Your series 24 is hugely popular in the Middle East, but it’s Arabs who are often the bad guys. Why do you think that is?
Well, first off, in the first season Dennis Hopper definitely was not an Arab, neither is Michael Massee.
We have had a wide variety of people, but to say there is not a terrorist problem in the Arab world would be ridiculous.
How do you feel 24 can help to bridge the gap between the East and the West?
It’s funny. It’s a really good question, and it’s not one I have an absolute answer for. One of the things I’ve been amazed with 24 is its ability to jump cultural gaps, and most specifically language gaps. The fact that it can be big in Asia, the fact that it can be as big in the Middle East and the fact it can be as big in Central America as it is in the States is beyond me.
The only thing that I’ve actually been able to kind of tangibly grab onto is that there is an energy.
Is there a political agenda in 24? Because there’s a lot of debate…
…I think there’s a political agenda in everything! What I will tell you is that I think 24 is incredibly balanced. Joel Surnow, as one of the writers, I would say his politics are to the right. Howard Gordon, his politics are definitely to the left. Any time I see a show that is being embraced by John McCain, Newt Gingrich, Barbara Streisand and the Clintons all in the same breath, all that means to me is that it is balanced and that it is showing aspects within the context of the show that are appealing to a wide group of people.
Do you feel any responsibility to actually have to comment on that subject or do you feel it’s coming from nowhere?
No, it’s not coming from nowhere. I’ll give you an example. What I do like is 24 as a show, and [executive producers] Joel Surnow and Howard Gordon invited and put together certain people from the Human Rights Watch Group and people from United States Military Academy West Point, and they had a great discussion. [Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan met producers of 24 and told them that promoting illegal behaviour in the series (apparently popular among the US military) was having a damaging effect on young troops.]
They were concerned at West Point that some of their students were taking stuff [from television] and not just 24. They believed this is actually how to do things, how to effectively do what they do as in leaders in the army. We absolutely disagree with that, and the commanders at West Point absolutely disagree with that too. So we helped bring them together, so they could have a dialogue and a conversation, and try and find out other ways to help the students really get past misunderstanding the difference between a television show and what was required in a real world.
But within the context of the show, no, I don’t feel a need to defend that. Because, for me, it’s a television show, and it’s so clear to me that I have to stop and really readjust to talk about it in any other context.
Do you think extreme violence is valid in the case of 24 because it’s an entertainment show, and people watching TV should know this is not real?
Of course they should know it’s not real. The whole concept of the show to begin with, all of the stuff is going to happen in 24 hours. I always find that so bizarre, because for me it is such a product of fantasy. The fact that from its conception and the terrible events of 9/11 happening almost a year after the show was initially realised, I guess, that obviously it touched into areas that have become regretfully a part of American society. Maybe that line got a little blurry for some folks. But, it is a television show. If it was going to be desperately real, then I would do everything I could to protect due process, the law, defend the constitution, all of these things we shred through this show. The show is very simple in its definition. In the very beginning, a terrible circumstance will arise that has to be resolved within a 24-hour period. So everything else has to be heightened in a very unrealistic way to make it dramatic, to make it thrilling. It’s a thriller. But obviously, it would be wrong for me to just dismiss it out of hand. Clearly some people are concerned that there is the ability to take what we’re doing with the show and for some people to apply that in the real world, and that is absolutely not something that we condone. I mean, if we could put a sticker on it saying ‘Do not try this at home,’ we would.
Is Jack Bauer bound to die violently? It’s kind of hard to imagine him retiring.
You have to ask the writers. I have no idea.
What do you think personally?
I don’t think he’s going to die of old age.
The sixth series of 24 starts 28 July on ShowSeries 1 at 11pm.
