OTHER TECH

Of course, 24's Kiefer Sutherland is the son of your Commander in Chief costar Donald Sutherland. One time I called Donald at home to talk about the next day's scenes. I do have TiVo, so it doesn't matter what time my husband and I watch 24 - but I happened to call during the show, and he said to me, "The show is on. I can't talk!" So it was a pretty short conversation.

The series seems to have a strong following. Will it be syndicated on something like the Oxygen network or Bravo? That's an interesting question. I haven't heard that, but it's entirely possible.

Your series is off the air, but do you think there's a movie in it? We've been talking about doing a made-for-television movie that we would shoot sometime in the fall. Hopefully that could serve as a springboard for shooting some more episodes. It might not be the last we've seen of President Mackenzie Allen.

Of all the movies you've done, which one was most meaningful to you? Well, it might be too obvious, but definitely Thelma & Louise. That was just an incredibly singular experience. I'd read that script a year before I actually got cast in it. And I just so desperately wanted to be in the movie - either part. It's so rare to read screenplays with even one such well-delineated female character, never mind two. And Susan and I became great friends as a result of it. The whole thing was a remarkable experience.

I also loved you as Muriel in The Accidental Tourist. I'd read the book when it came out, and I was totally thinking, "They're going to make a movie out of this, and I'm going to be so angry when someone gets to be Muriel." And then it was me. With a part like that or Thelma & Louise or A League of Their Own, I felt so strongly that these projects would work out, that they'd all be something special.

Did you have that gut feeling about Commander in Chief? I was interested the second I heard about it. They wanted to know if I'd be interested in playing the President, and before I even read it, I said to myself, "I think I'm going to say yes."

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