Reiko Aylesworth

Reiko Aylesworth (on 24): What's great about the fanbase is that it's such an engaging show and it attracts people that want to be stimulated and not just veg out. The show really attracts an intelligent audience. I don't really get people coming up to me thinking that I am actually the character, but it does have a cult following, which is similar to the Trekkie thing. I love playing this character. She has a lot of dimensions to her - I hope. And it's always best, I think, to play a strong character and incredibly confident character and then follow that up with a role that is totally different. I would love to play a dizzy character, like a dumb dope addict or something.

Reiko Aylesworth (on her storyline for season 3 of 24): They didn't know. They said: 'Look you're going to be exposed to the virus and we don't know whether we are going to kill you off or not.'
So I was like: 'Wow! Thank you.'

Reiko Aylesworth (on her 24 character, Michelle Dessler): That's another thing. It's a great opportunity to play an intelligent, strong-willed woman. But also compassionate. It was important.

Reiko Aylesworth (on how she got into acting): I think I had an incredibly supportive family. A lot of my family works in the social work and criminal justice system. They didn't want me going into that. I don't know how I fell into acting, it just developed as a passion. I was studying science in college and doing theater, and suddenly I had this passion for acting and science got left behind. My family is very supportive of me.

Reiko Aylesworth: Yeah, I mean there's always that. If you hear that you're going to get killed off, you want to hear before pilot season. As an actor, you're a squirrel, you have to put your nuts away and get ready for hibernation. Like an athlete, you know there are a set number of years that you can work. If you're a series regular on a show you know you'll be paid throughout that year. Which is why you don't want to make serious investments or blow all your money. There's definitely an economic factor. But we choose this life, and I feel like I'm lucky to be doing this and making a living at it. I'd like to know that I could do something else if I had to.

Reiko Aylesworth (on the second season of 24): There's just this sexual charge to everything because of the urgency. We have to stop the bomb, now! This might be our last day on earth! We're all going to die, let's get our rocks off! That kind of thing. And then you've got Kiefer and his velvety voice. He's got chemistry with anything.

Reiko Aylesworth (on her career): Who's going to remember someone like me, who's had big parts in very small movies and small parts in big movies. Like in the Harrison Ford movie Random Hearts, I play the secretary of Harrison's dead wife. I got to cry in some scenes with Harrison.

Reiko Aylesworth: I didn't know a soul when I got to New York and I felt really displaced. The first week I was euphoric, and then I realized how isolating the city can be.