I had an unbelievable experience on '24'. We shot 198 episodes, and I was as excited about shooting the 198th as I was the first.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I am going to be on 'True Blood.' It was really exciting. I had a great time shooting it. I spent the last nine months shooting this season and it was very secretive, very sexy, a lot of blood and fangs.
When we shoot 24, there are so many things I have to worry about, from the script to technical things to my performance, that I don't have a second to be bored or take anything for granted. We produce 24 hours of film a season, which is like making 12 movies.
Ten episodes goes by really quickly, especially when you've got a really tough shooting schedule of seven-day episodes.
The really cool challenge of '24' was learning on camera how to be a dramatic actress. The biggest difficulty was the industry side of things. I was very lucky that I had Joel Surnow, one of the creators of '24,' in my corner. Early on, the Fox executives couldn't believe that I was on the show.
'Vegas' was something very close to me. I had such a blast doing that. I'm still a little upset that we never really got to shoot that final episode. So many people were invested in it. I'll always be sad about that.
On 'B&B,' we shoot so fast and eight episodes a week, so we have to always be on our A-game. There's really no time to make certain adjustments. We usually shoot a scene in one take, maybe two or three only if needed.
I loved my experience on 'Downton Abbey.' We shot it in six months, and it was the first time I'd ever been on TV, and I was surrounded by my friends. It was a wonderful, wonderful time.
It's incredible. Twenty-three minutes on the air, and I've got to shoot for twelve, fifteen hours a day. What the hell's that?
I did a network show in the U.S. before, and I loved it, but you have eight days to shoot an episode, and it's just a ridiculous pace.
I did '24;' it was terrible. I hated every moment of it.