James Cromwell played Jack Bauer's murderous dad on 24

So, last week I was on the phone with James Cromwell, the super talented character actor you’ve seen in Babe, L.A. Confidential, ER, The West Wing and a gazillion other movies and TV shows.

Cromwell will be in town this week for The Palm Beach International Film Festival. You know Cromwell’s been around ’cause he’s receiving the festival’s Career Achievement Award. An award that’s well deserved, by the way.

We had a nice chat and talked about everything from charges that his director-father was a communist to what it was like playing George Herbert Walker Bush in W.

The beauty of interviewing Cromwell is that he’s extremely candid (we entertainment reporters love those types!) and has no problem saying what’s on his mind. When I asked him what it was like playing Jack Bauer’s murderous dad on 24, well, as expected, Cromwell told me what he really thought.

“I had never seen 24. My agent said (the producers) asked me to do an arc on the show and that a lot of people watch it and it would be a good thing to do. But my character was bizarre. Not knowing the show, I went to the producers and said, ‘Look, this guy kills his one son, attempts to kill his grandson for his…legacy? Are there any redeeming qualities to this character at all?’ They looked me as though I was speaking Greek. Where’s the human being in this guy? Then I see this one-star general – great uniform – standing on the set and I thought, ‘Damn, that’s a great costume, but I don’t remember a general in this episode.’ I said, ‘What are you doing here?’ He said, ‘I just came to visit.’ He was the Commandant of West Point. I’m thinking he was in L.A. and somebody said go to the set of 24. I asked why he came and he said he was there to talk to the producers because the representation of torture on 24 was confusing the school’s gradates and they were going into combat zones not being sure of the appropriateness of the techniques they have seen lauded on 24.”

“He said they were just as liable to take out a knife and stick it in the thigh of some Iraqi to get a piece of information thinking, ‘Well, Jack Bauer did it and it seemed to be effective.’ He talked to the producers and was rebuffed and was told if he had a problem, to remember 24 was just a TV show and if he had a problem with torture, he should talk to the people in Washington. I still think that aspect of the show is irresponsible. I understand shoot’em-ups, what I don’t understand is that in a time of war to believe that the use of torture is effective. I think that’s really (bleeping) reprehensible. But my piddling difference with them made no difference.”

“But I expressed myself in no uncertain terms every time I was asked. Needless to say, I wasn’t asked back. I understand that it makes a good story, but what I thought the Commandant was trying to convey was torture is not only illegal and is a crime, but it doesn’t work. It does not protect us.”