What's the score on the upcoming 24 TV movie Exile At last week's TCA 2008 event in Los Angeles, Fox chose not to host a full-blown panel for 24 but did allow the press to informally mingle with 24: Exile actors Carlyle ad Bellows to get some tid bits. Airing this November as a two-hour movie, 24: Exile bridges the gap between seasons six and seven of 24, taking place on Inauguration Day while Jack Bauer is off in Africa at the outset of a coup. In the upcoming movie, Robert Carlyle plays Carl Benton, a mentor to Bauer in South Africa while Gil Bellows steps into the role of a U.S. State Department officer who subpoenas Jack back to the U.S..

In the middle of a crowded room of journalists, Robert Carlyle and Gil Bellows gave us a few interesting bits about 24: Exile, the events of that particular day, Carlyle's character, their careers, and their responses to some of the controversy surrounding 24.

How do you keep something fresh that has been going on as long as this has?

GIL BELLOWS: I think the thing that I’m beginning to hold on to, as a way of trying to grasp that question, is that there is a real commitment to the energy and the design of tension. Those ideals are always the focus of the story and I think as long as that is the focus of the story I think the audience and the creative team will be right in step with one another.

Can you tell us about your character?

BELLOWS: [whispers] No.

ROBERT CARLYLE: [laughs] I can.

Your character is a mentor to Jack Bauer?

CARLYLE I think originally he was. But I think - I don’t know if the mentor word was taken out of the script or not, I think it probably was. I mean, we can suffice it to say that these guys trained together maybe fifteen years ago, or whatever, and they’re good friends, best friends in fact. So when you pick up the story in San Gallo, you see Jack in a place where you’ve never seen him before. He’s almost at peace with himself. I mean he’s troubled; there’s no doubt about that. He’s got things on his mind, but he’s found somewhere which is peaceful to be. But of course that never lasts in 24.

Gil, Ally McBeal has been off the air for about ten years now. Are you surprised that people still talk about that show and its legacy on television in the '90s.

BELLOWS: Well, am I surprised? No, because I think it’s the show that changed the idea that a comedy had to be a half hour. I think it explored new ways of telling stories that beforehand weren’t being told in that manner and now are part of the common lexicon of how we view television, at least in one aspect of the genre of TV. So in that respect, I’m not surprised. And I think as time goes on it’ll stick around at least on some level and be considered at least more than a novelty.

Can both of you discuss kind of the epiphany that you individually had that lead you down the road to becoming actors?

CARLYLE For me it’s a little story, which is true. I remembered at school we studied The Crucible, Arthur Miller. I was fifteen or sixteen, whatever - I left school and was a house painter and became more kind of politicized as a result of that and I went back to that. I mean I thought it was a book. I remembered it being a book away from theater. I went and looked for this thing in a book shop and I was like this book The Crucible and, no, it was a play. So I read this thing and then I started reading people saying this was about McCarthy and I thought how absolutely fantastic to be able to be so eloquent about something and yet disguise it. And that was the beginning of my road to being an actor. I thought, "I want to do that. I want to disguise myself."

BELLOWS: I can break it down to two stories that happened at different times. One - my mother is a twin, she’s originally from Lyon, France, and my mother emigrated to Canada and her sister moved to Paris where she met a man, an actor. When I was a little kid my mother worked for the airlines and we would go and visit all of the time and he was the funniest guy that I knew. He was hilarious. And at that time he was working, unfortunately, ultimately he ended up struggling. But at that time he worked a lot and I would go to see him in plays. You know, three years old sitting in the wings watching this guy do his thing. I’d go on sets and see him and it seemed real to me.

Then, I guess I was about nine or ten, I went to see a movie with my grandfather, and he’s the toughest meanest guy I’ve ever met. He was a Holocaust survivor and he was a very complicated, very intense guy. But I never saw him be moved by anything. And we were at this movie - and I have to tell you I don’t remember the movie - all I remember is his response. I really wish I could tell you what the movie was, I have no idea. It was literally some Disney movie with animals, that’s all I can tell you. And there was this point where I could hear somebody crying and I looked over and he was crying. I thought, you know, something about the idea of those two things - Here’s this guy that I know that’s the funniest person I know, and this is what he does. And here’s the guy that I know who might be the meanest toughest guy that I know and he’s crying watching this movie. I thought I want to be a part of that. I want to be a storyteller. I want to be part of that whole thing.

What is your guys' response to opponents of the show [24] who say it promotes torture during interrogations?

BELLOWS: I think when you’re dealing with provocative storytelling, there’s always going to be two sides to considering it and questioning it and challenging it. I’m not the guy that’s going to answer that question for you, but I can tell you this - I think it’s important that there are programs on television that promote that kind of heated discussion. The idea of censoring material like that, and saying that it shouldn’t be shown because maybe it’s questionable, or maybe it isn’t, I’d have a much bigger problem with that than with the idea of what you were asking.