Tony Todd: ’24’ producers had difficulty casting Juma role

I’ve also caught you a lot through a lot of terrific TV work, and most recently you’ve popped up in 24 again, coming through with Redemption and through to season seven. We see it as a show that’s entirely against the clock, but the shoot must be ridiculously insane, for time pressure alone?
It is. I had done season four previously and I was finishing a film in Arizona called The Graves, and they have a law that you can only be on [24] once, but I guess they had difficulty casting this part! They called me out of the blue and then I had to go and meet with Fox, and the next thing you know is that I’m on the plane to South Africa. And, of course, I said yes, as I love Howard Gordon who wrote this and is the executive producer. He gave me a job in The X-Files years ago.

It’s different when you go onto a show that’s already a success, because the crew is always well oiled and already have a way of working. They have machinery that works for them. But that character was so powerful. He stormed the White House, he slaps the president. But what I didn’t know is that if you slap the president, you are about to die!

That’s 24 law!
[Laughs] Is that it? They never gave me the law book!

Mind you, if you’ve had a second go, they might let you back in for a third try?!
There were rumors within that episode that perhaps his body would return in the end, but they went in the army direction.