CLJ

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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"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.

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.

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.

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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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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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?

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.

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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.

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