everything that happens. Every once and a while I check in to see how a certain director did or to see how maybe a certain actor I like does with a role. I definitely appreciate the editing and the cinematography. I love the music that Sean Callery writes on it. He is fantastic. And I really appreciate the different elements of it but I rarely watch a whole show every once and a while I will be curious to see a little chunk of it, but that’s it.

MT: I guess it is anti-climatic once you already know what is going to happen.

CB: Yeah it is…Also, I don’t know how other people are, but I feel like my work is done once I shoot it, and I am not one to site down and watch it once it is on the air. It’s kind of hard for me to do.

MT: We understand, I know you probably can’t confess to any plot twists next year, but frankly we’d rather be surprised any way.

CB: Yeah, I’ll tell you what man, this season starts out like gangbusters right off the bat, it’s crazy…that much I’ll tell ya.

MT: Can’t wait to see it, I’m assuming the way things left off last year, the show will be changing quite a bit.

CB: Yeah, it changes a little bit every year, and this year is no different. No doubt about that. Definitely for my character as well..things change for my character.

MT: What’s it like when the cameras are not rolling? Do you goof around on set at all? Any pranksters?

CB: Yeah, that would be me…I guess I like to screw around, and screw with people. Hell, I like to screw with people when the cameras are rolling. It is a very loose set. When we are shooting certain kinds of scenes it is pretty intense, the atmosphere has got to be focused and it gets pretty intense. But at the same time, when we break from that, the crew and Kiefer and I have been together for four or five years now. Most everybody else has come and gone. But the crew is pretty much the same and John Cassar, who is our main director, has been around since the first season, and so there is a lot of goofing around and giving each other sh*t…pulling pranks and stuff like that.

MT: Any one prank stand out as being a really good one?

CB: We were shooting up in Valencia I think, somewhere north of LA, and I got to work with the actress who plays Mandy (Mia Kirshner). She comes up to me in the morning and says “ I feel mischievous today”, and I say, “Really?” and she says, “Yeah,” “Ok, do you want to play a practical joke on someone?” I ask her, and she says yes.

So I call the police over who are blocking off the street for us and I ask them if they would be willing to play a practical joke on our director, and they say “Yeah, Sure”. I tell them that right around 3:45 p.m., I want them to come up on set where we are shooting by this garage and arrest her for buying drugs in the parking lot. So when they arrest her, I am going to start arguing and I want them to arrest me, too. Well, the whole day was basically scenes between she and I so basically production is screwed if we get arrested. I mean that would cost thousands and thousands of dollars! So, anyhow, right on cue at 3:45, he walks in with his partner goes up to her after the cameras are cut and pulls her aside and says, “Can I talk to you ma’am?”

“Yeah.”

“Our undercover officer told us that you bought some marijuana from him?”

And he starts cuffing her saying “I need to place you under arrest”. Suddenly everybody is like what is going on here. Nobody knew except for myself her, and I told Kiefer because he was in the scene as well. Now all of a sudden John Cassar comes flying over and is like “uh, uh, uh….”

Right before this happened, three producers showed up on set and they are never there. They never come, and it was just perfect, they show up and they don’t know anything about it. They start talking to the cops. And I come over there shoulder and say “What’s going on?”

The officer says, “This lady had admitted to buying marijuana in the parking lot, and we are placing her under arrest.”

And I go “For that? She got arrested for that? This is all you have got to do with your time is arrest little girls for buying marijuana in the parking lot?”

They say “Sir you better step back right now, and the producers start pushing me back, “let us handle this.”

I say “F**k this, you’re screwed, you are going to tell me that you are arresting this girl for buying pot and this is where our tax dollars are going?”

“Sir you better step back right now or I am going to place you under arrest.”

I’m like, “Screw you! You’re an asshole!” (laughs) And we started shouting back and forth, and five guys are pulling me back. Including Cassar, and the place in like, nobody knows what the hell is going on, one producer is on the phone calling back to the studio like “uh we have big problems.” And then finally I tied to pull a camera out and take a picture of John Cassar. And he saw the camera and was like “You, you a**hole” (laughs).

Anyhow, it was really great because after that everybody was in a great mood and joking around. The cops had done such a great job, everybody was like giving them t-shirts and hats, and they were sort of like baptizing them into the group. It was a lot of fun.

MT: I’d never be able to keep a straight face…So you mentioned a little about the demanding schedule is it hard to balance your family life with your work schedule?

CB: It’s hard at times. I have a 2 year old daughter. There are times when I will not see her awake for 2 or 3 days in a row unless she is asleep. And that’s hard, but like anything else you get used to it. At the same time I do have a good amount of time off here and there that I can spend with her. I just had about a month off and I was with her constantly, so you just find your time to spend with her, and just make sure that you make that quality time.

MT: So tell us what you can about the upcoming mini series “10.5 Apocalypse.”

CB: It’s a miniseries for NBC that will be airing around Thanksgiving time, it is a sequel to 10.5 that was done last year which was the biggest ratings the network had gotten in about 10 or 15 years for a television movie, and it was actually really well done. And there is a great group of actors in it like Kim Delaney and Beau Bridges. It is basically a what if story, what if a massive earthquake hits the USA? It deals with different parts of the nation being hit by earthquakes where there are fault lines, they are just not active right now. And it is pretty frightening, it’s pretty cool the way they shoot it, it looks pretty wild.

MT: You seem to do mostly very serious dramatic roles, As an actor Is there any particular genre that you like doing better than another?

CB: Yeah, I love doing comedy, I have done a lot of comic in theater, I haven’t done much in TV or film, because once you start doing certain types of roles that is what people think of you for and those are the offers that you get. Really my favorite is, I am developing a script, a film project right now that is sort of a heist movie that is very funny, but very dark, that’s my favorite, a sort of nice blend…you’re never gonna see me on a sitcom. It’s just not my bag.

MT: No, “Everybody loves Carlos?”

CB: (laughing), right exactly… no, never gonna happen . I really am drawn more to film, and that is what I love about 24, because it feels very much like a film the way we work on it. It very much the way you work on a film. And that is the process and material that I am drawn too. But at the same time I like screwing around, I like laughing and having fun. And I love comedies. And who knows, I wouldn’t mind having a career like Gene Hackman - where he does them both you know. I’d love to have a career like Gene Hackman’s. He is definitely one of my heroes. That is a guy who can do everything.

MT: Building on that, who are some of your other heroes in acting?

CB: I love Al Pacino, he is one of my heroes and someone I loved to watch. Denzel Washington is one of the actors today who I will watch anything that he does. Gene Hackman, Paul Newman, I mean “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting,” that whole era of Paul Newman movies I loved. But those are the main ones.

MT: My wife wanted to find out how it felt to be named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People In America?

CB: Well, that was a lifetime goal of mine, I have always wanted to be on the 50 most beautiful people list…that’s it. (laughs)

MT: Did you flaunt that around set?

CB: You know what, I don’t know. I get a lot of grief about it mainly.

MT: Are you going to be involved with the video game that they are doing for “24”?

CB: Yeah, we have been working on it for about 2 years. It should look really cool. I have seen pieces of it, they have shown me little parts of it as we have gone along and it looks pretty cool, it looks like it is going to be fun.

MT: Is that coming out this winter? CB: I think I heard February.

MT: We can’t wait to get our hands on that.

CB: Are you a video game player?

MT: Not hugely so anymore, timing wise we don’t have a lot to devote to it but I like to when I can, and that one in particular looked really cool, and my wife and I want to get our hands on it.

MT: Do you get to play your own character from the show?

CB: Yeah you get to be, Jack, Tony or Kim

MT: Oh, okay.

CB: You’d probably want to be Kim

MT: laughs…no comment.

CB: laughs

MT: Are you involved with any charities that you would like us to mention

CB: Yeah I am…One of them is an organization called PS Arts. They raise money for arts programs in the inner cities. Most of these schools in the inner cities have had their arts programs cut, that is the first thing to go, and this is a organization that I have been involved with for a couple years called PS Arts.

MT: Does the cast of “24” ever get together to do any type of charity events?

CB: There is talk of going down to Louisiana over Thanksgiving and taking the whole construction crew down there to work with Habitat for Humanity. . MT: We noticed in your bio that you are a big sports fan, are you able to find much time to play golf etc…

CB: Not really, A little golf here and there.

MT: We noticed that you were on the World Poker tour home game recently. How well did you do?

CB: I won it. I got lucky and I won. The tragedy of it is that I won a $25000 buy in to the World Poker Tour Championship at the Bellagio, but I couldn’t go because I was working that weekend.

MT: Thank you again for your time today.

CB: Sure, it’s my pleasure.

Be sure to watch “24” in their 5th season on FOX, starting in January, 2006. “10.5 Apocalypse” is in production. Check your local listings for air dates.

Source

Tony's Back! 2005

He sure knows how to make an entrance! Tony is back in Season 4. Check out this interview with Carlos Bernard for some behind the scenes info.

Tony has always played by the rules, whilst Jack has broken every rule in the book, but in the third series, your roles swapped. Was it strange not to be the sensible one?

I thought it was a great progression of the characters. Over the years I think the lesson that the Tony character had to learn was how and when to break the rules, and he learnt that from Jack. I think it was a great place to take the story because for the last three years there's been that conflict between him and Jack about that precise thing.

It's a pretty serious show; does anyone play any pranks on set?

It is a pretty serious show and we're aware of that so we do try and keep it light. There are pranks and the usual stuff you'd expect on set and maybe we're a bit more light-hearted than some shows because as you say, there ain't many laughs when the camera starts rolling.

Who has been your favourite baddie on the show? (i.e. Sherry Palmer, Nina Myers...)

Jack's been a great adversary for Tony at times; they've butted heads in some great scenes. Ira Gaines was a great bad guy, but there's been so many.

What fictional baddy would you love to be up against in 24?

You mean like Mr. Freeze? Haha, I used to love the Riddler and the Joker from the Batman TV series but it'd be pretty weird seeing them in there! We've had so many great bad guys; surprises like Dennis Hopper as Victor Drazen have really kept things exciting.

How long does it take to film an episode and the whole series?

It takes roughly ten months to film a series, and we film two episodes at a time with each two-episode section taking 22 days. That's longer than most shows so there's more care taken and some fantastic camera work, the cameramen are almost like part of the cast with the things they pull off. We normally start filming in July and have about seven episodes in the can by the time the series starts on TV. This series finished shooting in April and it finished on TV in May so by the end we're virtually delivering the show as it needs to go on!

What was it like when the show won a Golden Globe?

Well, you get nominated and you're pleased and you go, "Ah, y'know, it's no big deal if we don't win, it's a privilege to be nominated" but I gotta tell ya, it's was a lot of fun to win! And to be on set the next day and celebrate with everyone, it was a great thing.

Can we ever hope to see a 24 film?

You know there's been talk of that. I've heard rumours and rumblings, but nothing solid. I think it could work really well. We did a panel discussion for the show about two years ago, when members of the public come to see an episode or two in the theatre and then talk it through. To see the audience see it as a communal experience was great, it worked very well. There are a lot cinematic moments like the music, Sean Callery writes some really great music to go with the action.

Originally on SkyOne.co.uk.

Source

24 SEASON 3 Q&A with CARLOS BERNARD 2004

Interview with Carlos Bernard (as Tony Almeida)

You’re a real survivor on the show.

CARLOS BERNARD: Yeah, been paying off the right people.

Did you know you’d keep going?

CARLOS: In this business you learn that until you’re on the set shooting, anything could happen. Just make sure you’re on the show. There’s no such thing as a certain thing. I personally treated every season as though I’m doing a film and that it’s over at the end of the season. It helps me focus on the present more, it helps me enjoy it more, and it’s really the way we approach the show. We’re doing a movie that year. We don’t know anything for sure until about a month before shooting.

Does that make it difficult with other work?

CARLOS: It does make it difficult with other work, definitely. You have to make your choices and choose what it is you want to focus on, what you want to do, what’s more important to you. Sort of pick your priorities. Last summer it was an extremely short hiatus, and so it was really hard to find projects that were any good that fit into the time period anyway. I had a family situation that was going on, so I didn’t want to leave Los Angeles either. It basically knocked out the hiatus season for me. I’m turning down work that starts in late July—that’s when we start shooting.

Are you still available for Season Four?

CARLOS: I guess so, I guess. This show is my priority right now. I mean, I’m having a ball working on it. If the end of this season comes and my character dies or I’m not asked back, well then, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

Do you think you’ll only be shot once this season?

CARLOS: They’re going to have to find some other way right? Bullet didn’t work, let’s try something else.

Are you impressed about the development of Tony?

CARLOS: Yes. It’s been really wonderful. I think one of the things that’s so much fun about working on the show is the progression of the characters. One of the fun things for me is taking the period in between seasons, and sort of filling in the blanks for myself as to what went on. “What’s going on his life? Where is he now as opposed to the end of last year?” That allows your imagination to take off. They don’t give us any sort of parameter for what’s going on except for the fact that Michelle and I are married.

Your relationship on the show is unusual.

CARLOS: Right. Nina and my character had a relationship which was a bit nebulous in the first season, but definitely had an impact on the end of the season for my character. It actually comes back into play in season three a little bit. Back to your question about the Tony character, it’s been a wonderful sort of progression for that character, absolutely. I mean when the first season started, everybody thought I was the bad guy and the mole, which was a lot of fun. Even my mom did! Are you kidding me? It’s been a cool journey, and it keeps getting better. The writers have been fantastic about taking care of the character and giving me a lot of fun and juicy stuff to dig into.

How do you get along with Reiko?

CARLOS: As long as I don’t have to talk to her too much it’s okay. No! Reiko? I love Reiko! There’s not a lot of acting going on, it’s not a hard one to pull off for us.

Is it easier to be Tony after three seasons?

CARLOS: Well, from day one with this show, my approach to it has always been this: you never know what’s going to happen at the end of the story. You never know whether a character’s going to end up being a good guy, bad guy, whatever. I always had fun playing both possibilities. In other words, sneaking a little something in there to confuse the audience, or give the directors and producers something to play with as far as story’s concerned. It could be as simple as a glance at somebody. So I’ve always had fun playing with that part of the genre of the show. Using to it to my advantage rather than feeling like I’m hog-tied by it. It allows you to play a bit with it.

Could Tony still be bad?

CARLOS: I think so. Yeah, I mean I think anybody could be. I’m still waiting for the Walsh character from the first episode to come back to life and be a bad guy. Do you remember him? He’s the guy who got killed in the second episode, was like the big boss, right? Mike O’Neill played it. I still think he’s going to be back some day as a bad guy.

Do you feel free to offer suggestions for Tony?

CARLOS: I spend a lot of time talking with the writers, and if the show comes up we’ll talk about it. I don’t like to burden them with ideas of where the character should go. Once it’s written, I’ll go in and say that I think the scene needs to go in a certain direction. And they’re great about taking that input and using it. I’ve actually rewritten scenes and they’ve taken them and used them, that’s how open they are to the collaborative process. It’s an amazing place to work because of that. They have so many things to take care of, so many problems to solve, so many storylines to fill, that my going to them and giving them more ideas would not help the process at all. Any idea I was going to come up with they probably had somewhere anyways. Sometimes we’ll get on the stage and scenes’ll be written in a certain way and it just doesn’t work on the stage. It works on paper but not on stage and we need to fix it.

How do you handle being named a sexy actor?

CARLOS: It’s flattering in a sense, but all my friends in Chicago give me so much grief. Could be worse, right? (laughs)

Is it hard to remember your character is hurt?

CARLOS: Well the last reason, it was real, I dislocated my ankle playing basketball, so that wasn’t hard to remember at all.

Longest dislocation on record?

CARLOS: I had screws put into my leg and the whole nine yards. And had to stay in a cast without putting weight on it for three and a half-months. Then I had surgery again to take the screws out. So it was a big deal.

So Tony’s not accident prone.

CARLOS: Tony’s not, but I am, yeah. So far so good this year.

You just have a wounded neck.

CARLOS: Right, which is lovely.

Thank you.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Source

TONY '24' BACK 9/28/2004

THE last time viewers saw turncoat-agent Tony Almeida on "24," he was facing serious jail time for treason.

His reasons for siding with terrorists against the U.S. may have been understandable — to save his kidnapped wife — but fans of the Fox suspense show ended the season with the reasonable assurance that Tony was gone.

Turns out now that he's not forgotten. Tony Almeida's coming back this season.

The word several months ago was that many of the program's most pivotal characters would not be returning for the new season, which debuts January 3.

"I was always told there were going to be changes, but that I was always going to be coming back," actor Carlos Bernard told The Post, as he prepares to start production on the fourth season of "24" next week. "We had discussions about how the Almeida character was going to be brought back. I wanted to do another season, if the character was put in a new place."

Prison was the most likely place — given his double dealing .

But this week Bernard is more focused on the story yet to be mined from Almeida's past.

"It's not so much about what you didn't find out about the character, it's more about the possibilities with the character," he said.

Bernard's mum on the fate of Almeida's wife, Michelle (Reiko Aylesworth), or even what episode he makes his entrance, saying that kind of advance information migth spoil things for viewers.

"My first impression from the script was 'I love it,' " Bernard said. "You can see change in the character over the third and fourth season, which is always fun to play. You have to fill in the holes of what happened. The way they introduced the character was very cool, in a way I didn't necessarily expect."

The show's producers, aware of the huge popularity some of the show's characters had with viewers, do want to bring those actors back in some capacity for the new season, said Fox spokesperson Chris Alexander, who was quick to add that the program, eager to not repeat itself with key characters whose story lines had run their course, didn't "want to be handcuffed to use the same group of actors."

The show had added some celebs, firing some sparks of their own to the cast, including Oscar-nominated actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, "Third Watch" Kim Raver as Kiefer Sutherland's love interest, and veteran actor William Devane as secretary of defense.

By COELI CARR

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Carlos Bernard Has High Hopes for More '24' Action 21/5/2004

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com)

Carlos Bernard has a major role on a hit TV show, yet he's not sure he has a steady job. Bernard, who plays Tony Almeida on Fox's 24 is only too aware that the show's producers can be cold when it comes to killing off its characters.

"What characters will be alive to come back," he says after the Tuesday, May 25, finale that covers 12 to 1 p.m., "that's another story." Will he return?

"I'd love to come back," he says. "From season one, I treated each year like a film project, and that helps me to focus and not to worry about next season."

It sounds as if he has little to worry about.

"Carlos caught everybody by surprise," says Howard Gordon, executive producer. "There was always a consensus of how much we liked this guy. He is really this unsung hero of CTU, this real interesting person. By default, he wound up finding a place season by season."

Actually, Tony came quite close to death early in the third season. Had Tony died then, Bernard would have had "21 episodes of sitting on the bench," Gordon says. But they kept him alive, because, he says, "We love the guy."

In the finale, Tony's relationship with his wife, Michelle, is tested.

"It doesn't end well," Gordon says. "That doesn't mean he dies, but it doesn't necessarily end well. I came to this real strong conclusion that '24' is a tragedy, a Greek tragedy with guns."

The show deals with heavy issues, such as kidnapping, assassination and lethal viruses.

As Reiko Aylesworth, who plays Michelle, says, "It should be taken seriously when you are dealing with issues we are dealing with, whether a nuclear bomb or a virus or a terrorist. You can't wink at the camera on this show, especially with our subject matter. It becomes exploitation if you don't approach it earnestly."

The gravity of the issues keeps the crew somber during taping, but once the director calls cut, Bernard is goofy.

"He is the funniest person," Aylesworth says. "I can't believe he's not doing a sitcom."

Bernard enjoys playing jokes on cast members. Sipping bottled fizzy water at a cafe near Lincoln Center, he relays tricks played on colleagues, both coincidentally revolving around clothing.

In one that still has cast mates chuckling, Elisha Cuthbert, who plays Kim Bauer, arrives on the set with shopping bags from a spree in New York. She wants to model her new clothes for the staff, but a car alarm sounds and distracts everyone, Bernard recalls. During the confusion, he stashes her bags in a trailer.

He later distributes her new clothes among the extras. Meanwhile, Cuthbert goes crazy searching for her bags.

"In the middle of the shoot, she starts noticing all the extras' clothes, and goes up to them," he says, now laughing. "I had already told them to act indignant and pissed off."

Another time a friend of his lands a role on the show and Bernard persuades the costumer to outfit him in Shakespearean togs. Bernard fully expects to be paid back someday.

A few tables away his wife, Sharisse Baker-Bernard, spoons food into their adorable baby, Natalie. Natalie coos at strangers, and is one of those perfect babies who sleeps 10 hours a night and is so easy that she is lulling them into wanting a second baby, whom he figures, would be the opposite.

Bernard seems to figure the odds and not do things lightly, including chasing his dream.

He was born 41 years ago in the same Evanston, Ill., hospital as Aylesworth and grew up in Wilmette, a suburb of Chicago. At the New Trier High School in Winnetka, Ill., Bernard was enchanted and intimidated by a production of "Our Town." Indeed, he cites its alumni include Rock Hudson, Ann-Margaret, Charlton Heston and Virginia Madsen.

Bernard was interested in acting, "but I was so intimidated I didn't tell anybody," he says. "I had grown up watching movies like 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' and 'The Godfather' and it was such a wild dream that I didn't want to tell anybody because I knew the response would be that I was nuts and they would talk me out of it."

So he studied art at Illinois State University and became a graphics artist. He headed West, settling in San Francisco's bohemian Haight-Ashbury and resumed his studies. Though cautious folks warn artists they need a real trade to fall back on, Bernard is one of the few who used his artistic talents to pay bills as he earned his masters in fine arts from San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater.

Bernard worked on a magazine about musical instruments, designed logos, created brochures and kept going on auditions. "The Killing Jar" in 1996 was his first movie, after a few plays. He worked on "The Young and the Restless" and had guest spots on "Walker, Texas Ranger" and "F/X: The Series."

Working in plays interests him as does directing, but the overall lure is the telling of good tales.

"I grew up being really affected by stories I saw onscreen, and remembering that feeling of walking out of the theater changed," Bernard says. "My main goal is to work as a storyteller, whether my material or others. It sounds like a lofty kind of goal, but I believe the power of storytelling can alter people's perception. I've walked out of a play or a movie wanting to be a better person. My ultimate goal is to be a storyteller."

By Jacqueline Cutler

Source

It's Just a Flesh Wound for '24's' Bernard (12/13/2003)

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) On television and in life, actor Carlos Bernard is used to bouncing back. It has been a tough day so far for his character, CTU chief Tony Almeida, on the Tuesday-night FOX espionage drama, "24," which spends an entire season recounting a single day, hour by hour. Of course, they've all been tough days for Tony.

In season one, Tony sported an unfortunate patch of hair under his lower lip all season (hence, his Internet nickname of "Soul Patch"), the result of Bernard's failure to shave before filming the pilot episode.

It turns out that this fashion faux pas could have been much worse.

"You should have seen what they were going to dress me in for the first season," Bernard says. "Oh my God, it was cargo pants and a big, floppy flannel shirt. I'm like, 'Are you kidding me? I think you got the wrong character.'

"Sure enough, executive producer Joel Surnow walks in the room and goes, 'What the hell is that?' I said, 'Exactly.' That could have been disastrous. I'd have been dead within the first two episodes if I'd worn that."

And Almeida found out that his lover, CTU operative Nina (Sarah Clarke), was an evil mole.

"I was duped badly, totally, hook, line and sinker," Bernard says. "I knew nothing. That's a scene I want to see, Tony and Nina together again. I have a strong feeling she's coming back."

In season two, Tony spent a good portion of the day on crutches, a result of a dislocated ankle Bernard suffered while playing basketball. This led to what the actor considers his most embarrassing moment so far in the series, a scene he shot with Kiefer Sutherland (as the beleaguered Jack Bauer).

"The lame fight with Jack was actually going to be a cool scene," Bernard recalls. "They'd written it with us falling down stairs, just a knock-down, drag-out fight. Of course, two weeks before, I dislocated my ankle, so we turned it into, basically, he sneezes and I fall down."

Despite his bad experience with Nina, Tony pursued romance with another co-worker, CTU operative Michelle (Reiko Aylesworth).

"I don't think he's lucky in love," Bernard says. "That's the thing, he does make bad choices, but that's what I love about the show. People make mistakes constantly -- it's great.

"How boring would it be if we were always right? I love that part of it, because God knows, in real life ... I chose to play basketball last year, didn't I? It was not a wise decision."

As season three opened, Almeida and Michelle were married and trying to decide whether Tony should take a job in Washington, D.C. -- and what Michelle would do if he does.

"The marriage part is interesting," Bernard says. "The underlying theme of this season is, can these people have relationships that do these jobs? I think we're going to find that answer eventually."

After a field promotion to head of the Los Angeles-based CTU last season, Tony now is firmly ensconced in that position.

"My take with Tony always has been that it's not a job he ever wanted," Bernard says. "He never aspired to be running CTU, and it's been three years now that he's been running it. There's a part of him that doesn't want to be a desk jockey."

In episode three, which aired Nov. 11, Tony finally got to get outside, as he took off to help Jack catch a teen (Riley Smith) that is the unwitting carrier of a terrorist virus. Unfortunately, Tony's little field trip ended with him getting shot in the neck, and he spent all of episode four in surgery, with Michelle forced to take over at CTU in his absence.

"It's the amazing healing powers of '24,'" Bernard says. "We had a little talk about it when I read the third-episode script. Joel, when he originally told me about it, said, 'You'll probably be in the hospital for about five, 10 episodes. I was like, '10 episodes? Are you crazy?' He's like, 'Well, it's probably not 10.'

"It's a pretty quick healing process that I go through -- not so much healing as mending, get myself put back together so I can get back into action."

As long as Tony didn't die immediately, Bernard likes the idea of his character going through this trauma.

"The injury really adds to what's going on with him. Once I get out of the hospital, the combination of exhaustion, the injury wearing down on my mind, what's going on which I can't tell you pumps up the pressure on me a great deal, because of certain decisions that were made.

"So, there are all these great forces playing into the character. It was great, the whole getting-shot thing, because it just adds fuel to the fire. After all, Jack died and came back to life. If he can pull that off, Tony can get off a hospital bed. I'm telling you, it's the whole cast, not just Tony and Jack. We're the fastest-healing characters in television history."

Bernard also points out that, in the show's backstory, Tony and Michelle have been married for a while now -- so what about the pitter patter of little spy feet?

"We're still waiting to hear, 'Do we have any children, by the way?' Listen, I know these writers better than to assume anything. Sometimes I think these guys go into a room and say, 'What could never happen?' Then they try to make it happen.

"We were saying that next year, I'll probably be like the guy in 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' with no arms and legs, hopping around. It's a rough job, but somebody's got to do it.

"As long as you live, it's good."

By Kate O'Hare

Source

Fit 24/7: being physically active keeps Carlos Bernard at the top of his acting game ( Oct-Nov 2003)

As Counter Terrorist Unit chief Tony Almeida on Fox's real-time thriller, 24, Carlos Bernard is in tiptop shape to take on the bad guys.

"Yeah, I'm a real tough guy," Bernard laughs.

In this spy fantasy TV show, being involved in rescues and fighting terrorism has taken on real meaning.

"We get to live the fantasy of what might have been," says Bernard.

However, dislocating his left ankle brought the 36-year-old into real-time reality and pain.

"I screamed; it was pretty brutal," recalls the 5'10" actor of his recent basketball injury. "I was going up for a breakaway lay-up and a guy pulled me down from behind. It felt like the bottom half of my leg snapped in half when the tendons popped." It was a not so gentle reminder, to this sports enthusiast, that he's no longer a teenager who can recuperate from injuries in a matter of days. "I took a lot of coral calcium and something for ligament repair," Bernard confesses. "I still take the calcium."

Born and raised in Chicago, Bernard received a Master of Fine Arts from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. However, sports have always played a big role in his life.

"Baseball was my big sport in school," he reveals. "I played center field all four years of high school and then started playing it in college. But, I realized I was out of my league, so to speak. We had a great high school baseball team that made it to the state finals, but college was a whole different story. Three guys on my college team actually played pro ball and one made it to the majors."

Today, in between 13- to 14-hour workdays and being father to a newborn, Bernard enjoys pick-up baseball games, fly-fishing, judo and golf.

"I have a 10 handicap," he admits. "Sports give me the fun of competition regular workouts don't, an extra focus and something I can improve upon because it's about skills." Although basketball has been sidelined, it hasn't kept Bernard on the bench.

"I still lift weights about five times a week, but when I'm working, it's a matter of fitting it into my schedule," he says. "I try to get cardio through basketball, but lately it's been a challenge, so the stationary bike for 20 minutes has been the best thing. I also run on the treadmill." In addition, he does bicep/tricep curls, chest lifts, sit-ups and crunches. "I also do a few different leg lift machines for the entire leg," he adds.

Not only do regular sports and exercise keep his body toned, but they also help maintain energy levels.

"For an actor, it's really important to maintain your focus and stay sharp, which higher energy levels do for me," he explains. "When you have long days and the last shot might be the most important, stamina and focus are imperative."

Although voted one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People this year, Bernard doesn't take the praise too seriously.

"I think it was a payoff for years of dedication, but don't really think about it that much. You can't control what people think about you," he acknowledges. "Hey, I'm not perfect--I still drink coffee and have a muffin with it. I shoot to eat half of it, but usually eat the whole thing."

Despite the coffee and muffins, Bernard's diet is pretty simple.

"First of all, I don't diet, really. I've cut down on bread and I LOVE bread!" he exclaims. "So I try to eat as little as possible." Instead of sodas, he mostly drinks water. Bernard also enjoys fruits, vegetables and meat. While not a fat gram or calorie counter, he says, "I just try to stay away from fries and stuff I know will put on the weight."

However, all those rules fly out the window when he visits Chicago, which is often since his family still lives there.

"Oh, the food there is something else," he asserts. I'm a huge fan of barbeque ribs, so I eat them almost the minute I get there. The pizza, of course, is spectacular. There's such a wide variety of restaurants and they're all open past 1 a.m."

With the clock continuously ticking on his show, the actor does like to enjoy downtime with a good book, some Dave Matthews Band or Elton John music or any chance to be outside in nature.

On an occasional day off, does he cook dinner for his wife of four years? "Yeah, right!" he laughs loudly. "Right now, honestly, I would be bringing food home."

Bonnie Siegler has covered celebrity fitness for American Fitness since 1990. Based in Playa del Rey, California, she is an internationally known writer whose work has appeared in McCall's, Redbook and InStyle.

by Bonnie Siegler

Source

An other 24 hours of twists 10/24/2003

CTU good guys back — or are they bad guys?

Tony Almeida looked like he was going to be a bad guy. He turned out to be a good guy. But you never know when he or just about anybody else on "24" could take a turn that might make him a bad guy.And Carlos Bernard, the man who plays Tony, wouldn't have it any other way.

"Are you kidding?" he said. "This show is everything an actor could ask for."

And everything viewers could ask for, too. In its first two seasons, "24" became one of the best shows on television.the format keeps viewers on the edge of their seats. Centering on CTU (Counter-Terrorism Unit) agent Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland), a season takes place in one particularly eventful 24-hour day; each episode runs (more or less) in real time and, at the end of each hour, there's a cliffhanger.And the stakes are high. Season 1 found Jack fighting to prevent the assassination of presidential candidate Sen. David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert)— a plot that turned out to be a huge conspiracy. In Season 2, he had to stop a nuclear device from detonating in Los Angeles and prevent the overthrow of now-President Palmer.

As for Season 3, "I think it's the best setup yet," Bernard said.

(On Tuesday, Fox will air the hourlong season premiere of "24" without commercial interruption.)

The action picks up three years after the end of Season 2. President Palmer, it turns out, survived the assassination attempt in the Season 2 finale — although he's not necessarily fully recovered. He's back in Los Angeles, about to debate his opponent in the upcoming general election. His evil ex-wife isn't around — she's presumably in prison at this point. Although rumor is that Sherry (Penny Johnson-Jerald) might show up later this season. And it's not like the president lacks for female company. . But, as it turns out, L.A. isn't exactly a safe place to be. Jack, it seems, has spent the past year infiltrating a drug lord's organization because of the man's ties to terrorist cells. The drug lord is in prison, but his brother is demanding his release — or he'll release a killer virus into the general population, and in a week, more than a million people will be dead.

"I think they've done it again," said Bernard, who, like the other actors, entrusts himself and his character to the whims of the writers. "And they're flying by the seat of their pants. You never know exactly where they're going." (Which is true. In neither of the first two seasons did the writer/producers know where the story was going to end up when they wrote the first episodes.) "How can you not trust them?" Bernard said. "Look what they've given us to this point."

Acting in "24" can be a challenge, however. The actors are given "some general idea" of what's in store for their characters, but they don't really know what to expect until they get each script. And they never know when they might suddenly discover that, yes, they're a bad guy instead of a good guy. Or vice versa.Bernard's character looked for all the world like a bad guy in the early going of Season 1.

"But I didn't really think so because that would have been too obvious. But I did start to wonder later in the season if they would circle around after making it look like he was one of the good guys," he said.
In Season 2, Tony ended up running CTU and sided consistently with good-guy Jack. He's now firmly in charge of CTU and still seems firmly on the side of Jack, who's running a special field-operations division. "But you never know," Bernard said. "I never know until I see those scripts."
Not that he's complaining, by any means. With the exception of Sutherland, most of the "24" stars weren't exactly household names before the show started. But now, "People recognize me all the time," Bernard said. "It's always, 'Hey, Tony!' "

How high has "24" raised his profile? Well, Bernard found himself on People magazine's most-beautiful people list. Albeit somewhat reluctantly.

"My publicist called and said, 'You've got to do this.' And she never says that. But I sure heard about it from my friends and my family. They had a great time with that one."

Not that "24" has been perfect by any means. You've got to get past the fact that the possibility of everything that happens on the show actually happens in a single day is wildly unlikely. It's a show that has more than its share of twists, turns and coincidences.

And even fans of the show have found the adventures of Jack's daughter fairly ludicrous — The Perils of Kim, as it were. Last season, in the space of those "24" hours, Kim dealt with a homicidal boss, kidnapping charges, a serious car accident, multiple murders in a convenience store, a cougar, a wacko survivalist and, oh yeah, that nuclear bomb that she thought killed her dad.

This season, "She's working for me," Bernard said with a laugh. "We'll see how that works out." Yes, Kim is now a computer expert working for CTU. Which does seem to integrate her into the story more naturally. (Assuming you forget that she's gone from nanny to computer genius in three years.) And she's got a love interest — a CTU field agent, Chase Edmunds (James Badge Dale), who is Jack's protege. Not that Jack is really happy about the relationship. But viewers should be very happy. Bernard was right when he said, "You're in for another great ride."

By Scott D. Pierce

Source

An Accomplished Artist!

Carlos Bernard Papierski was born on October 12, 1962 in Chicago, Illinois. He is the youngest of 3 brothers. His mother is spanish and he lived in Mexico from the age of 8 to 11 years old. He is bilingual in English and Spanish. He was educated at New Trier High School. After graduation, he moved on to Illinois State University. Next, he received a Master of Fine Arts degree in San Francisco in the American Conservatory Theatre.

He started acting on stage in Chicago (“Superman: World Savour or Hermaphrodite from Hell”), San Francisco (“Good”) and LA ("Scenes from an execution") and moved to television.Then, he made a series of guest roles in episodes of “FX The Series, Maloney”, “Silk Stalkings”, “Walker Texas Ranger” and appeared as a regular in “Sunset Beach” and “The Young and the Restless”. He also played in several movies such as “The Killing Jar”, “The Colonel Last Flight”, “Vegas: City of Dreams”... In 2003, he returned to the stage to perform in "Blackout". He also wrote the pilot of a new TV serie, “Mission Road”. But it is joining the cast of Fox's "24" that he made a name for himself. He played Agent Tony Almeida for 5 years in this same show and while this character seemed to be dead and gone in season 5, he is coming back in season 7...

Off camera, he does a lot of sport (golf, basketball, baseball, skiing, racing...) and is also a faithful supporter of his favorite teams (Chicago Bulls, Cubs...). On June 15, 2006, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch and sang “Take me out to the Ball Game” at Wingely Field in Chicago.

Carlos is married to actress Sharisse Baker and has a daughter Natalie.

In 2003, he was named one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” ...

Carlos Bernard as Tony Almeida 10/27/2002

Like so many characters on "24," a cloud of suspicion hung over glowering CTU agent Tony Almeida last season.

"Quite frankly, just keeping my eyes out for people I didn't trust or trying to figure out whether they were telling me the truth as a character probably is going to make me seem suspicious,"Carlos Bernard said. "I thought Tony was the one person who was doing his job the right way."

Tony, who was dating Nina Myers when she turned out to be the mole, takes over her position at Counter Terrorism Unit headquarters this season.

"I know for myself, being burned like I was is obviously going to play into everything that happens," Bernard said. "It takes a while to get over something like that, especially the magnitude that I was burned."

By Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV Editor

Source

TM



5 Spots

Just a reminder..

Awards



The 21st Annual Imagen Awards (2006)

Category:Best Supporting Actor
For: 24
Result: Nominated
Gallery


The 20th Annual Imagen Awards (2005)

Category: Best Supporting Actor
For: 24
Result: Nominated
Gallery


The 11th Screen Actors Guild Awards (2005)

Award: Screen Actors Guild Award
Category: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
For: 24
Result: Nominated
Gallery


The 9th Screen Actors Guild Awards (2003)

Award: Screen Actors Guild Award
Category: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
For: 24
Result: Nominated
Gallery


The LA Weekly Theater Awards

Category:Best Director
For: The Memorandum
Result: Nominated

Avatars



Carlos in a new TV series? 08/06/2006



Now that Carlos Bernard's Tony Almeida has been killed off Fox's "24," will we see him in a new TV series?

We will, if Bernard, 43, can sell the pilot he wrote. With help from his "24" friends, he shot the hour drama, "Mission Road." It's set in the East L.A. Hispanic community, stars Bernard and familiar TV faces, and "it's gritty and deals with some of society's darker aspects," he tells us. "Thanks to my friends, it looks like a million bucks."

James Murphy, Rochester, N.Y.

Source

Sharky's Machine (04/06/2006)



Phil Joanou Helming Sharky's Machine Source: Variety April 6, 2006

According to Variety, Warner Bros. has hired Phil Joanou (upcoming Gridiron Gang) to direct its remake of cop actioner Sharky's Machine and set it up with Basil Iwanyk's Thunder Road to produce.

The film is a potential starring vehicle for Mark Wahlberg, who is executive producing with Stephen Levinson for Leverage Management.

Burt Reynolds directed and toplined the 1981 Warners film, based on the novel by William Diehl.

The new version will vary in places from the original and likely won't be set in Atlanta. The story revolves around a tough homicide cop who is demoted to the lowest of the low, the morals squad. He rallies together a ragtag group of cops who successfully take down a man who rigs elections.

Jerry Stahl wrote the script. Screenwriters Doug Miro and Carlos Bernard have done a rewrite.

The following takes place between October 12, 1962 and the present



ahhh...high school reunions. A scary time for some; an ego trip for others; but mostly a chance to see who actually recognizes you. For Carlos Bernard, who will be attending his reunion soon at New Trier High School in Chicago, this likely won’t be an issue. Bernard is a star on possibly one of the most addicting shows to ever hit television. For those who own the DVDs, it’s often more difficult to watch just one episode of 24 than give into the temptation of continuing on to the next. In the spirit of the fast-paced spy show, which plays out critical national security events over a period of 24 hours, when Bernard landed the role of Tony Almeida on 24, his life also changed “overnight.” Far from Los Angeles or even his childhood playground of Chicago, Bernard recently found himself at a department store in Tokyo. He traveled there on a press tour promoting the show, which is very popular in Japan. And everytime Bernard would exit one department and enter other, an employee would politely approach him, say, “Hello, Mr. Tony,” and bow. Indeed, Bernard certainly has a recognizable face. But he’ll be the first to tell you that before his appearance on the show, “no one knew who the heck I was.” Like the rest of the cast of 24, Bernard was an actor but never hit anything nearly as big as his current role. Yet he was determined to remain positive, even after being fired from the soap opera The Young and the Restless. And unlike many other actors in this city who are often hesitant to tell people what they really want to do because their own self image is as cliché as most of the movies released, Bernard says, “I love actors and respect them. I am very proud to be one.” However, this wasn’t always his mindset. New Trier High School has a wonderful drama program. “I remember seeing a play and being completely intimidated,” recalls Bernard, adding that seeing is all he did. Even though the thought of acting excited Bernard, he never participated in high school drama. Having been raised by loving parents who only wanted him to have a nice, normal life in the Chicago suburbs with a full-time job, he “never wanted to fess up to anyone that I wanted to be an actor because I’d be afraid they would talk me out of it.” Instead, Bernard played sports, was an art major at Illinois State college, and became an art director for a magazine once he graduated. Nevertheless, his dream of performing never faded, especially after having been given a small taste of stage work in college. “I would walk into a theater thinking one way and I would leave changed,” says Bernard, using the play Our Town as an example. “After seeing it, you walk out wanting to seize the day. The small things in life become a lot more precious to you.” Bernard finally did give into his temptations after a friend dared him to try out for the renowned Second City comedy club which launched the careers of such comics as John Belushi, Mike Myers, Bill Murray, and Gilda Radner. Getting into the comedy club and preparing himself to pursue the life of a thespian wasn’t the difficult part for Bernard—it was breaking the news to his mother afterward. “I told my mom I was quitting the magazine job, going to work freelance, pursue acting, and move out,” Bernard says with a smile, remember the expression on her face. “She called me crazy over and over again in a million different Spanish ways.” With his mother’s two cents behind him, Bernard proceeded to complete his education with Second City, earn a master’s of fine arts degree from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, and finally arrive in Los Angeles to find an agent and get work—a task that didn’t prove to be too easy. Like most other actors—successful or not—Bernard has had his share of discouraging moments. Perhaps his lowest moment was finding himself going to temp agencies at the age of 36, broke, after losing his job with The Young and the Restless. After four months of not working, he finally got a job in graphics design which he began working on the day of New Year’s Eve. As to his state of mind—let’s just say the relevance of being recognized by his high school class let alone people across the world wasn’t exactly being contemplated. With that said, Bernard not only looks at his past, but also toward the future with the same positive attitude he had when he first moved to Los Angeles. “People try to take down your self-esteem all the time,” he says. “The point is that none of it matters. It has no bearing on anything. The difficultly, the adversity, and the ‘no’s’ are part of the fun.” As for now, Bernard just feels fortunate to have a job he loves and can go to every day. Someday he would love the opportunity to work with actors such as Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, Denzel Washington, and George Clooney. Coming from an actor who hasn’t been killed off a show like 24 after five seasons, he must be doing something right. But wherever his career takes him, Bernard takes comfort in knowing he will always have the love and support of his actress wife, Sharisse Baker-Bernard, and their two-year-old baby daughter. Oh, and we can’t forget Bernard’s mother. Somehow she has managed to come to grips with his career. “She loves the show 24,” says Bernard with a smile. “She’s my Chicago publicist.”

David Krissman

Source

El actor Carlos Bernard asegura que la serie "24" le cambió la vida (3/2/2006)



México, 2 mar (EFE).- El actor estadounidense Carlos Bernard dijo hoy que la exitosa serie televisiva "24", en donde interpreta al agente antiterrorista Tony Almeida, le cambió la vida al darle una gran proyección internacional. "Es una gran serie, me ha dado mucho, me ha cambiado la vida en varios aspectos, durante los diez meses que dura una temporada, trabajo casi las 24 horas en el set, es un trabajo muy intenso, muy fuerte, pero muy satisfactorio", reveló el actor en conferencia de prensa. Bernard está de visita en México para presentar la quinta temporada de esta serie de la cadena de televisión Fox, que durante las cuatro anteriores ha sido candidata a numerosos premios "Emmy" que se conceden en EEUU a las mejores series de televisión en EEUU. El actor dijo que esta visita a México le trae buenos recuerdos, pues "aquí viví de los 8 a los 11 años, y aunque fue poco tiempo, me dejó muchas cosas y aprendí otras". Sobre el personaje que interpreta en "24", un estrecho colaborador en lucha antiterrorista del protagonista de la serie, destacó que necesita una preparación mental más que física. Bernard, quien participó en la película "Vegas, City of Dreams" (2001), de su compatriota Lorenzo Doumani, explicó que debido al arduo trabajo en "24" no puede estar en ningún otro proyecto, pero precisó que prepara uno propio, también para la televisión, que se enfocará en la comunidad latina. Al respecto, el actor no dio mayores detalles, pues aclaró que apenas está en su planeamiento. "24" es una serie narrada en tiempo real, emitida y producida por la cadena Fox, que trata sobre la vida del agente federal de una unidad anterrorista (UAT) conocido como Jack Bauer, que interpreta Kiefer Sutherland. La serie también trata las actividades de los otros agentes de la UAT, las acciones de los terroristas y la reacción de la Casa Blanca. Cada temporada se compone de 24 capítulos de una hora que conforman un único día y la acción transcurre en tiempo real. Bernard ha tenido algunas participaciones en cine y televisión, en esta última con apariciones en series como: "Walker, Texas Ranger" y "The Young and the Restless." Sin embargo, la serie "24" ha sido su catapulta a nivel internacional.

La Oferta

Source

Carlos Bernard Dishes About Five Thrilling Seasons of '24' (12/27/2005)

Dec. 27 -- Last season on '24,' when Tony Almeida came to Jack Bauer's rescue, it was only seven hours into the superagent's day but it felt like a lifetime to fans.

Well, everyone can breathe a sigh of relief. Carlos Bernard is back as Almeida for the fifth season of '24,' which begins Sun., Jan. 15. But for how long and in what capacity are being kept under wraps.

Bernard chatted with AOL Television editor Kelly Woo about the "amped up" season premiere, his favorite '24' moments and his status as a sex symbol.

When you first started on '24,' did you imagine it would get to its fifth season?

No, I never imagined that we were going to make it through the first year. Each step of the way, I've been amazed. That first of all it got picked up. Then, we were waiting for that 13th episode to see if we were going to get picked up for the rest of the season and we did. And every year, it's gone on and gotten better.

Tony's surprise entrance last season was one of the best moments from the show.

Can't ask for a better entrance than that.

Fans were really excited when he burst in to rescue Jack. That was a nice surprise. That was very nice, I've heard that a lot. Jeez, we work hard on the show, we work a lot of hours over a lot of months. It really makes you feel good that people enjoy what you're working on.

How much of the storylines do you know in advance?

There are certain things that I know of. Tony's storyline for this year was really worked out between the head writers and myself before we started. So there are major things that I know that I've talked with them about, that are going to happen, but the specifics of it and how it's executed, that I'll get when I read the script.

So what IS going to happen this season?

First episode is pretty crazy. Laughs I can't believe how much goes in the first episode this year. It's amped up a whole 'nother notch. That's as much as I can tell you. Anything else is going to ruin it for people.

But you and Reiko Aylesworth as Tony's wife Michelle Dessler are definitely back at least for the premiere?

Yes.

Tony's been shot in the neck, he was branded a traitor, he lost his wife. What's it like playing someone with so many issues? It's great, it's really great. That's one of the wonderful things about working on the show. A lot of TV shows, you can get into this feeling like you're on autopilot, like you're almost doing the same episodes over and over again for years. The great thing about this show is every year it's different, the character's in a different place. You can accumulate all those things like you listed that happen to the character, so that when you come back next year, there's a whole other chunk of baggage to mix into the character. It just makes it more fun as an actor.

Do you have a favorite season of '24'?

I really like the third season. I don't know… there are elements of each year that I really love. I had a lot of fun last year. Third season was really great. That would probably be my favorite.

What do you think is the craziest thing that's happened?

I love when the bomb went off, I think that was second season. I thought that was great, that they actually did that. And then they had Air Force One go down. The one thing I love about the show is they're not afraid to take risks and try something most shows would resolve. In other words, on another show, Air Force One would've been saved, would've been rescued. And on this show, it went down. So did the President. Those are moments that stick in my mind.

Do you think '24''s success started a trend of more serialized dramas on TV?

I'd like to think it has. I don't know for sure, but there are definitely a lot more since we came on the air. I remember when we were starting, part of the big thing about the pilot being picked up and renewed was the argument that a serialized drama just won't last. They were worried about being able to syndicate it in reruns. And that's done great.

What's it like working with Kiefer Sutherland?

Kiefer, he's just a big baby. I love Kiefer. We have such a great time working together. I just love him. He's my brother. At this point, we're the only ones left from the first year, that have been here the whole time. And we're just really close and love working together. We have fun together and we push each other.

Did you enjoy voicing your character in the '24' video game?

That was a lot of fun. And that's pretty cool. I think for people who like video games and fans of the show, it's going to be great. You can play different characters and it's sort of a natural for a video game.

What's it like being a sex symbol?

I don't know really... It's flattering, and it's great. Most people come up because they're a fan of the show, because they enjoy the show and my character, and that's always gratifying.

I saw you on 'Celebrity Poker Showdown.' Do you play much poker?

No. In fact, I haven't played since then. I'm not very good at it.

TV Tattler Archive

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Tony ticks off another long day of terror and torture (11/18/2005)



He only seems to have spent five days on the job, but it seems like five years for actor Carlos Bernard.

Because that's what happens when you're in the cast of 24 , the real-time counter-terrorism thriller which is now in its fourth season here (8.30pm, TV3), while Bernard is already working on No 5.

Yes, he's surprised the show is still tick tick ticking along - he's also signed up for a sixth season.

"I couldn't imagine it going beyond a sixth year, then again I couldn't imagine it going beyond a first year," he laughs down the line from a Los Angeles freeway. "So what do I know?

"It's funny. We've been shooting since July and don't air in the US until January. We always get to this point in the year thinking 'This season is just going to suck' and we're so afraid of that. We are just trying harder and harder to make it better. It's always a big challenge to keep it up to snuff."

As agent Tony Almeida, Bernard is the only surviving member of the original series apart from lead Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer.

Bernard's guy has been through a lot over the years - getting fired from the Los Angeles Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU), jail, divorced from fellow agent Michelle Dressler, presidential pardon, unemployment and hasty reinstatement to the job a few episodes back.

Tonight's thrilling instalment shows Almeida is very much back on the CTU career ladder.

Low-key until now, Bernard's career has revolved around 24 and its 10 months-a-series shoots for the past few years. Though sometimes the show has occasionally adapted to him - like when he once came back from a Christmas break on crutches after he badly dislocated his foot playing basketball.

"I couldn't put any weight on it so I had to be on crutches for three and a half months while it heeled. When I got back there was meant to be this knock-down drag-out fight between Jack and Tony, and Kiefer had a broken knee cap at the time.

"So it ended up being probably the lamest fight in the history of television. It was one on those things where he sneezes and I fall over and he kicks my ankle to justify my injury."

That was in the second series. Bernard thinks the current fourth one, with its story of terrorists sending United States nuclear powerplants into mass meltdown, is the best yet.

"The first season was meant to be about the assassination attempt on President Palmer - it was meant to happen in the 24th episode but it ended up happening in the seventh, and so I think that every year the writers have learned a bit more about how to plot it out.

"I think they used the best elements from the first three seasons. This year they've used the best balance of action, intrigue and character."

The fourth series also seems to have many a scene involving torture, just as the United States debates the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" by its forces in Iraq.

"I think that definitely there's been some strange coincidences in stuff that we have shot and has later come to pass. I think it plays upon our biggest fears of terrorism really.

"But in the end it's nothing more than fantasy - a spy novel in a sense."

Does he think the show, more than just playing on it, actually contributed to the climate of fear about terrorism?

"Um. I don't think so. I don't know. I'm too close to it to be able to really say. We do stretch the envelope of believability and people realise it's just entertainment."

Still, all that secret agent paranoia has rubbed off on Bernard just a little.

"I do check people out a lot when I am getting on planes. There are certain situations where I feel a little odd, I'm definitely a little more suspicious."


By Russel Baillie

Source

Bernard Will Return on '24' (7/27/2005)

Carlos Bernard's Tony Almeida has had a rough go of it over the past couple seasons on "24." He's only a couple years removed from getting shot in the neck, recovering his strength miraculously, being dubbed a traitor to the United States, getting out of jail, losing his wife and any variety of other plights. Apparently the actor is ready for more. Bernard has just inked a deal to return to "24" for the drama's upcoming season. Normally the return of starring cast members to a hit television show isn't necessarily news, but "24" is rather unique, given its tendency to shed dozens of actors and characters each season, a plight Bernard knows all too well.

The finale of the show's fourth season saw Almeida helping Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer play dead, evade deportation to China and escape to Mexico. It's unclear whether Bernard will be a regular on "24" next season, or just recurring, just that he will be back. The actor has appeared on the show in both capacities in recent years.

Bernard recently completed work on NBC's miniseries sequel "10.5 Apocalypse." His other credits include a run on "The Young and the Restless."

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Monday 2 October 2006

24 (2003-2006)

Season 2:


Season 3


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Season 5

10.5 Apocalypse (2006)

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Babylon 5: A Call to Arms (1999)

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Clocking Back In 6/2005


"When we last saw Tony Almeida, he was being carted off to the local nick for treason. But in Season 4 of 24 he's back, with some rougher edges and something to prove. Carlos Bernard explains further.

Ruggedly handsome actor Carlos Bernard has never faced terrorists or made the kind of life and death decisions his character Tony Almeida regularly makes on the suspense show 24, but as it turns out, all that covert work may be in his blood after all.

"My dad and my uncle were both in counter-intelligence, so I got a lot of info that way, reveals Bernard during a break on the series. "My uncle, who has since passed away, was actually on the ground floor of the CIA, but was in the OS, which led into the CIA. My father was in counter-intelligence but didn't go into the CIA. It let me know what that world was really like to work in, which really helped me when we shot the pilot, to help build the character."

Tony certainly received some hard knocks during his stay at the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU), most notably at the end of season three when he was charged with treason after assisting terrorists who had kidnapped his wife Michelle. It was slammer time for Tony, then he came charging in like the cavalry to save Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and his girlfriend Audrey Raines (Kim Raver) in the current, fourth, season.

"The producers were pretty up-front with me about what was happening with the changing cast," says Bernard about his return. "They always planned on bringing my character back, they just knew it would take a few episodes to work him in because of what happened last season."

But Tony isn't the same man he used to be. His fall from grace caused him to hit the bottle, and, when he became emotionally distant, Michelle divorced him.

"It made sense to me because this is a guy who had poured a lot of his life into protecting this country," says Bernard. "He was trained in the military, brought up working in the field and putting his life at risk. Then to have to face a decision like that which he knew was wrong, at least as far as his job goes, and then to be pardoned and get out of jail...Even though he knows he made the wrong decision, there is still bitterness in the fact that after all the work he has done for the country, he felt like everyone had turned on him. That resentment and bitterness can creep in on people. And then to have his wife still carrying on with her career while he can't get a job, that is not a great situation to be in and different people handle it in different ways."

Despite the spiraling situation, Tony couldn't refuse Jack's desperate call for help when Bauer was cornered by gunfire.

"Tony probably got involved to help Jack out, but at the same time feeling here's a chance to redeem himself, which I think has taken over," offers Bernard about his alter ego's motives. "As the day goes on, there are situations that arise which have him switching back and forth. He wants to redeem himself but he's trying to watch Jack's back. After all, he'd be rotting in jail if it weren't for him. " The two weren't always best buds, though. In fact, back in season one, they were frequently at each other's throats. "Well, the are both hot-headed and have a lot in common," explains Bernard. "They feel they know which is the right way. A lot of the time, males in that alpha male category do not get along. They butt heads. I was talking to a friend about the same thing. When I think back to when I was younger, my family moved around a lot, and every time I moved, I would get picked on and get into fights. Well, it's funny that once you are done with the fight part, you usually become good friends. There's some sort of respect or mutual admiration that goes along with it and a friendship springs out of it. Maybe that is what happened with Tony and Jack. "

Along the way Tony picked up some of Jack's rogue tactics, especially when he plotted to exchange terrorist Saunders's daughter for his own wife last year. "That all started in the second season really, maybe in the first season, " says Bernard. "He was younger in the job and you are right, he was military trained by the book, and felt this is the way this job should be done. He's learned over time that sometimes, to do your job well, you have to break rules. And he's definitely learned that from Jack. In season two he started breaking them, and in season three you know where he wound up."

This year Tony has once more proven to be an invaluable asset by pitching in at CTU and even temporarily heading the organization. However, things are never that simple. Michelle, his ex, was also called in, and to make matters worse, she was promoted to be his boss. The tension between the former couple keeps escalating, so it is no surprise that Bernard isn't even sure he'd like them to kiss and make up. "You know what? I personally don't have a preference if they reconcile or not," offers Bernard. "What is more important is that they run smack into each other, that they have to deal with each other. As an actor, that makes for interesting scenes to play, that with their history they have to work with each other. What comes out of that, we'll see."

However, Bernard states that one thing he would prefer is to get out from behind the desk and become more involved in kicking some terrorist butt. "It is funny the way Tony's field time gets parceled out," he reflects. "I used to feel I'd like more field time, but what is interesting is, the way the writers have built the story towards Tony and Jack is they sort of build our own storylines and then throw us together for a while, then pull us apart and continue what is going on in their own worlds, and then throw us back together again. If Tony and Jack were out in the field all the time, it wouldn't be as interesting."

At the time of this interview, Bernard is on set shooting the 22nd episode, so what can devoted 24 fans expect from Tony? "I can't tell you that but it does involve Jack and getting into the field," says Bernard. That's not much of a spoiler, but even those close to Bernard have quit digging for that kind of information.

"My wife doesn't want to know anything about it," he chuckles. "She read the scripts the first year and it ruined it for her, so she doesn't want to know anything. Same with friends and family. Even my publicist doesn't want to know anything, and that is rare because usually those people in the business are a little jaded and beyond caring about the show itself but my agents and publicists all love 24. I have to sort of conduct business without letting them know why we can do certain things and not others."

In a final attempt to get Bernard to spill something, he's asked if he will be popping up in season five, but it's possible even torture wouldn't break his vow of silence.

"I don't know," he says. "I can't tell you that. It all depends with what happens at the end of this year, don't you think? That was a good try though. I can appreciate that."

Changing gears, the conversation quickly turned to People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the World, a list Bernard graced in 2003.

"It was pretty strange but they've kicked me off that list since then," he jokes. "I was booted last year. I got more grief from it than you'll ever know! From friends, family, producers, you name it. They love to give me sh1t whenever they can because usually that is what I'm doing to them."

24 is one intense series and no one could ever claim their day was nearly as bad as Jack's, but Bernard wraps up by thinking back to a recent event where everything seemed to go wrong for him.

"I'd say the last time I had to renew my license," chuckles Bernard. "I had to go to the DMV. Ever been to the DMV in California? Oh my God! It's such an affair! And then after I got it, I lost my fricking license within a couple of days. Now I am walking around with my expired license because I don't have the energy to go back."

Bryan Cairns"

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Carlos Bernard on 24, Day 4; The 'misunderstood drunk'; Tony's emotional blows (5/14/2005)


From Zap2It:

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) On Monday, Jan. 31, in hour seven of this season of FOX's "24" (in which each episode is an hour in real time), things looked pretty bleak for former CTU operative Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and his girlfriend (Kim Raver), daughter of the Secretary of Defense (William Devane). Terrorists had them pinned down, and Jack was forced to call on an old friend for help. Scant moments later, in charged Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard), guns blazing.Since Bernard was uncredited in the episode, it's likely that at least a few fans those who don't haunt the Internet for spoilers let out squeals of surprise and joy. "That squeal thing seems to be a general sort of response," says Bernard. "Everybody was squealing. I always knew I was going to come back. We had it planned that way, how he'd have to come in after five or six episodes, because of the way it ended last year. So I was happy about that. And you couldn't have a better entrance written for you."

At the end of last season, Tony, then the head of CTU, wound up being carted off to jail for breaking the law to save his wife, CTU agent Michelle Dressler (Reiko Aylesworth), from a deadly virus.In the years between seasons three and four, Tony spent six months in jail, was pardoned, got divorced, became a drunk and acquired a skanky girlfriend.

"I was a misunderstood drunk," Bernard says. "Let's put it that way. It was a great setup. I didn't know specifically how it was going to happen, but I was really happy about it.

"We talked about the fact that we'd probably pick him up where he was down and out. He was unemployed and divorced and not in good shape. I liked that a lot."

Bernard doesn't appear to suffer from an excess of thespian vanity, since Tony was looking pretty rough around the edges when he first appeared -- which was the actor's choice.

"I felt like he's probably a little soft looking," Bernard says. "He's probably not going to be in the best of shape. I concentrated more on the insides of what was going on with him, but as far as the outsides of him, I thought, cut off his hair, shed some past, and he just wasn't in the best, tip-top shape."

While Jack Bauer has absorbed a lot of body blows and managed to stay somewhat consistent in his behavior (except for his brief, scruffy, mountain-man period at the beginning of season two), Tony has gone through huge changes that have affected every aspect of his life.

"The thing that happened with Tony," Bernard says, "is there have been a lot of emotional blows. Jack's gone through a lot of physical blows. Obviously, he lost his wife in the first season, and that's a huge emotional blow. But Tony's just been through the ringer."

And then there was prison. "And prison, right. Although it was only six months of prison, still it's prison. That kind of stuff changes people. That's why I still enjoy doing the show, because it allows this evolution of characters.

"We have this year-and-a-half to three-year gap between the seasons. Things that happened in the day that was on television and in the show affect the characters. Then there's this time that passes by, in which characters are going to change.

"I love daydreaming about what they do between seasons, how that affected them, and how do they pick up again?"

One thing that hasn't changed for the actors is that they spend most of their 10 months of filming time wearing the same clothes.

"You know what," Bernard says, "I keep thinking, 'This is the year that I'm going to pick something that I can live with for 10 months.' And you just can't do it. You just get sick and tired of something after the first month.

"Jack changes. He's the star of the show. The star gets to change clothes. We don't. I think I get two changes this year, so I can't complain about that."

Bernard also had to cope with a new working environment. Over the hiatus, the show shifted from its original San Fernando Valley sets in Canoga Park, Calif., to a new location further north in Chatsworth.

"I felt like I'd been off on some foreign exchange program," Bernard says, "then we started at a new high school, and I was the last one to show up. I was literally getting lost everywhere."

Now that Tony is reinstated in his job at CTU morphing from embittered drunk to competent professional in the space of hours the question arises of what's next for the beleaguered agent. There are even hints he may reconcile with Michelle, who's currently running CTU.

"I still have to go through negotiations for next year," Bernard says, "so we'll see how that works out. We started to talk about next year, possibilities, depending on how this year ends. That's the thing about it. It's really loose talk because they don't know what's going to happen at the end.

"And really, when you get toward the end of the season, somebody's got to go down. I have lasted this long, but what are the odds of lasting another one?"

Fans will find out how it all ends in the season finale on Monday, May 23. Although he doesn't know specifics, Bernard has heard rumors.

"I think you'll be surprised how they end it this year. I hear it's pretty cool. It's pretty surprising for television. You're not getting any more out of me. That's all I'm saying."

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Tony’s Back: Carlos Bernard’s On The Clock (2005)



He plays Tony Almeida, the CTU agent who came plunging back in a surprise twist on Fox’s last season of the critically acclaimed action/drama, “Twenty Four.” A day earlier, he was an alcoholic who was convicted of treason for trying to save his wife and CTU partner, Michelle Dessler (played by Reiko Aylesworth) from terrorists – only to have her dump him because of his burgeoning depression, fondness of alcohol and that rather large ink stain on his resume. Something you think actor, Carlos Bernard, could play on a daytime soap opera, right? Instead, we meet an ambitious theatrical, film and television actor whose commanding performances and abilities to win over audiences withformidable, yet subtle characters like Tony Almeida, has earned Bernard the status of a respected rising star in Hollywood. Carlos Bernard talked with us about some on and off camera tid bits that die hard 24 fans would most definitely appreciate. And those who are still virgin to this show, which publishes one of television history’s most impressive displays of guts and aptitude, will probably want to find out what the big fuss is about. Although he plays best friend to central character, Jack Bauer (played by Kiefer Sutherland), Tony Almeida has increasingly become the mystified, always engaging character credited by rich performances each week by Bernard. My wife, Lisa, and I are glued to our television sets awaiting every perfect hour that ticks by on “Twenty Four.” Come, let us invite you to this compelling world, according to Carlos Bernard.

MT: You grew up in Chicago. What was it like getting adjusted to Hollywood? It must feel like a totally different world.

CB: Yeah, you know what it really is. I originally started off in theater in Chicago, and I decided that I wanted to get some formal training in a graduate program. So I applied at the American Conservatory Theater In San Francisco and went there for three years. When I moved to San Francisco, I immediately felt at home. It’s very much a city like Chicago or New York is, but when I moved down to Los Angeles, it took me about 2.5 years to get adjusted. At first, I couldn’t stand it. I’m used to cities, and it is just so spread out. It’s hard to build your life there, but now I love it.

MT: Now, with the success of “24,” and with it being such a high profile show, have things changed at all? Is daily life more difficult now that you are much more recognizable to the public?

CB: I don’t think so, not really. The great thing about this show is that people only come up and talk to you if they love it, and it has such a high IQ to it that people who watch it tend to be pretty well-educated. They just want to talk because they love the show, and there is nothing wrong with that. It beats the hell out of being on some piece of crap that I am embarrassed about. I’m very proud of the show so if people want to talk and I have time, I’ll definitely talk with them. It is part of the career that I have chosen. So I certainly can’t start complaining if people want to come up and talk to me in the streets. And for the most part people are very respectful.

MT: That’s a good point that you make about the fans of the show. My wife and I sometimes use the shows that we watch as a barometer of judging people. And if they like “24,” they are cool with us, usually.

CB: Yeah right…”You what?… you watch “The Bachelor?” (laughs). Some of these shows are like, “Different Strokes” you know?

MT: Definitely! Do you get to watch much TV yourself, and if so, what are some of your favorite shows?

CB: I don’t watch that many, typically, but I finally joined the 21st century by getting TIVO recently. I watch “Medium.” I used to watch “Six Feet Under.” I’m trying to watch “Rome” I just haven’t been able to watch enough to get into it. I love to watch Jeremy Piven on Entourage because he is having such a great time. Mostly I watch a lot of sports. I am a sports hound.

MT: We really make “24” and event at our house. We live and die by the twists and turns of the show, and being the way the show is everything is pretty much up in the air from week to week. You never know if your favorite characters are going to be killed off.

CB: laughs…They’re not…they’re not safe. That is how it goes on that show.

MT: When you showed up last season on “24” it was an exciting week for us. My wife cheered “Alright, Tony’s back!” Do you ever watch the show and get caught up in the action?

CB: No, I never watch the show. I can’t really watch it because, I’m not really big on watching myself, and also with this show, I get my viewing when I read the script and find out what happens. This show is a lot about finding out what happens, so it kind of ruins it for me to know everything that happens. Every once and a while I check in to see how a certain director did or to see how maybe a certain actor I like does with a role. I definitely appreciate the editing and the cinematography. I love the music that Sean Callery writes on it. He is fantastic. And I really appreciate the different elements of it but I rarely watch a whole show every once and a while I will be curious to see a little chunk of it, but that’s it.

MT: I guess it is anti-climatic once you already know what is going to happen.

CB: Yeah it is…Also, I don’t know how other people are, but I feel like my work is done once I shoot it, and I am not one to site down and watch it once it is on the air. It’s kind of hard for me to do.

MT: We understand, I know you probably can’t confess to any plot twists next year, but frankly we’d rather be surprised any way.

CB: Yeah, I’ll tell you what man, this season starts out like gangbusters right off the bat, it’s crazy…that much I’ll tell ya.

MT: Can’t wait to see it, I’m assuming the way things left off last year, the show will be changing quite a bit.

CB: Yeah, it changes a little bit every year, and this year is no different. No doubt about that. Definitely for my character as well..things change for my character.

MT: What’s it like when the cameras are not rolling? Do you goof around on set at all? Any pranksters?

CB: Yeah, that would be me…I guess I like to screw around, and screw with people. Hell, I like to screw with people when the cameras are rolling. It is a very loose set. When we are shooting certain kinds of scenes it is pretty intense, the atmosphere has got to be focused and it gets pretty intense. But at the same time, when we break from that, the crew and Kiefer and I have been together for four or five years now. Most everybody else has come and gone. But the crew is pretty much the same and John Cassar, who is our main director, has been around since the first season, and so there is a lot of goofing around and giving each other sh*t…pulling pranks and stuff like that.

MT: Any one prank stand out as being a really good one?

CB: We were shooting up in Valencia I think, somewhere north of LA, and I got to work with the actress who plays Mandy (Mia Kirshner). She comes up to me in the morning and says “ I feel mischievous today”, and I say, “Really?” and she says, “Yeah,” “Ok, do you want to play a practical joke on someone?” I ask her, and she says yes.

So I call the police over who are blocking off the street for us and I ask them if they would be willing to play a practical joke on our director, and they say “Yeah, Sure”. I tell them that right around 3:45 p.m., I want them to come up on set where we are shooting by this garage and arrest her for buying drugs in the parking lot. So when they arrest her, I am going to start arguing and I want them to arrest me, too. Well, the whole day was basically scenes between she and I so basically production is screwed if we get arrested. I mean that would cost thousands and thousands of dollars! So, anyhow, right on cue at 3:45, he walks in with his partner goes up to her after the cameras are cut and pulls her aside and says, “Can I talk to you ma’am?”

“Yeah.”

“Our undercover officer told us that you bought some marijuana from him?”

And he starts cuffing her saying “I need to place you under arrest”. Suddenly everybody is like what is going on here. Nobody knew except for myself her, and I told Kiefer because he was in the scene as well. Now all of a sudden John Cassar comes flying over and is like “uh, uh, uh….”

Right before this happened, three producers showed up on set and they are never there. They never come, and it was just perfect, they show up and they don’t know anything about it. They start talking to the cops. And I come over there shoulder and say “What’s going on?”

The officer says, “This lady had admitted to buying marijuana in the parking lot, and we are placing her under arrest.”

And I go “For that? She got arrested for that? This is all you have got to do with your time is arrest little girls for buying marijuana in the parking lot?”

They say “Sir you better step back right now, and the producers start pushing me back, “let us handle this.”

I say “F**k this, you’re screwed, you are going to tell me that you are arresting this girl for buying pot and this is where our tax dollars are going?”

“Sir you better step back right now or I am going to place you under arrest.”

I’m like, “Screw you! You’re an asshole!” (laughs) And we started shouting back and forth, and five guys are pulling me back. Including Cassar, and the place in like, nobody knows what the hell is going on, one producer is on the phone calling back to the studio like “uh we have big problems.” And then finally I tied to pull a camera out and take a picture of John Cassar. And he saw the camera and was like “You, you a**hole” (laughs).

Anyhow, it was really great because after that everybody was in a great mood and joking around. The cops had done such a great job, everybody was like giving them t-shirts and hats, and they were sort of like baptizing them into the group. It was a lot of fun.

MT: I’d never be able to keep a straight face…So you mentioned a little about the demanding schedule is it hard to balance your family life with your work schedule? CB: It’s hard at times. I have a 2 year old daughter. There are times when I will not see her awake for 2 or 3 days in a row unless she is asleep. And that’s hard, but like anything else you get used to it. At the same time I do have a good amount of time off here and there that I can spend with her. I just had about a month off and I was with her constantly, so you just find your time to spend with her, and just make sure that you make that quality time.

MT: So tell us what you can about the upcoming mini series “10.5 Apocalypse.”

CB: It’s a miniseries for NBC that will be airing around Thanksgiving time, it is a sequel to 10.5 that was done last year which was the biggest ratings the network had gotten in about 10 or 15 years for a television movie, and it was actually really well done. And there is a great group of actors in it like Kim Delaney and Beau Bridges. It is basically a what if story, what if a massive earthquake hits the USA? It deals with different parts of the nation being hit by earthquakes where there are fault lines, they are just not active right now. And it is pretty frightening, it’s pretty cool the way they shoot it, it looks pretty wild.

MT: You seem to do mostly very serious dramatic roles, As an actor Is there any particular genre that you like doing better than another?

CB: Yeah, I love doing comedy, I have done a lot of comic in theater, I haven’t done much in TV or film, because once you start doing certain types of roles that is what people think of you for and those are the offers that you get. Really my favorite is, I am developing a script, a film project right now that is sort of a heist movie that is very funny, but very dark, that’s my favorite, a sort of nice blend…you’re never gonna see me on a sitcom. It’s just not my bag.

MT: No, “Everybody loves Carlos?”

CB: (laughing), right exactly… no, never gonna happen . I really am drawn more to film, and that is what I love about 24, because it feels very much like a film the way we work on it. It very much the way you work on a film. And that is the process and material that I am drawn too. But at the same time I like screwing around, I like laughing and having fun. And I love comedies. And who knows, I wouldn’t mind having a career like Gene Hackman - where he does them both you know. I’d love to have a career like Gene Hackman’s. He is definitely one of my heroes. That is a guy who can do everything.

MT: Building on that, who are some of your other heroes in acting?

CB: I love Al Pacino, he is one of my heroes and someone I loved to watch. Denzel Washington is one of the actors today who I will watch anything that he does. Gene Hackman, Paul Newman, I mean “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting,” that whole era of Paul Newman movies I loved. But those are the main ones.

MT: My wife wanted to find out how it felt to be named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People In America?

CB: Well, that was a lifetime goal of mine, I have always wanted to be on the 50 most beautiful people list…that’s it. (laughs)

MT: Did you flaunt that around set?

CB: You know what, I don’t know. I get a lot of grief about it mainly.

MT: Are you going to be involved with the video game that they are doing for “24”?

CB: Yeah, we have been working on it for about 2 years. It should look really cool. I have seen pieces of it, they have shown me little parts of it as we have gone along and it looks pretty cool, it looks like it is going to be fun.

MT: Is that coming out this winter?

CB: I think I heard February.

MT: We can’t wait to get our hands on that.

CB: Are you a video game player?

MT: Not hugely so anymore, timing wise we don’t have a lot to devote to it but I like to when I can, and that one in particular looked really cool, and my wife and I want to get our hands on it.

MT: Do you get to play your own character from the show?

CB: Yeah you get to be, Jack, Tony or Kim

MT: Oh, okay.

CB: You’d probably want to be Kim

MT: laughs…no comment.

CB: laughs

MT: Are you involved with any charities that you would like us to mention

CB: Yeah I am…One of them is an organization called PS Arts. They raise money for arts programs in the inner cities. Most of these schools in the inner cities have had their arts programs cut, that is the first thing to go, and this is a organization that I have been involved with for a couple years called PS Arts.

MT: Does the cast of “24” ever get together to do any type of charity events?

CB: There is talk of going down to Louisiana over Thanksgiving and taking the whole construction crew down there to work with Habitat for Humanity.

MT: We noticed in your bio that you are a big sports fan, are you able to find much time to play golf etc…

CB: Not really, A little golf here and there.

MT: We noticed that you were on the World Poker tour home game recently. How well did you do?

CB: I won it. I got lucky and I won. The tragedy of it is that I won a $25000 buy in to the World Poker Tour Championship at the Bellagio, but I couldn’t go because I was working that weekend.

MT: Thank you again for your time today.

CB: Sure, it’s my pleasure.

Be sure to watch “24” in their 5th season on FOX, starting in January, 2006. “10.5 Apocalypse” is in production. Check your local listings for air dates.

Tony's Back! (2005)



He sure knows how to make an entrance! Tony is back in Season 4. Check out this interview with Carlos Bernard for some behind the scenes info.

Tony has always played by the rules, whilst Jack has broken every rule in the book, but in the third series, your roles swapped. Was it strange not to be the sensible one?

I thought it was a great progression of the characters. Over the years I think the lesson that the Tony character had to learn was how and when to break the rules, and he learnt that from Jack. I think it was a great place to take the story because for the last three years there's been that conflict between him and Jack about that precise thing.

It's a pretty serious show; does anyone play any pranks on set?

It is a pretty serious show and we're aware of that so we do try and keep it light. There are pranks and the usual stuff you'd expect on set and maybe we're a bit more light-hearted than some shows because as you say, there ain't many laughs when the camera starts rolling.

Who has been your favourite baddie on the show? (i.e. Sherry Palmer, Nina Myers...)

Jack's been a great adversary for Tony at times; they've butted heads in some great scenes. Ira Gaines was a great bad guy, but there's been so many.

What fictional baddy would you love to be up against in 24?

You mean like Mr. Freeze? Haha, I used to love the Riddler and the Joker from the Batman TV series but it'd be pretty weird seeing them in there! We've had so many great bad guys; surprises like Dennis Hopper as Victor Drazen have really kept things exciting.

How long does it take to film an episode and the whole series?

It takes roughly ten months to film a series, and we film two episodes at a time with each two-episode section taking 22 days. That's longer than most shows so there's more care taken and some fantastic camera work, the cameramen are almost like part of the cast with the things they pull off. We normally start filming in July and have about seven episodes in the can by the time the series starts on TV. This series finished shooting in April and it finished on TV in May so by the end we're virtually delivering the show as it needs to go on!

What was it like when the show won a Golden Globe?

Well, you get nominated and you're pleased and you go, "Ah, y'know, it's no big deal if we don't win, it's a privilege to be nominated" but I gotta tell ya, it's was a lot of fun to win! And to be on set the next day and celebrate with everyone, it was a great thing.

Can we ever hope to see a 24 film?

You know there's been talk of that. I've heard rumours and rumblings, but nothing solid. I think it could work really well. We did a panel discussion for the show about two years ago, when members of the public come to see an episode or two in the theatre and then talk it through. To see the audience see it as a communal experience was great, it worked very well. There are a lot cinematic moments like the music, Sean Callery writes some really great music to go with the action.

Originally on SkyOne.co.uk.

Source

24 SEASON 3 Q&A with CARLOS BERNARD (2004)

Interview with Carlos Bernard (as Tony Almeida)

You’re a real survivor on the show.

CARLOS BERNARD: Yeah, been paying off the right people.

Did you know you’d keep going?

CARLOS: In this business you learn that until you’re on the set shooting, anything could happen. Just make sure you’re on the show. There’s no such thing as a certain thing. I personally treated every season as though I’m doing a film and that it’s over at the end of the season. It helps me focus on the present more, it helps me enjoy it more, and it’s really the way we approach the show. We’re doing a movie that year. We don’t know anything for sure until about a month before shooting.

Does that make it difficult with other work?

CARLOS: It does make it difficult with other work, definitely. You have to make your choices and choose what it is you want to focus on, what you want to do, what’s more important to you. Sort of pick your priorities. Last summer it was an extremely short hiatus, and so it was really hard to find projects that were any good that fit into the time period anyway. I had a family situation that was going on, so I didn’t want to leave Los Angeles either. It basically knocked out the hiatus season for me. I’m turning down work that starts in late July—that’s when we start shooting.

Are you still available for Season Four?

CARLOS: I guess so, I guess. This show is my priority right now. I mean, I’m having a ball working on it. If the end of this season comes and my character dies or I’m not asked back, well then, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

Do you think you’ll only be shot once this season?

CARLOS: They’re going to have to find some other way right? Bullet didn’t work, let’s try something else.

Are you impressed about the development of Tony?

CARLOS: Yes. It’s been really wonderful. I think one of the things that’s so much fun about working on the show is the progression of the characters. One of the fun things for me is taking the period in between seasons, and sort of filling in the blanks for myself as to what went on. “What’s going on his life? Where is he now as opposed to the end of last year?” That allows your imagination to take off. They don’t give us any sort of parameter for what’s going on except for the fact that Michelle and I are married.

Your relationship on the show is unusual.

CARLOS: Right. Nina and my character had a relationship which was a bit nebulous in the first season, but definitely had an impact on the end of the season for my character. It actually comes back into play in season three a little bit. Back to your question about the Tony character, it’s been a wonderful sort of progression for that character, absolutely. I mean when the first season started, everybody thought I was the bad guy and the mole, which was a lot of fun. Even my mom did! Are you kidding me? It’s been a cool journey, and it keeps getting better. The writers have been fantastic about taking care of the character and giving me a lot of fun and juicy stuff to dig into.

How do you get along with Reiko?

CARLOS: As long as I don’t have to talk to her too much it’s okay. No! Reiko? I love Reiko! There’s not a lot of acting going on, it’s not a hard one to pull off for us.

Is it easier to be Tony after three seasons?

CARLOS: Well, from day one with this show, my approach to it has always been this: you never know what’s going to happen at the end of the story. You never know whether a character’s going to end up being a good guy, bad guy, whatever. I always had fun playing both possibilities. In other words, sneaking a little something in there to confuse the audience, or give the directors and producers something to play with as far as story’s concerned. It could be as simple as a glance at somebody. So I’ve always had fun playing with that part of the genre of the show. Using to it to my advantage rather than feeling like I’m hog-tied by it. It allows you to play a bit with it.

Could Tony still be bad?

CARLOS: I think so. Yeah, I mean I think anybody could be. I’m still waiting for the Walsh character from the first episode to come back to life and be a bad guy. Do you remember him? He’s the guy who got killed in the second episode, was like the big boss, right? Mike O’Neill played it. I still think he’s going to be back some day as a bad guy.

Do you feel free to offer suggestions for Tony?

CARLOS: I spend a lot of time talking with the writers, and if the show comes up we’ll talk about it. I don’t like to burden them with ideas of where the character should go. Once it’s written, I’ll go in and say that I think the scene needs to go in a certain direction. And they’re great about taking that input and using it. I’ve actually rewritten scenes and they’ve taken them and used them, that’s how open they are to the collaborative process. It’s an amazing place to work because of that. They have so many things to take care of, so many problems to solve, so many storylines to fill, that my going to them and giving them more ideas would not help the process at all. Any idea I was going to come up with they probably had somewhere anyways. Sometimes we’ll get on the stage and scenes’ll be written in a certain way and it just doesn’t work on the stage. It works on paper but not on stage and we need to fix it.

How do you handle being named a sexy actor?

CARLOS: It’s flattering in a sense, but all my friends in Chicago give me so much grief. Could be worse, right? (laughs)

Is it hard to remember your character is hurt?

CARLOS: Well the last reason, it was real, I dislocated my ankle playing basketball, so that wasn’t hard to remember at all.

Longest dislocation on record?

CARLOS: I had screws put into my leg and the whole nine yards. And had to stay in a cast without putting weight on it for three and a half-months. Then I had surgery again to take the screws out. So it was a big deal.

So Tony’s not accident prone.

CARLOS: Tony’s not, but I am, yeah. So far so good this year.

You just have a wounded neck.

CARLOS: Right, which is lovely.

Thank you.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Source

Sunday 1 October 2006

TONY '24' BACK (9/28/2004)


THE last time viewers saw turncoat-agent Tony Almeida on "24," he was facing serious jail time for treason.

His reasons for siding with terrorists against the U.S. may have been understandable — to save his kidnapped wife — but fans of the Fox suspense show ended the season with the reasonable assurance that Tony was gone.

Turns out now that he's not forgotten. Tony Almeida's coming back this season.

The word several months ago was that many of the program's most pivotal characters would not be returning for the new season, which debuts January 3.

"I was always told there were going to be changes, but that I was always going to be coming back," actor Carlos Bernard told The Post, as he prepares to start production on the fourth season of "24" next week. "We had discussions about how the Almeida character was going to be brought back. I wanted to do another season, if the character was put in a new place."

Prison was the most likely place — given his double dealing .

But this week Bernard is more focused on the story yet to be mined from Almeida's past.

"It's not so much about what you didn't find out about the character, it's more about the possibilities with the character," he said.

Bernard's mum on the fate of Almeida's wife, Michelle (Reiko Aylesworth), or even what episode he makes his entrance, saying that kind of advance information migth spoil things for viewers.

"My first impression from the script was 'I love it,' " Bernard said. "You can see change in the character over the third and fourth season, which is always fun to play. You have to fill in the holes of what happened. The way they introduced the character was very cool, in a way I didn't necessarily expect."

The show's producers, aware of the huge popularity some of the show's characters had with viewers, do want to bring those actors back in some capacity for the new season, said Fox spokesperson Chris Alexander, who was quick to add that the program, eager to not repeat itself with key characters whose story lines had run their course, didn't "want to be handcuffed to use the same group of actors."

The show had added some celebs, firing some sparks of their own to the cast, including Oscar-nominated actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, "Third Watch" Kim Raver as Kiefer Sutherland's love interest, and veteran actor William Devane as secretary of defense.

By COELI CARR

Source

Carlos Bernard Has High Hopes for More '24' Action (5/21/2004)


LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com)

Carlos Bernard has a major role on a hit TV show, yet he's not sure he has a steady job. Bernard, who plays Tony Almeida on Fox's 24 is only too aware that the show's producers can be cold when it comes to killing off its characters.

"What characters will be alive to come back," he says after the Tuesday, May 25, finale that covers 12 to 1 p.m., "that's another story." Will he return?

"I'd love to come back," he says. "From season one, I treated each year like a film project, and that helps me to focus and not to worry about next season."

It sounds as if he has little to worry about. "Carlos caught everybody by surprise," says Howard Gordon, executive producer. "There was always a consensus of how much we liked this guy. He is really this unsung hero of CTU, this real interesting person. By default, he wound up finding a place season by season."

Actually, Tony came quite close to death early in the third season. Had Tony died then, Bernard would have had "21 episodes of sitting on the bench," Gordon says. But they kept him alive, because, he says, "We love the guy."

In the finale, Tony's relationship with his wife, Michelle, is tested. "It doesn't end well," Gordon says. "That doesn't mean he dies, but it doesn't necessarily end well. I came to this real strong conclusion that '24' is a tragedy, a Greek tragedy with guns."

The show deals with heavy issues, such as kidnapping, assassination and lethal viruses. As Reiko Aylesworth, who plays Michelle, says, "It should be taken seriously when you are dealing with issues we are dealing with, whether a nuclear bomb or a virus or a terrorist. You can't wink at the camera on this show, especially with our subject matter. It becomes exploitation if you don't approach it earnestly."

The gravity of the issues keeps the crew somber during taping, but once the director calls cut, Bernard is goofy. "He is the funniest person," Aylesworth says. "I can't believe he's not doing a sitcom."

Bernard enjoys playing jokes on cast members. Sipping bottled fizzy water at a cafe near Lincoln Center, he relays tricks played on colleagues, both coincidentally revolving around clothing.

In one that still has cast mates chuckling, Elisha Cuthbert, who plays Kim Bauer, arrives on the set with shopping bags from a spree in New York. She wants to model her new clothes for the staff, but a car alarm sounds and distracts everyone, Bernard recalls. During the confusion, he stashes her bags in a trailer.

He later distributes her new clothes among the extras. Meanwhile, Cuthbert goes crazy searching for her bags.

"In the middle of the shoot, she starts noticing all the extras' clothes, and goes up to them," he says, now laughing. "I had already told them to act indignant and pissed off."

Another time a friend of his lands a role on the show and Bernard persuades the costumer to outfit him in Shakespearean togs. Bernard fully expects to be paid back someday.

A few tables away his wife, Sharisse Baker-Bernard, spoons food into their adorable baby, Natalie. Natalie coos at strangers, and is one of those perfect babies who sleeps 10 hours a night and is so easy that she is lulling them into wanting a second baby, whom he figures, would be the opposite.

Bernard seems to figure the odds and not do things lightly, including chasing his dream.

He was born 41 years ago in the same Evanston, Ill., hospital as Aylesworth and grew up in Wilmette, a suburb of Chicago. At the New Trier High School in Winnetka, Ill., Bernard was enchanted and intimidated by a production of "Our Town." Indeed, he cites its alumni include Rock Hudson, Ann-Margaret, Charlton Heston and Virginia Madsen.

Bernard was interested in acting, "but I was so intimidated I didn't tell anybody," he says. "I had grown up watching movies like 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' and 'The Godfather' and it was such a wild dream that I didn't want to tell anybody because I knew the response would be that I was nuts and they would talk me out of it."

So he studied art at Illinois State University and became a graphics artist. He headed West, settling in San Francisco's bohemian Haight-Ashbury and resumed his studies. Though cautious folks warn artists they need a real trade to fall back on, Bernard is one of the few who used his artistic talents to pay bills as he earned his masters in fine arts from San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater.

Bernard worked on a magazine about musical instruments, designed logos, created brochures and kept going on auditions. "The Killing Jar" in 1996 was his first movie, after a few plays. He worked on "The Young and the Restless" and had guest spots on "Walker, Texas Ranger" and "F/X: The Series."

Working in plays interests him as does directing, but the overall lure is the telling of good tales.

"I grew up being really affected by stories I saw onscreen, and remembering that feeling of walking out of the theater changed," Bernard says. "My main goal is to work as a storyteller, whether my material or others. It sounds like a lofty kind of goal, but I believe the power of storytelling can alter people's perception. I've walked out of a play or a movie wanting to be a better person. My ultimate goal is to be a storyteller."

By Jacqueline Cutler

Source

It's Just a Flesh Wound for '24's' Bernard (12/13/2003)


LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) On television and in life, actor Carlos Bernard is used to bouncing back. It has been a tough day so far for his character, CTU chief Tony Almeida, on the Tuesday-night FOX espionage drama, "24," which spends an entire season recounting a single day, hour by hour. Of course, they've all been tough days for Tony.

In season one, Tony sported an unfortunate patch of hair under his lower lip all season (hence, his Internet nickname of "Soul Patch"), the result of Bernard's failure to shave before filming the pilot episode.

It turns out that this fashion faux pas could have been much worse.

"You should have seen what they were going to dress me in for the first season," Bernard says. "Oh my God, it was cargo pants and a big, floppy flannel shirt. I'm like, 'Are you kidding me? I think you got the wrong character.'

"Sure enough, executive producer Joel Surnow walks in the room and goes, 'What the hell is that?' I said, 'Exactly.' That could have been disastrous. I'd have been dead within the first two episodes if I'd worn that."

And Almeida found out that his lover, CTU operative Nina (Sarah Clarke), was an evil mole.

"I was duped badly, totally, hook, line and sinker," Bernard says. "I knew nothing. That's a scene I want to see, Tony and Nina together again. I have a strong feeling she's coming back."

In season two, Tony spent a good portion of the day on crutches, a result of a dislocated ankle Bernard suffered while playing basketball. This led to what the actor considers his most embarrassing moment so far in the series, a scene he shot with Kiefer Sutherland (as the beleaguered Jack Bauer).

"The lame fight with Jack was actually going to be a cool scene," Bernard recalls. "They'd written it with us falling down stairs, just a knock-down, drag-out fight. Of course, two weeks before, I dislocated my ankle, so we turned it into, basically, he sneezes and I fall down."

Despite his bad experience with Nina, Tony pursued romance with another co-worker, CTU operative Michelle (Reiko Aylesworth).

"I don't think he's lucky in love," Bernard says. "That's the thing, he does make bad choices, but that's what I love about the show. People make mistakes constantly -- it's great.

"How boring would it be if we were always right? I love that part of it, because God knows, in real life ... I chose to play basketball last year, didn't I? It was not a wise decision."

As season three opened, Almeida and Michelle were married and trying to decide whether Tony should take a job in Washington, D.C. -- and what Michelle would do if he does.

"The marriage part is interesting," Bernard says. "The underlying theme of this season is, can these people have relationships that do these jobs? I think we're going to find that answer eventually."

After a field promotion to head of the Los Angeles-based CTU last season, Tony now is firmly ensconced in that position.

"My take with Tony always has been that it's not a job he ever wanted," Bernard says. "He never aspired to be running CTU, and it's been three years now that he's been running it. There's a part of him that doesn't want to be a desk jockey."

In episode three, which aired Nov. 11, Tony finally got to get outside, as he took off to help Jack catch a teen (Riley Smith) that is the unwitting carrier of a terrorist virus. Unfortunately, Tony's little field trip ended with him getting shot in the neck, and he spent all of episode four in surgery, with Michelle forced to take over at CTU in his absence.

"It's the amazing healing powers of '24,'" Bernard says. "We had a little talk about it when I read the third-episode script. Joel, when he originally told me about it, said, 'You'll probably be in the hospital for about five, 10 episodes. I was like, '10 episodes? Are you crazy?' He's like, 'Well, it's probably not 10.'

"It's a pretty quick healing process that I go through -- not so much healing as mending, get myself put back together so I can get back into action."

As long as Tony didn't die immediately, Bernard likes the idea of his character going through this trauma.

"The injury really adds to what's going on with him. Once I get out of the hospital, the combination of exhaustion, the injury wearing down on my mind, what's going on which I can't tell you pumps up the pressure on me a great deal, because of certain decisions that were made.

"So, there are all these great forces playing into the character. It was great, the whole getting-shot thing, because it just adds fuel to the fire. After all, Jack died and came back to life. If he can pull that off, Tony can get off a hospital bed. I'm telling you, it's the whole cast, not just Tony and Jack. We're the fastest-healing characters in television history."

Bernard also points out that, in the show's backstory, Tony and Michelle have been married for a while now -- so what about the pitter patter of little spy feet?

"We're still waiting to hear, 'Do we have any children, by the way?' Listen, I know these writers better than to assume anything. Sometimes I think these guys go into a room and say, 'What could never happen?' Then they try to make it happen.

"We were saying that next year, I'll probably be like the guy in 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' with no arms and legs, hopping around. It's a rough job, but somebody's got to do it.

"As long as you live, it's good."

By Kate O'Hare

Source

Fit 24/7: being physically active keeps Carlos Bernard at the top of his acting game ( Oct-Nov 2003)

As Counter Terrorist Unit chief Tony Almeida on Fox's real-time thriller, 24, Carlos Bernard is in tiptop shape to take on the bad guys.

"Yeah, I'm a real tough guy," Bernard laughs.

In this spy fantasy TV show, being involved in rescues and fighting terrorism has taken on real meaning.

"We get to live the fantasy of what might have been," says Bernard.

However, dislocating his left ankle brought the 36-year-old into real-time reality and pain. "I screamed; it was pretty brutal," recalls the 5'10" actor of his recent basketball injury. "I was going up for a breakaway lay-up and a guy pulled me down from behind. It felt like the bottom half of my leg snapped in half when the tendons popped." It was a not so gentle reminder, to this sports enthusiast, that he's no longer a teenager who can recuperate from injuries in a matter of days. "I took a lot of coral calcium and something for ligament repair," Bernard confesses. "I still take the calcium."

Born and raised in Chicago, Bernard received a Master of Fine Arts from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. However, sports have always played a big role in his life.

"Baseball was my big sport in school," he reveals. "I played center field all four years of high school and then started playing it in college. But, I realized I was out of my league, so to speak. We had a great high school baseball team that made it to the state finals, but college was a whole different story. Three guys on my college team actually played pro ball and one made it to the majors."

Today, in between 13- to 14-hour workdays and being father to a newborn, Bernard enjoys pick-up baseball games, fly-fishing, judo and golf.

"I have a 10 handicap," he admits. "Sports give me the fun of competition regular workouts don't, an extra focus and something I can improve upon because it's about skills." Although basketball has been sidelined, it hasn't kept Bernard on the bench.

"I still lift weights about five times a week, but when I'm working, it's a matter of fitting it into my schedule," he says. "I try to get cardio through basketball, but lately it's been a challenge, so the stationary bike for 20 minutes has been the best thing. I also run on the treadmill." In addition, he does bicep/tricep curls, chest lifts, sit-ups and crunches. "I also do a few different leg lift machines for the entire leg," he adds.

Not only do regular sports and exercise keep his body toned, but they also help maintain energy levels.

"For an actor, it's really important to maintain your focus and stay sharp, which higher energy levels do for me," he explains. "When you have long days and the last shot might be the most important, stamina and focus are imperative."

Although voted one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People this year, Bernard doesn't take the praise too seriously.

"I think it was a payoff for years of dedication, but don't really think about it that much. You can't control what people think about you," he acknowledges. "Hey, I'm not perfect--I still drink coffee and have a muffin with it. I shoot to eat half of it, but usually eat the whole thing."

Despite the coffee and muffins, Bernard's diet is pretty simple. "First of all, I don't diet, really. I've cut down on bread and I LOVE bread!" he exclaims. "So I try to eat as little as possible." Instead of sodas, he mostly drinks water. Bernard also enjoys fruits, vegetables and meat. While not a fat gram or calorie counter, he says, "I just try to stay away from fries and stuff I know will put on the weight."

However, all those rules fly out the window when he visits Chicago, which is often since his family still lives there.

"Oh, the food there is something else," he asserts. I'm a huge fan of barbeque ribs, so I eat them almost the minute I get there. The pizza, of course, is spectacular. There's such a wide variety of restaurants and they're all open past 1 a.m."

With the clock continuously ticking on his show, the actor does like to enjoy downtime with a good book, some Dave Matthews Band or Elton John music or any chance to be outside in nature.

On an occasional day off, does he cook dinner for his wife of four years? "Yeah, right!" he laughs loudly. "Right now, honestly, I would be bringing food home."

Bonnie Siegler has covered celebrity fitness for American Fitness since 1990. Based in Playa del Rey, California, she is an internationally known writer whose work has appeared in McCall's, Redbook and InStyle.

by Bonnie Siegler

Source

An other 24 hours of twists (10/24/2003)



CTU good guys back — or are they bad guys?

Tony Almeida looked like he was going to be a bad guy. He turned out to be a good guy. But you never know when he or just about anybody else on "24" could take a turn that might make him a bad guy.And Carlos Bernard, the man who plays Tony, wouldn't have it any other way. "Are you kidding?" he said. "This show is everything an actor could ask for."

And everything viewers could ask for, too. In its first two seasons, "24" became one of the best shows on television.the format keeps viewers on the edge of their seats. Centering on CTU (Counter-Terrorism Unit) agent Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland), a season takes place in one particularly eventful 24-hour day; each episode runs (more or less) in real time and, at the end of each hour, there's a cliffhanger.And the stakes are high. Season 1 found Jack fighting to prevent the assassination of presidential candidate Sen. David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert)— a plot that turned out to be a huge conspiracy. In Season 2, he had to stop a nuclear device from detonating in Los Angeles and prevent the overthrow of now-President Palmer. As for Season 3, "I think it's the best setup yet," Bernard said.

(On Tuesday, Fox will air the hourlong season premiere of "24" without commercial interruption.)

The action picks up three years after the end of Season 2. President Palmer, it turns out, survived the assassination attempt in the Season 2 finale — although he's not necessarily fully recovered. He's back in Los Angeles, about to debate his opponent in the upcoming general election. His evil ex-wife isn't around — she's presumably in prison at this point. Although rumor is that Sherry (Penny Johnson-Jerald) might show up later this season. And it's not like the president lacks for female company. . But, as it turns out, L.A. isn't exactly a safe place to be. Jack, it seems, has spent the past year infiltrating a drug lord's organization because of the man's ties to terrorist cells. The drug lord is in prison, but his brother is demanding his release — or he'll release a killer virus into the general population, and in a week, more than a million people will be dead. "I think they've done it again," said Bernard, who, like the other actors, entrusts himself and his character to the whims of the writers. "And they're flying by the seat of their pants. You never know exactly where they're going." (Which is true. In neither of the first two seasons did the writer/producers know where the story was going to end up when they wrote the first episodes.) "How can you not trust them?" Bernard said. "Look what they've given us to this point."

Acting in "24" can be a challenge, however. The actors are given "some general idea" of what's in store for their characters, but they don't really know what to expect until they get each script. And they never know when they might suddenly discover that, yes, they're a bad guy instead of a good guy. Or vice versa.Bernard's character looked for all the world like a bad guy in the early going of Season 1. "But I didn't really think so because that would have been too obvious. But I did start to wonder later in the season if they would circle around after making it look like he was one of the good guys," he said. In Season 2, Tony ended up running CTU and sided consistently with good-guy Jack. He's now firmly in charge of CTU and still seems firmly on the side of Jack, who's running a special field-operations division. "But you never know," Bernard said. "I never know until I see those scripts." Not that he's complaining, by any means. With the exception of Sutherland, most of the "24" stars weren't exactly household names before the show started. But now, "People recognize me all the time," Bernard said. "It's always, 'Hey, Tony!' "

How high has "24" raised his profile? Well, Bernard found himself on People magazine's most-beautiful people list. Albeit somewhat reluctantly. "My publicist called and said, 'You've got to do this.' And she never says that. But I sure heard about it from my friends and my family. They had a great time with that one."

Not that "24" has been perfect by any means. You've got to get past the fact that the possibility of everything that happens on the show actually happens in a single day is wildly unlikely. It's a show that has more than its share of twists, turns and coincidences.

And even fans of the show have found the adventures of Jack's daughter fairly ludicrous — The Perils of Kim, as it were. Last season, in the space of those "24" hours, Kim dealt with a homicidal boss, kidnapping charges, a serious car accident, multiple murders in a convenience store, a cougar, a wacko survivalist and, oh yeah, that nuclear bomb that she thought killed her dad. This season, "She's working for me," Bernard said with a laugh. "We'll see how that works out." Yes, Kim is now a computer expert working for CTU. Which does seem to integrate her into the story more naturally. (Assuming you forget that she's gone from nanny to computer genius in three years.) And she's got a love interest — a CTU field agent, Chase Edmunds (James Badge Dale), who is Jack's protege. Not that Jack is really happy about the relationship. But viewers should be very happy. Bernard was right when he said, "You're in for another great ride."

By Scott D. Pierce

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Carlos Bernard as Tony Almeida (10/27/2002)

Like so many characters on "24," a cloud of suspicion hung over glowering CTU agent Tony Almeida last season.

"Quite frankly, just keeping my eyes out for people I didn't trust or trying to figure out whether they were telling me the truth as a character probably is going to make me seem suspicious,"Carlos Bernard said. "I thought Tony was the one person who was doing his job the right way."

Tony, who was dating Nina Myers when she turned out to be the mole, takes over her position at Counter Terrorism Unit headquarters this season.

"I know for myself, being burned like I was is obviously going to play into everything that happens," Bernard said. "It takes a while to get over something like that, especially the magnitude that I was burned."

By Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV Editor

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