Kim Raver: “the stakes become very, very high”

Kim Raver signing posters at the 24: Live Another Day Premiere Screening in NYC
Kim Raver signing posters at the 24: Live Another Day Premiere Screening in NYC

Kim Raver never would have thought she’d one day get a phone call asking if she’d like to revive her Audrey character in a reboot of “24” nearly four years after the hit series went off the air.

“It’s just never been like that…With television, it’s like when something is done, it’s done,” Raver told CBS News. “There was a little part of me that kind of mourned leaving that character because you get very attached especially after two, three, four years…Yes, people talked about it maybe being a film, but you would have never imagined that you’d have possibility of ever revisiting as a series. So, when you get that call, you’re like, ‘Yes, of course!'”

“You always want to do justice to what you started…You want to make sure you care for it because there is that pressure,” said Raver who appeared on the original show from 2004-2007. “The fans are such huge fans so you want to do justice by them….I just really trusted the writers. They did so many stories. I felt like we can’t go wrong. For me it’s like…let’s just keep telling the story.”

“For me, it’s always so amazing once you start getting half way or three-quarters because then the stakes become unbearable and things start happening. Even me who knows the character, I literally was gasping about the stuff that was coming up,” she said. “You have an idea, but you don’t know. Just the payoff gets even bigger because you know the character so well. Then there are things that happen that you can’t believe are happening. You’re so emotionally engaged because the stakes become very, very high.”

There’s no official word yet if “24: Live Another Day” will live to see another season. Even Raver is on the edge of her seat: “It really forces you to be in the moment because you just don’t know. Just when you think you know something, you really don’t know it…I feel like I’m really alive in the moment because you don’t really have a choice. As the scripts were coming out, they [the writers] would be like, ‘Oh don’t read that — the scene is changing.’…Anytime you do ’24’ you never know what’s coming down the pike, so just be ready for it.”

Source CBS News

28 Comments

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I’m seriously hoping sista gets to shoot Cheng dead. She could give him her season 5 crazy eyes, too.

Just imagine: if Jack Bauer is willing to throw a terrorist that he has almost no personal connection to out of a window, imagine what he will do to Cheng during one of the next two episodes.

I saw this and it made me very nervous. I get the feeling there’s going to be some surprising twist with her character this week, and that’s almost never a good thing on this show.

I hope that Audrey has a panic attack or a mini-break down due to all of these horrible revelations coming out at once. Within the same hour, she realizes her husband is going to prison for being a traitor and the person who tortured her for more than a year straight has resurfaced. That could take a serious toll on someone, especially someone who used to be in a catatonic state like Audrey.

There are three scenarios I wouldn’t like though:
A. Audrey kills Mark – That would be taking it way too far; just have her unleash a few slaps on ’em like she did to Jack after Paul’s death, put him in prison, and end his character right there.

B. Audrey goes completely nuts again when everything comes out – I don’t think this will happen, but I wouldn’t like it if it did. To me, it would completely defeat the point of bringing her character back.

C. Audrey kills herself – This one is as bad as B, probably worse. This would destroy Jack and honestly I just want to see him happy at this point, (even if he’s dead, which I also don’t want.) I also don’t think this one is likely, either.

Seconded. I don’t know if you’ve looked at the sneak peeks already posted or not, but the one in which
Jack calls to tell everyone that Cheng’s back
seems to feed into this.
Audrey’s reaction – more kudos to Kim Raver here – is pure fear and terror.
I feel like if there was a time for it, now would be it. She did mention in past interviews that the script for episode 11 made her gasp out loud – it could just be the Cheng reveal, but it could be something more.

Damn, this show has me on the edge of my seat and I love it. The stakes are definitely higher now that Cheng is back in the mix.

Love the new spoiler blocks, and the people that use them!

Nope, I refuse to watch the previews now because of how much Fox shows before an episode airs. Sometimes now I’ll go back after I’ve seen the episode to see what Fox spoiled the week before, and it’s insane!

I’m also thinking Kim Raver might’ve gasped out loud at either
Chloe’s
death,
Cheng’s
death, or maybe at how dark Audrey has gotten. I saw in a Latin American promo that
she tells Jack to “kill him,”
and I assumed she meant
Cheng.


I’m also assuming that she is talking about
Cheng
in that promo.

We shall see…

Yeah, I’m really afraid to watch the clips this week too especially anything with Chloe or Audrey.

I really hope that Audrey kills Cheng.

I really hope that Audrey kills Cheng too.

Why are we using spoiler blocks for baseless speculation? This is ridiculous.

Yeah there’s no need to use spoiler tags for speculation or wishes, have fixed a few comments.

The primary purpose of the spoiler tag function is so that people can discuss certain spoilers (like promos or sneak peeks which not everyone watches) without spoiling it for others. Hope that clears everything up.

I guess people feel really confident about their theories.

Look, I think Chole’s end is near I fear. With her family gone, Adrian and her Open Cell grp all gone, it seems that the writing is on the wall.

Does anyone have any idea what the time jump will be about in eps 12? 10pm – 11am

I dunno if Audrey will kill Cheng. It’d be compelling to see how she’d react being face to face with him, but you’d think that her father would ensure he couldn’t possibly get anywhere near her, so I dunno that she’d ever have the opportunity to kill him.

Jack wouldn’t want her anywhere near Cheng either. He wouldn’t want to risk her ending up in Cheng’s clutches again, and possibly getting killed. If she even just saw him she’d either break down traumatised or lash out and try to kill him, neither of which Jack would want. He knows how a revenge kill weighs on you and he wouldn’t want Audrey to endure that on top of everything else. He’d take it on himself though. If he shot Cheng point blank in the head I daresay he’d be doing it because of what happened to Audrey, moreso than what Cheng did to him. He’d also be doing it so Audrey could feel safe, which begs the question if sometimes there can be some good and satisfaction that comes with a revenge motivated kill.

I’ve got this image in my head of Jack having Cheng at gunpoint, and he gets all smug and asks how Audrey is these days then he eats a bullet (or 10) for having dared to speak her name.

But Phee, I’m presuming you’ve watched the previews on next week; if you have not seen them then “treat this as a Spoil Alert” and Stop Now! Don’t read any further!

Phee here’s the reality Audrey blithely tells her father about her lady friend at the Chinese Embassy that she worked with last year on a very big and somewhat long project who she believes will trust what Audrey has to say to her.

And her dad tells Audrey to go there!!! Go ahead and leave the safety of the White House and go talk with the woman, who may not even be there any more, go to her embassy!!! Yes I also presume that she’ll have the Secret Service with her, but Geez Louise why go there at all? They could nab her going down a hallway to the ladies room and on a ship out of the country before anyone would know she wasn’t with the woman who wasn’t there in the first place. RUN AUDREY RUN!!! BETTER YET DON’T GO!! Why not bring her to the White House?

JackBauerFan1977
July 6, 2014 at 7:32 am
The White House isn’t in London, it’s in Washington, DC. So, there is no way that Audrey could have spent any time at the White House during this ninth season of 24.

Thanks, I am well aware of where the physical White House is, but like “Air Force One'” whatever plane the president is on becomes “Air Force One” as does any place the where the President has set up his “Off Site White House” in this case our London Embassy is then the symbolic White House. It would certainly be treated with the same security which is what I was referring to. Audrey would be leaving a secure area to then go to an embassy not safe for her to be in at this time is all I meant

Yes I’ve seen the sneak peeks and I wouldn’t describe either Audrey or Heller’s moods as being “blithe”. She does appear to be in a car in the promos so she’s gonna be going to meet someone, but she’s hardly gonna turn around from that convo with her dad and skip right out the front door and hail a random cab. If she’s going somewhere, it’s gonna be for a planned meeting in a secure place and she won’t be going alone.

If we had more time left, I’d think it more likely that there’s an Audrey-being-kidnapped-on-the-way-to-her-meeting detour ahead. But assuming the finale will be 1 hour, which will include some time after the time jump, that means they’ve got less than 2 hours to wrap this immediate threat situation up, so I think it’s more likely that Audrey will safely do her diplomatic thing while Jack goes and hunts down Cheng.

…and here is a time where spoiler tags are very appropriate.

Hope Audrey gets her revenge on Cheng after what he did to her during Season Six.

JackBauerFan1977
July 6, 2014 at 7:40 am
I’m predicting that Audrey will get kidnapped by Cheng Zhi and his henchmen when she’s on her way to see her lady friend at the Chinese Embassy and that Jack will save her life by killing Cheng and all of his thug friends. Those would certainly all be explosive, emotional, tense and adrenaline filled moments for sure.

I’d be pretty bummed if they did that. Audrey being kidnapped would be very cliche and repetitive.

However, it would be interesting if her contact at the embassy is secretly working with Cheng. I know that he’s much like Jack in that his government abandoned him, but it would be interesting if Cheng had sympathizers in the Chinese government (it’s not like anyone ever truly abandoned Jack, except for when he abandoned everyone else at the end of season 8). It would be an easy way for Cheng to get close to Audrey and possibly use her as leverage. Again, very repetitive of season 6, but I like throwing theories out there.

I really dont want to see Audrey taken for the third time. That ship has sailed a long time ago. What I would like to see is Audrey and Jack seek revenge for the time they’ve spent in China. Also, I wonder if the finale will include a trip on Air Force One. Maybe Jack will be on the plane with Heller and Audrey returning back to The United States when something happens on board. They did mention that that final scenes were shot inside a closed studio. Who knows….

Cheng appears on board!

“Surely you’re aware mr. Bowa. Ex-Chinese agents still have wong memory. Onry 18 minutes ago you destwoyed the overwide”

Audrey Heller has to be one of the most developed characters of 24. Over the course of season 4 through Live Another Day, I felt deeply attached to her. Kim Raver knows how to play with nuances and subtleties that other female characters lack.

Agreed, and that’s why I’m seriously hoping Audrey doesn’t die in the finale. Yes, 24 really loves their damsels in distress, but I wouldn’t really consider Audrey to be much of a damsel. When we first met her she needed Jack to bail her out, yes, but she really came into her own, and that’s one of the reasons why I really love Season 5 in particular – Audrey gets to do her thing and it’s kind of awesome.

To paraphrase a debate in another thread, someone argued that Audrey was similar to Kim and Teri in that she lacks resilience and inner strength. Fortunately, sprite countered that girl has enough resilience and strength to go around, and that’s kind of cool for an early 2000s era action/thriller where most women end up dying or being used as bargaining chips or pawns (though regrettably, Audrey is often the bargaining chip du jour these days).

And of course, Kim Raver’s facial expressions and subtleties are awesome. She was killing it when Jack was first brought into the Faux White House despite being trapped in the same room with Mark “2nd Place” Boudreau, and I hope I’m not the only person who noticed that her hands were repeatedly twitching in the same rotation for the rest of last night’s episode whenever they were shown. My eyes were glued to her split-screen during the entire phone call about Cheng.

tl;dr: i’ll be very angry with the writers if they kill Audrey. They promised this season wouldn’t be wrapped up in a neat little bow, and taking her out would be the easiest way to wrap up over ten years of angst, will-they-or-won’t-they, and the saga of one of the best characters this show has ever had. It wouldn’t do it justice. I wouldn’t be as upset if Jack and Audrey don’t get their happy ending together, but I would rather see Audrey be strong one last time instead of getting a fate similar to Renee.