Xander Berkeley

Xander Berkeley: It's just one of those things that happens in Hollywood. I try to do variations from one role to the next, but it could be worse. I don't want to play some bland guy, you know some putty in the crack plot pusher - that's not terribly interesting, so you want to play some guy who has at least some kind of function to the centre of the story and if it's not the hero it is going to be the bad guy.

Xander Berkeley (on his role in the movie Terminator 2): Yeah, that effect was done laboriously and painstakingly with a cast of the back of my head and a blade that comes out. It was not a digital effect. It was a total physical effect with puppetry and a blade that could contract. There was a small blade going out of the back of my head that retracted sideways away from the kitchen cabinet at the same time as the blade that was down my throat was pulled out. The problem was that the blade had to be far enough down my throat to look as though it was coming out of the back of my head. To get this right I had to practice sword swallowing for two weeks.

Xander Berkeley (on the terrorism element to 24): In season two, instead of stepping away from it they went into the centre of it and that was something else that we thought might have backfired. But the choices they have made have consistently paid off. It's something that people need and want to be more informed about because it does affect our personal lives.

Xander Berkeley (on 24): It's the first show for a long time that is so loaded with information that it takes a sharp mind to follow it all. That creates supply and demand. There's nothing else out there that's arresting enough of the attention to warrant that kind of obsessive following.

Xander Berkeley (on shooting 24): They do two at the same time and it takes, I guess, somewhere in the area of two weeks to do the two episodes because they'll do a string of days at the CTU, then they'll do a string of days at the Presidential suite. Then they'll do a string of days out in the field with Jack, and we all have to be there for off-camera telephone conversations. But it's nice for the actors to get a few days off while they're doing other sequences.

Xander Berkeley: I plan to move into directing soon, I've done a lot of acting and I've also been a painter and a sculptor and a writer, for many years and I want to be able to put the various interests together into film directing which I'm looking forward to doing in the future.

Xander Berkeley (on the 24 cast and crew): The relationship between the cast and crew. There's just something in the rhythm which we've established, and especially the relationship of the camera department with the actors. There's a kind of intuitive, psychological emotional relationship that I've never really experienced, in quite the same way.

Xander Berkeley (on his 24 character, George Mason): The mandate in the first season is to keep Palmer alive. So to let Kiefer's character Jack become preoccupied with the whereabouts and well-being of his family is completely unprofessional. It's advantageous to keeping the mandate intact that you don't let this guy know certain things. I could always justify it as the sensible, reasonable thing to do. They did throw a couple of extra lines in that were overly devious.

Xander Berkeley (on his 24 character, George Mason): I think even in the pilot he had a sense of humour albeit a dark one, a cynical one. It seemed like with everyone taking everything so damn seriously somebody ought to be able to take a pot shot every now and again. I think that's the way that these guys who are lifers in any kind of really dark line of work survive is that they form a gallows humour or a sense of detachment or a sense of irony that gets them through a hard day.

Xander Berkeley (on getting the part of George Mason on 24): I was told by my agent that they were sending a script. I'd worked with Ron Howard, the co-producer of the show, before. I didn't have to audition, I was known to be a good character actor that could play a role like George Mason.