Posts Tagged ‘Mary Lynn Rajskub’

SOURCE: If Magazine

LOCATION: CTU

THE SKINNY: In an interview with the press today, Mary Lynn Rajskub who plays the resourceful Chloe O’Brian (and girl Friday to Jack Bauer) on Fox’s 24, spoke about the series finale (airing Monday, May 24 on Fox) and how she feels 24 changed the course of television forever.

Read on to see what she had to say ..

ON THE APPEAL OF CHLOE …

“She’s just a really great charasmatic awesome person, what can I say,” says Rajskub, dead pan. “I’ve talked about this before, but she really went from being that annoying person people don’t like to then being someone loyal and relied upon to get the job done. This surprising turn made her compelling and likable”

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SOURCE: If Magazine

I have to say, I’ve been a fan of 24 since the very first Day that aired back in 2001. It was a show that had a bold concept that, against anyone’s better judgement, should not have worked – let alone last eight years.

Even after the super cool, groundbreaking first year, Fox was reluctant to renew the series for a second season unless the producers figured if they could pull the concept again. And at some point, there was discussion of actually modifying the real-time format.

Thank goodness sanity and creative ingenuity paid off.

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SOURCE: Celebrity Baby Scoop

This season’s scripts are striking a familiar chord for 24 stars Mary Lynn Rajskub and Kiefer Sutherland.

Mary Lynn, who in real life is mom to 17-month-old son Valentine, says of her character Chloe: “When I start, I’m behind at the CTU because I’ve been at home being a mum. So I have to catch up. It makes the stakes a little bit higher for my character, because she has a kid to worry about. And I have a kid in real life, so it sort of feeds into my work, a little bit.”

As for Jack Bauer, the FOX drama’s intense lead character has recently learned that he’s a grandfather. Kiefer, who is dad to grown daughter Sarah and stepdaughter Michelle, says that it’s a plot twist that hits home.

“All of a sudden I’ve got to go to work and have this four-year-old granddaughter. It just reminded me of my daughters when they were really young,” he says. “The granddaughter in the show just made me feel very nostalgic about my children when they were growing up.”

The Emmy and Golden Globe-winning 24 is currently in its 8th season.

Click on the picture to the left to be taken to the whole article at iFMagazine!

The actress talks about Season 7 coming to an end and how there’s one constant in Bauer’s chaotic world.

While she may have only been around in the 24 universe since Season Three, Mary Lynn Rajskub who plays computer expert Chloe O’Brian, has thankfully survived the knife of the kill-happy producers of the show to outlast every recurring character on Fox’s highly entertaining action series outside of Carlos Bernard who plays Tony Almeida (though if things continue going the way they are this season, he may end up dead a second time before things are over).

Whenever Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) gets into a bind, Chloe is there to help him out and prove to be one of the few people he can trust no matter how hairy the situation gets.

This season alone, Chloe has helped Jack stop one terrorist attack after another and now is a central figure in stopping former “good guy turned bad guy turned sort of good guy turned really bad guy” Tony Almeida from unleashing a bio-weapon that’s currently in his possession.

The clock is ticking and iF has Rajskub’s thoughts on 24 – Season 7 as the last three hours of the day wrap up during the next two weeks.

ON WHAT SHE WOULDN”T DO FOR JACK …

“Prostitution,” says Rajskub with a laugh and then adds, “she might be willing to even do that. She’s very dedicated. I think it would be fun to push her to see how far she would go.”

ON WATCHING SO MANY OF HER FAVORITE SUPPORTING PLAYERS GETTING OFFED …

“It really sucks,” she says. “In order for it to be shocking for the viewers, it’s equally as shocking for the actors. The character of Edgar was a surprise for me. Thankfully I had some time to get used to James [Morrison’s character Bill Buchanan]  dying. I think he was such a great character. It’s hard. You get used to it, as an actor, meeting them and forming quick bonds and moving on. It’s particularly rough on 24 – [the writers] seem to relish in getting rid of characters when people are the most attached to them. That’s what keeps people coming back for more.”

ON PLAYING THE COMPUTER TECH VS. THE ACTION CHICK …

“I would like to see her get more action,” says Rajskub. “At the same time, I know the part I do on that show is a very specific function. I’m torn. As much as I would like to do more action, I like being the brains behind it at the office.”

ON CHLOE MEETING HER MATCH WITH F.B.I. TECH WONDER JANIS (JANEANE GAROFALO) …

“The stuff with Janis and I is fun,” says Rajskub. “Chloe is having a personality conflict with somebody, and someone who is forced to work together and Chloe doesn’t like that very much. I think one of the reasons people like Chloe so much, besides I’m so incredibly sexy and irresistible, is it’s a respite from everything going on. We’re still intense and carrying the plot. You get some office politics and personal annoyances, but I like serving that purpose.

ON TONY NOW BEING THIS SEASON’S REALLY BAD, BAD GUY …

“Tell me about it,” she adds. “I can’t get over the fact that he’s still alive. That is the crux of it. As much as I couldn’t believe he was brought it back, it actually worked and I love the twists and turns. It’s always like 24 to push that edge of believability and I think we do that very very well. For as much as it’s unbelievable, there’s enough that’s convincing and keeps you on the edge of your seat.”

READ iF’S REVIEW OF LAST WEEK’S 24 EPISODE

SOURCE – Red Eye Chicago

Mary Lynn Rajskub wasn’t going to get sucked into gossiping about her “24” co-star, Kiefer Sutherland, on Friday.

Sutherland, who plays counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer on the Fox series, was charged with assault on Thursday after an alleged altercation at a New York bar.

“I’m sure everybody has heard more details than I have,” Rajskub told reporters Friday during a call to discuss the series and what’s coming for her character, computer whiz Chloe O’Brian. “I know that if he were with me and I needed him to protect me he would do it, and that’s pretty cool.”

Chloe-jack2Sutherland (right with Rajskub) allegedly head-butted designer Jack McCollough, co-founder of the Proenza Schouler label, during a Tuesday morning incident at Submercer nightclub in SoHo, the Associated Press reported. Brooke Shields is a potential witness in the case because, according to some reports, the confrontation began when McCollough bumped into Shields and Sutherland reacted with the head-butt. McCollough’s publicist told AP that Sutherland attacked for no reason.

Sutherland, 42, was charged with misdemeanor assault and ordered to appear in court June 22. He then returned to his New York City home.

Rajskub on Friday said she had not been in contact with her “good friend,” she had no details on the case and that, as far as she knows, it will not delay production of the show’s eighth season, which will be filmed partly in New York.

Rajskub wasn’t on the call to discuss her co-star’s troubles, however. She was promoting the final three hours of this season’s “24,” which kicks off at 7 p.m. Monday with an episode in which techies Chloe and Janice—played by Rajskub’s good buddy Janeane Garofalo (left)—are at each other’s throats.

“We do a lot of bickering in real life,” Rajskub said, “and so we were excited to bring it to television.”

She was joking about bickering in real life. The women have known each other for years, beginning when Rajskub was a stand-up comedy newbie and Garofalo was at the top of her stand-up popularity. “She told me I was funny one day and I will never forget that,” Rajskub said. “It was like getting validation from somebody that I really admired.”

She said working together “was really fun,” despite the fact that fans will see the simmering resentment between their characters explode in the two-hour May 18 season finale. Rajskub’s comedy background resurfaced when she “explained” what would happen:

“We kill each other … Oh, maybe there’s just a little hair pulling,” she said. “OK, we don’t kill each other. There’s a mud fight and hair-pulling.”

Rajskub’s pleased that she and her old friend were able to bring some comic relief to the show, even though their storyline remains intense and services the bigger action of the season. She said she’s torn about whether she wants Chloe to get away from her computers and see more action in the field, like she briefly did in Season 4. Rajskub likes being the brains of the operation at CTU, and is proud to be “a little resting place” from the more shocking events in the series.

“I think one of the reasons people like Chloe so much,” she said, “besides that I’m so incredibly sexy and irresistible, is the fact that it’s sort of a respite from everything that’s going on … You get a little moment of some office politics and some personal annoyances and some sarcastic comments. I like serving that purpose.”

Actress Mary Lynn Rajskub of ’24′ on her Chloe O’Brian character – Walker, TV Ranger – Times-Picayune – NOLA.com.

NEW YORK — To many fans, they’re two sides of the same coin: 24′s socially awkward former CTU computer geek Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) and Janis Gold (Janeane Garofalo), the equally intense FBI analyst who’s essentially filling Chloe’s official role now that she has gone rogue.

They won’t meet until the Feb. 16 episode, and before the season ends, sparks will fly. But they’ve already sized each other up while rooting out “phantom data” and reconfiguring motherboards. Chloe’s take: “These people can’t do anything right,” Rajskub says.

Says Garofalo: “We’re under the impression that each are more talented hackers than the other, even though I know deep down she’s better than me.”

The rivalry is purely fictional. The actors are longtime pals who met at a party in L.A. 15 years ago, they said as they reunited for a joint interview last week, sharing hugs and coconut lip balm. They crossed paths doing stand-up comedy — and still do — and Garofalo gave Rajskub her first TV exposure on a Comedy Central series she hosted.

Rajskub replaced Garofalo on HBO’s talk-show satire The Larry Sanders Show in 1996, and both credit star Garry Shandling’s help as an acting coach and a champion of improvisation, frowned upon on most series. “I was always really scared but really excited” by the freedom, Rajskub says. But now, “where I can’t change the words, I just make a face.”

That’s the secret of Chloe’s appeal. She has been a breakout character since first appearing in the Fox hit’s third season in 2003. “I don’t think Chloe is funny,” Rajskub insists.

“Not on purpose,” Garofalo says. But “the way you show no emotion toward people, even people you’ve been intimate with,” is a hoot. “The only people you seem to like are Jack Bauer and that guy from The Sopranos with the lisp,” she says of Louis Lombardi’s Edgar, the beloved nerve-gas victim. (As for his tragic Season 5 demise, “people still come up to me and talk about it,” Rajskub says.)

“Some people say, ‘Do you just act like Chloe?’ ” Garofalo says. But “there is only one Chloe; there is only one Mary Lynn. There’s no way to imitate it.” Besides, “as the episodes go on, because it’s such serious material, there’s no room to be wacky or kooky.”

Not on camera, anyway. But they had the perpetual giggles while shooting scenes together. “If we make eye contact, forget it, especially with that kind of dialogue,” says Garofalo, who doesn’t own a computer but hid Post-it notes on her on-screen screen because “I can’t memorize stuff I don’t understand.”

And when both returned last spring after the writers’ strike, which stretched production across 16 months, Rajskub was pregnant. “But it was the same day in 24 world,” Garofalo says. “So anytime she would walk into a scene carrying a coat or a cutout box, I would laugh so hard because of the obvious difference in the way she looked.” (Rajskub is absent from six spring episodes because of the birth of son Valentine, now 6 months old.)

Both actors “can take some of the most mundane material (and) do stuff few other actors can do” with a mere facial expression, says executive producer Howard Gordon.

But the characters “are not exactly alike,” he says. “Chloe is tone-deaf in a way; she doesn’t know when she’s saying something inappropriate,” whereas “Janis has a very self-conscious, self-aware sense of irony.”

And though Garofalo first passed on the role because she’s “steadfastly opposed” to torture, which she says is “used far too abundantly on the show,” Rajskub has a different take. “Love it,” she jokes. “Quote me on that.”