Chip Howard: Right now we’re joined on the telephone line by actress Annie Wersching. Annie how are you?
Annie Wersching: I’m great, how are you?
Chip Howard: We’re great, we thank you very much for taking the time. I want to get the unpleasant stuff out of the way first if I could.
Annie Wersching: Yes?
Chip Howard: You know where I’m going with this, don’t you?
Annie Wersching: The red birds?
Chip Howard: Yeah, the red birds. Broke my heart, Annie.
Annie Wersching: Aww, I’m sorry about that, but it made mine burst. I don’t know what we can do about that. *laughs*
Chip Howard: Did you go to any of the games?
Annie Wersching: I did not, I wasn’t able to. I had tickets for game 2 and then I ended up not being able to go. But I watched, big time.
Chip Howard: You participated in the old celebrity softball game in the All-Star game, right? A couple years ago at Busch [Stadium].
Annie Wersching: I did, it was one of the most unbelievable days of my life. I was batting between Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee. I’m like “What?” *laughs*
Chip Howard: Did you get some pointers from them?
Annie Wersching: I did, yeah. They said “Keep your eye on the ball” or something, I dunno. *Laughs*.
Chip Howard: You were playing catcher!
Annie Wersching: I was, was taking some fast pitches.
Chip Howard: You’re sitting out there without a mask, anything. What’s the deal?
Annie Wersching: *Laughs* I don’t know. I think they thought Renee Walker was there instead of me or something.
Chip Howard: You go back with a black eye, that’s not going to go well on the set.
Annie Wersching: I know, they’d have to write it into a scene or something!
Chip Howard: You mentioned Renee, I have to ask you about 24 cause we’re just huge 24 fans here. Any chance that Renee comes back to life for the movie?
Annie Wersching: You know? Hey, Tony Almeida came back to life.
Chip Howard: Exactly!
Annie Wersching: So you never know, it’s possible. I think she could have maybe an evil twin somewhere, all kinds of stuff…
Chip Howard: Yeah, exactly!
Annie Wersching: In my world, she’s going to be back. In reality? I’m not sure about it.
Chip Howard: I keep hearing they’re doing the movie, I keep hearing the scripts going to be done after the first of the year.
Annie Wersching: I know, I know. That’s pretty much what I keep hearing too. And supposedly, Kiefer says, they’ll be filming next year. So…
Chip Howard: So no one has talked to you about it?
Annie Wersching: No, unfortunately no. I don’t think they’ve done much of anything yet. I think all they really know so far is that Jack Bauer will be involved.
Chip Howard: What was the experience like for you just in terms of your career? And obviously you’ve had a great career, but that was such a high-profile role for you.
Annie Wersching: Oh yeah. I’m definitely finding a transition here, when I’m playing other things now I always feel like “Wow, Renee Walker was just about as cool as they get” as far as an amazing role with a cool arc and to be on such a historic show. And I was a huge fan of the show before I joined, so it was just unbelievable.
Chip Howard: How much are you recognized from that? How much do people yell at you “Renee!”.
Annie Wersching: You know it’s usually more something like, people are convinced that we’re friends or they know me. And I have to eventually go “Uh…” People think we played on a softball team together or something, but I have to go “No, it’s TV, it’s 24” and they’re like “Oh my gosh!” so once they figure it out, they’re excited.
Chip Howard: When did you know you were going to get killed off? Were you only signed for a year? That last year on Season 7.
Annie Wersching: Well I did Season 7, and then…
Chip Howard: Oh, you were buried alive in season 7.
Annie Wersching: I was, all kinds of fun things.
Chip Howard: Oh yeah, and shot, oh yeah!
Annie Wersching: And the end of season 7, I didn’t know if I was coming back or not, but I knew that it looked good. And then right before we started season 8, they told me that the plans for the general idea of season 8 as a whole. And so I knew I was going to not make it, which was sad.
Chip Howard: Believe me, as soon as you and Jack [hooked up], I knew that was over.
Annie Wersching: I know, I know, right?
Chip Howard: I knew you had no shot, no shot as soon as Jack told you [that he loved you]. *Laughs*
Annie Wersching: From a smooch, trouble.
Chip Howard: That was big trouble. In fact, that didn’t last about thirty seconds. *Laughs*
Annie Wersching: I know *laughs*.
Chip Howard: Tell me about the Hawaii Five-0, the episode just aired recently.
Annie Wersching: Yeah, that was fun. A free trip to Hawaii to go work is always fun.
Chip Howard: Not bad.
Annie Wersching: It was cool, there were actually some people from the 24 crew there, so that’s always fun to go back and see some family. The guys were really nice, and it was beautiful. It was a good couple of weeks.
Chip Howard: Now that’s the good news. The bad news is, I know you shot a pilot did you not?
Annie Wersching: I did, I shot a pilot in the Spring for ABC that we shot in Atlanta. And it was a cool little concept. We did not get picked up however. But you know, that’s how these things go, they shoot a lot of pilots and they pick up a small handful and just wait for the next one, you know?
Chip Howard: So no chance that will be resurrected at any point?
Annie Wersching: No, I don’t think so. It’s just onward and upward to the next.
Chip Howard: So what are you working on now?
Annie Wersching: I’m actually working, I’m guesting on a pilot now called Inception — I mean, sorry, called Intercept. That was a good movie though *laughs*. It’s called Intercept, and I’m working on that these couple of weeks and we’ll see how that goes, if that gets picked up.
Chip Howard: When will you know that? When will you know if that will get picked up?
Annie Wersching: Probably not for a few months. It’s usually in the Spring, it takes a while. The process is long and sort of annoying *laughs*.
Chip Howard: Annoying is one word. You put all this work in, like you did on this last project, and then nothing happens. That has to be extremely frustrating.
Annie Wersching: It is, it’s just unbelievable how much money they spend on all these pilots, to just, like I said, pick up a small handful. It’s baffling. But I don’t know much about the television, I would not want to be a network person or a producer who has to decide all that stuff.
Chip Howard: Did they ever bring people in to watch these and go “Hey I like it”, do they have test groups in that?
Annie Wersching: Oh, absolutely. I would have to say it all rides on the test groups. Maybe a little too much *laughs*. When they have it all finally put together and stuff, it tests like crazy all over. And it’s up to these people in a room pressing buttons… And yeah, it’s interesting.
Chip Howard: You kinda came up in maybe classic training, you were more singing, dancing, correct? That was your training was it not?
Annie Wersching: Yeah, I was a musical theater girl. I majored in musical theater and I guess I technically should have gone to New York. I toured with a musical that closed in Los Angeles and I go, “Oh I’ll stay out here for a little bit” and I just never left. I really like it, I love the sunshine…
Chip Howard: Yeah, what’s not to like? Do you miss theater?
Annie Wersching: I do! I do. It’s one of those things I feel like “God, would I remember how to do it now?” I’m sure it’s one of those things where it’s like riding a bike, but it’s been a while, now I’m like.. TV’s the comfortable zone.
Chip Howard: That would be something that you’d revisit, if something came along, maybe you’d do something like that?
Annie Wersching: Oh absolutely, yeah, absolutely. I would love to go do something and brush up on my chops, do some singing. Yeah, that’d be great.
Chip Howard: And the film work? Obviously right now, you’re doing a lot of television but would you like to do more film work?
Annie Wersching: Of course, I would love to. It’s interesting, cause a lot of the film actors right now are all coming to television.
Chip Howard: Yeah, exactly.
Annie Wersching: So even the TV world is a little bit harder to… I wanna be like, hey film folks, get outta here! *Laughs*
Chip Howard: Exactly. They’re taking your paychecks.
Annie Wersching: Yeah! It’s okay. Maybe I’ll have to go in and steal some of theirs, we’ll see.
Chip Howard: What was General Hospital like?
Annie Wersching: It was interesting, it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do for sure.
Chip Howard: Just because you had to know a bunch of lines every day?
Annie Wersching: Oh it’s unbelievable how much you have to [remember]. On 24 we’d maybe shoot seven or eight pages of the script a day depending on what you’re doing. But on General Hospital it was more like forty to sixty pages a day.
Chip Howard: Wow!
Annie Wersching: It was unbelievable. You’d basically spit out the word, say it once, and you’re moving on. And so it was great training, unbelievable training that’s for sure.
Chip Howard: Why are the soaps going away do you think?
Annie Wersching: Oh man. I don’t know exactly. I don’t know if it’s just people are out and about more, it’s obviously viewers. But I don’t know what everyones doing instead of watching them.
Chip Howard: Maybe it’s cause there are so many soap kind of shows at night now. It seems to me. Right?
Annie Wersching: Yeah, that’s true. Yeah, maybe.
Chip Howard: So what are you onto now? Besides what you’re doing, what do you have on the future? What do we look for?
Annie Wersching: Well it’s pretty much just this pilot that I’m working on right now and seeing how that goes. And I just came back from Hawaii Five-0 and that’s pretty much…
Chip Howard: Did you ask to stay out there? Do a couple, three more episodes for a while?
Annie Wersching: That would be, I would not complain! *Laughs*
Chip Howard: All right, so can we start a campaign to get you on the 24 movie?
Annie Wersching: Absolutely, for sure.
Chip Howard: You wouldn’t mind that?
Annie Wersching: I’ll sign it, yes.
Chip Howard: Okay, excellent. Outstanding! Hey, I love your work and I really appreciate you spending a few minutes with us.
Annie Wersching: Thank you, thank you so much.
Chip Howard: But I still don’t like the Cardinals.
Annie Wersching: Well I’m sorry, I think? *Laughs*
Chip Howard: Heartbroken, heartbroken.
Annie Wersching: I’m sorry.
Chip Howard: Hey Annie, thanks so much. We really enjoyed it.
Annie Wersching: Thank you so much.
Chip Howard: That’s Annie Wersching, Renee Walker of 24 fame.