Dennis Haysbert

I would love a combination of action/adventure and... love. And stories told with heart. I would like people to be invigorated as well as moved. People to see the movie and see that. I love to play, y'know, well-rounded characters.

I played a little basketball, but basketball interfered with theater season. That's when we did our term plays and did nutshell versions of Shakespeare for English classes. And, believe me, I got a fair amount of looks from the guys on the team. 'You're in theater but you can play football?'

I've studied theater since high school. Of course, it's a different story altogether being on Broadway, but it's still theater, and you have to be in front of a live audience, and that's very exciting. It's something I've definitely wanted to do, but I got involved in movies and television, and then it became a luxury to get back on the stage.

People want good stories.

I have always thought of myself as an athlete - even at the ripe old age of 52.

I pride myself on being limber.

The bottom line is people are people, and the sooner we realise that, the better off things are going to be.

I really do believe that was what I was put on this planet to do: to give to people and, through my performances, show them another world - in the case of '24,' to show them what a politician, black or white, should be. Basically, I wanted to be a service to others.

Dad worked as a security guard for United Airlines, and Mom was a housewife who cleaned houses to make ends meet.

My father was Catholic, my mom Baptist, so we were raised Baptist but had a lot of Catholic upbringing: fish on Fridays, no birth control.