Tonight we’re talking with John Boyd, the actor who plays Arlo Glass, a systems analyst and the Drone Operator at CTU. While Arlo the character can seem somewhat sardonic and immature from time to time, John Boyd, the actor who plays him, is friendly, clever and understated. John was working primarily in New York in theatre before landing the role of CTU’s newest tech-person.
The character Arlo is a sign of the times in the ever-changing world of defense methodology and technology. As we all know from the news, drones are now a critical and controversial part of the fight in the war on terror. And they’re also being used increasingly in other aspects of security from U.S. border protection to search and rescue.
But the drones aren’t the only thing Arlo handles at CTU. He also juggles his workload with the highly complicated, computer-centered operations that CTU runs in the field. Arlo is a mainstay in the CTU bullpen as he helps to coordinate what’s happening on the ground, in the field, with what’s happening back at headquarters.
Shauna and I had a chance to sit down with John and talk to him a little bit about his character. We were glad to have an excuse to talk to him about how he landed the role, his history as a performer, some of the fun and challenging aspects of coming to work at CTU and how he thinks Arlo fits in at CTU and in the wider world.
What do you like about Arlo?
Arlo seems to have a thing for Dana Walsh – what kind of guy do you think he is? Is he really awkward around women?
Several of the actors have also told us that the tech jargon is hard to do, with all the detail-oriented dialogue. Has it been for you as well?
Because Arlo handles the drones in CTU, and those are so sophisticated as security measures, did you do any research of your own for the part?
Source: Network 24
