An Interview with James Morrison (Bill Buchanan, 24)

When we think of 24, instantly we feel tense and excited at the same time. Those jaw-clenching, edge-of-your-seat episodes are some of the very best television has to offer. I had the wonderful opportunity to chat with James Morrison, who portrays Bill Buchanan on the Emmy-winning series and discovered that not only is he one of the nicest actors I've had the pleasure of interviewing, but this calm and laid back actor is nothing at all like his alter ego on 24.

Q: What was it like growing up with a hugely popular name?

James: "It's funny, it wasn't hugely popular while I was growing up. I was 17-years-old when he (Jim Morrison) died. When I was in high school, it wasn't a big deal. It was a wild coincidence, but I don't remember anyone saying anything about it until I moved here. I think it became an icebreaker. I think of it in terms of what Lao Tzu said in the Tao that we desire to understand things by giving names to them. Whenever I get a comment now, I think people just want to have a common ground. I come from a long line of James Morrison's, my father, his father. It's a pretty common Scottish name."

Q: Are/Were you a Doors fan?

James: "Oh yeah, you bet! I used to drive around in my Ford Fairlane with an 8-track and listen to Strange Days. He was arguably like Mick Jagger, in the dictionary next to rock-n-roll front man. He had a really dark sensibility that was attractive to those of us who were self-destructive."

Q: I understand you teach yoga, when did you begin and what is your training to date?

James: "I started back in the day, in 1971. I met this guy, the brother of a friend of mine who would tell us these wild stories. We had no idea what yoga really was because who did at that time in the west? He would tell us stories about his guru, how they would swim out into the ocean and they would release their intestines, clean them out and put them back in. Just wild stories that we were mesmerized by and I said 'wow, this is yoga.' I was always attracted to the physical aspects of it. I was always very physical, I was an athlete and I appreciated the challenge of balance poses. I just did it to feel better physically.

It wasn't until my son was born in 1999 that I discovered and got really deep into it through a teacher named Frank White, who just passed away at 85. I became his assistant, I practiced with him three times a week and I got my own practice going and he introduced me to Ganga White and Tracey Rich at the White Lotus Foundation, where he studied to teach. Since meeting them, my life has changed enormously. That's where I studied to teach and got certified."

Q: Do you find yoga helps get you into character?

James: "I think it makes it more available to me. It's not so much that I use it as a tool. What it does make available to me is a deeper focus, concentration and awareness. It pretty much helps me to do everything."

Q: How did the role of Bill Buchanan come to you?

James: "I went in with just about every 50-year-old guy in town to read for the part, but I almost didn't. They called me to go in and it just so happened to be the day we were leaving for Hawaii for Christmas vacation. It was a couple days before they were going on hiatus for the holidays. I didn't want to go because we had frequent flyer miles and all that. After a while, you get preparation burnout and you finally just go, "listen, I have to have a life, I need to turn this one down.' My managers were insistent, in fact they were on the phone simultaneously getting me another flight. My family went without me and I stayed behind. I had never seen the show; I'm one of the few obsessive/compulsives who didn't get into it. I watched the episode where Jack kills Ryan Chappelle. I watched it the night before I went in and it blew my mind that these guys would do that. I said, 'these guys would do anything, I have to be on that show.'"

Q: How do you prepare for those jaw-clenching scenes?

James: "The great thing about this premise is that if you stay in the moment, stay firmly focused on the situation at hand, you have no problem. If you put your mind in that real time conflict, time is the enemy and it's right now. Then nothing else really matters. The only real preparation is the real time storyline. I have so much fun waiting for it to reveal itself, I can't think of much else."

Q: How far ahead of time do the actors find out about plot twists?

James: "Sometimes they find out when they read the episode when they're going to die! The first year I was there, when a script would come out, I would always ask Michael Marcellino, who does my hair, if I'm still here. They've got bigger fish to fry I think than to let everyone know what's happening before it happens. In addition to the fact that these guys are incredibly bright and they're just making it up on the fly for the most part, I think they start out with a pretty good idea of where they want to begin, but then like all of us, are thrown curve balls by events."

Q: The show's creators have said that we should be prepared for anything, even the death of Jack Bauer - do you think the series could really go on without him?

James: "I don't know the business aspects of it, but yes I think the show is bigger than Jack Bauer. It's a wonderful character and I think Kiefer is wonderful in the role and if anyone was born to a role, Kiefer was born to be Jack. I think the show and its ideas, its format, its premise and the real time aspect of the show is bigger than any one person. The great thing about this show, in spite of what people have come to believe, is no one is indispensable. The Tao of 24 is that no one is indispensable, yet the show wouldn't be what it is without them. You can't explain the show, yet this is how you explain the show."

Continue for 24 Spoilers!