2/26/2007


The following article appeared in the October 22, 2006 issue of Parade Magazine





12/8/2006


Former `24' prez loves new `Unit' role

FRAZIER MOORE
AP Television Writer


Dennis Haysbert makes no secret of the satisfaction he gets from his role on "The Unit."

As Jonas Blane, leader of a covert team of Special Forces operatives, he gets to play a man of fierce conviction and unyielding courage.

Also, a man of action.

With a flash of pride, Haysbert describes the scene from a recent episode where Blane and his "undercover wife," their cover blown, dodge bullets in a perilous escape from the villa of a corrupt Latin American official.

"I had to fashion a rappelling harness on myself and the actress at the edge of a cliff," he explains. "I didn't have to go down too far in the shot, but I had to know it would work — and with someone else on my back. And I had to do it pretty fast. I was taught right there, minutes beforehand.

"The physical action I love. It keeps me in shape," says Haysbert, who, at 52, surely is. "But it's not just action for action's sake. I think it's something that's going to inspire."

Airing Tuesday at 9 p.m. EST on CBS, "The Unit" premiered last March as an unusual blend: a tough-guy drama reinforced with tough-enough wives, who tackle patriotic duties of their own on the home front.

If members of the unit aren't racing to Afghanistan to take out a Taliban leader, they're dropping everything to rescue missionaries hiding out in the Philippines. And when the phone call comes and each man gets his top-secret orders, his wife responds in the necessary way: She suppresses a sigh and lets him go, then carries on with her workaday domestic support, all the while guarding secrets she will never know.

"On the base, these ladies have to find ways to navigate the maze of protocols: the Army's idea of what's right and wrong, what's accepted and not accepted," Haysbert notes. "And they're in a constant state of ignorance."

"The Unit" was created by David Mamet, whose writing revels in the male psyche. Executive producer Shawn Ryan was creator of the gritty FX cop drama, "The Shield." And it draws on the experiences of writer-supervising producer Eric L. Haney, who served in the Army's secret counter-terrorist Delta Force.

So the tales are not only gripping, they also have the ring of authenticity.

"Unlike most shows," says Haysbert, "there's a foundation of truth."

Haysbert — whose co-stars include Scott Foley, Robert Patrick and Regina Taylor as Blane's wife — has a history playing men of character and dignity.

In 1992, he starred opposite Michelle Pfeiffer in "Love Field," a film about a couple drawn to each other in the aftermath of the assassination of President Kennedy. Four years ago, "Far From Heaven" placed him in another story of interracial love: as a gardener who befriends Julianne Moore's Connecticut housewife, circa 1957.

But it was on Fox's thriller "24" that Haysbert made an indelible impression on the public. He was strong and heroic as President David Palmer, the nation's first black chief executive, in a performance that surely got Americans thinking such a thing in real life isn't so farfetched, and is maybe overdue.

At six-feet-four, with a rich baritone, Haysbert commands the screen, as well as any room he happens to occupy. Breakfasting in a Manhattan restaurant, he seems to catch the eye of half the other diners, any of whom might readily help vote him into office were he running for something (or at least consider buying a policy from Allstate, for whom he serves as TV spokesman). He's not just an actor, but a man of some influence.

"There are people who hang onto the words that we say and the things that we do — and believe it," says Haysbert, summing up his approach to acting. "Yes, it's entertainment. But I think if we're going to do it, it's worth being responsible."

Growing up in San Mateo, Calif., the eighth of nine children, Haysbert learned about scoring the approval of spectators as an avid high school athlete in football, basketball and track.

But acting promised even more than applause from onlookers.

"If I did my job right, I could make them cheer — but if I did my job right, I could ALSO quiet them," he says. "I could make them FEEL what I was feeling."

Maybe so. But as a young black man entering the market in the mid-1970s with few role models besides Sidney Poitier — well, what made him think he could make a go of acting?

"I don't know ... I don't know," he says quietly, but does know: "Tenacity. I kept believing that I could do it. That being black didn't matter, and that if I had the talent, I should be able to do what I wanted to do.

"As far as I was concerned, the sky was the limit," says Haysbert, who has played a president and now, as an unsung death-defying patriot, helps safeguard the homeland every week. "So why not me? Why not?"



8/20/2006


The following article appeared in the July 3, 2006 issue of TV Guide Magazine





The following article appeared in the May 12, 2006 issue of Entertainment Weekly Magazine





3/30/2006


The following interview appeared in the March 20, 2006 issue of TV Guide Magazine





The following article appeared in the Winter 2005 issue of Biography Magazine





2/12/2005


Dennis Haysbert clocks back in on '24'

By Bill Keveney
USA TODAY


LOS ANGELES — Hail to the former chief.

24 gets a bracing shot of leadership Monday (Fox, 9 ET/PT) when Dennis Haysbert returns as David Palmer, a former president called back into action to advise a shaky interim commander in chief.

Palmer "helps to keep things in balance and helps with tough decisions," says Haysbert, who will appear in the final six episodes of this fourth season.

The return of a decisive leader such as Palmer will be "a very welcome thing" for counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), says Haysbert. Bauer has had his frustrations this season with dithering bosses, including the weak-kneed vice president Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin), forced into the top job after the sitting president was incapacitated.

Bauer and Palmer bonded in the first season, when Palmer was a presidential candidate and foreign enemies tried to force Bauer to assassinate him. He ended up saving Palmer, and the two have worked closely — almost always over Bauer's ever-present, ever-charged cell phone — to save the world since then. "We finally get that one-two punch going again," Haysbert says.

Haysbert, whose Palmer chose not to seek a second term at the end of last season, is one of a number of past 24 regulars to return for parts of a season. "It's something we've done every single year. People grow to like these characters," executive producer Howard Gordon says. "When we can insinuate them back into the story, we love it. That familiarity is worth something."

The producers wanted to find a way to bring back Haysbert, with his tall, commanding presence and deep, authoritative voice. So they critically injured his presidential successor, John Keeler (Geoff Pierson), having him improbably survive an air-to-air missile strike and plane crash. Killing him would have been a more controversial choice and wasn't necessary to achieve the producers' goal, Gordon says.

"Dennis has been an absolute mainstay of the show. He's really one of my favorites," Gordon says. "I think he's often called Mr. President. He's even been approached to run for office." One early idea had Palmer strapping on a gun and joining Bauer in the field. "We felt that was a little far-fetched," Gordon says.

It's not as if Haysbert, 50, has been entirely gone from 24. As an Allstate spokesman, he regularly appears in commercials during the show, which is up 26% this season with an average 12.3 million viewers.

In the time away from 24, Haysbert acted in a CBS pilot, The Unit, the story of a military anti-terrorism unit being produced by The Shield's Shawn Ryan and playwright David Mamet. He also will appear in the upcoming feature film Jarhead, based on a Marine's experience in the 1991 Gulf War, and an ABC miniseries about ancient Rome, Empire.

Haysbert says he would have liked to appear for the full 24 season, but the six episodes will help Palmer "get a little closure," he says. "I still feel like a regular. It's just that I was out of the loop for a while."



Hail to the '24' Chief


By Jenelle Riley

From Reuters TV
6/19/2003


LOS ANGELES (Back Stage) - "Hey, Mr. President," the limo driver calls out his window before waving and driving off.

Dennis Haysbert, standing in front of the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, smiles and waves, looking something between bemused and flattered. A minute later, a woman standing yards away shouts, "I love you," before going on to say how jealous her publicist is going to be that she got to meet him. He is calm and gracious to all his admirers. He shakes their hands, hears their compliments, and generally handles the situations as smoothly as -- well, a politician.

Martin Sheen may have shown up first in The West Wing, but television audiences are currently embracing Haysbert as their favorite leader. After spending his first season on the hit show 24 as Sen. David Palmer, Haysbert received a promotion in the show's second season to president of the United States. With the help of Kiefer Sutherland's federal agent Jack Bauer, Palmer spent the last year trying to track a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles and prevent a major world war. Along the way he had his presidency stripped away by a back-stabbing cabinet, was forced to work alongside his devious ex-wife, and -- in the jarring season finale -- was the victim of a biological assassination attempt. It is unknown whether Palmer survived the attack, and even Haysbert doesn't know yet if he'll be returning to the show in the fall.

Even if the show's creators are foolish enough to kill off Palmer, Dennis Haysbert will survive just fine. After years of solid and steady work in film and television roles, Haysbert is riding high on the success of 24 and his commanding work in last year's Far From Heaven. In addition to finally being recognized for his work, he is becoming equally well known for that voice. A low bass that would make James Earl Jones tremble, Haysbert's distinctive velvet vocals will be on full display in Dreamworks' upcoming animated feature Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. Haysbert plays Kale, the 7-foot-tall first mate to Brad Pitt's Sinbad. The father of two young children, Haysbert quickly cleared up any misconceptions that he did this movie for the kids.

"I did it for myself," he said, laughing. "(DreamWorks principal) Jeffrey Katzenberg called and said, 'We have this role we want you to do.' I was very happy and very proud and very excited that they chose this particular script because it's a great story."

Haysbert has other fans in high places. "I think my voice was best described in Oprah's June magazine. I made her O Man section, and they said: 'The voice is deep and smoky."' Haysbert allowed himself a small smile. "I liked that."

Haysbert attended the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena and after graduation began landing work fairly quickly in television. Recalling how he landed his first agent, Haysbert said, "I sent out 100 pictures and resumes and took the first person who called. Which is probably not the best way to do it." Asked if he is still with that agent and Haysbert quickly shook his head. "No, but it was worth having for the time I had him. Then I was with another agent for a while who was one of my classmates at the Academy."

Today, Haysbert has an agent (Lorrie Bartless at the Gersh Agency), a voiceover agent, a manager, a publicist, and an attorney -- the attorney, he joked, is a "requisite."


IN THE MAJORS


During the 1980s, Haysbert appeared regularly on television in everything from Buck Rogers to The A-Team, but his first film came as the voodoo-practicing baseball player Pedro Cerrano in the 1989 comedy Major League. Haysbert credited writer/director David S. Ward for giving him his first big break in what remains one of his best experiences to this day.

"It's the most fun I've had on a movie," Haysbert raved. "I was playing baseball and getting paid for it." Perhaps his biggest opportunity came in 1992, when Denzel Washington dropped out of the lead opposite Michelle Pfeiffer in Love Field. " Jonathan Kaplan gave me an enormous break. I was in the mix, but they went with Eriq LaSalle. For some reason, he didn't work out, so they brought me back in. That was a really arduous audition process. It was a very stressful time because it was such a huge break."

Haysbert then appeared in other high-profile films (Heat, Absolute Power). When asked if he feels like he's just broken into the mainstream consciousness with his recent hits, he mused: "I've always thought I was in the mainstream. I just think people knew me but didn't know my name. I was a little obscure. These last two projects have definitely opened up a lot of doors and let a lot of people know who I am."

When 24 premiered in fall 2001, it won critical raves for its innovative real-time storytelling format and plotlines ripped from tomorrow's headlines. The main storyline revolved around a plot to assassinate the first viable African-American presidential candidate, David Palmer. As originally portrayed, Palmer was a man without any visible faults.

"He had to be squeaky clean," Haysbert insisted. "Had to be. They would have found any kind of chink in his armor to exploit. He had to be damn near perfect."

In Season Two, the show had gone from cult favorite to bona fide hit, and Haysbert was now playing the first African-American president, a responsibility he doesn't take lightly. "I think it has, first and foremost, seriously put it in people's minds that it is possible," he said. "Especially in light of the last couple of years, with things that have happened in this country and around the world, the last thing we should be thinking about is the color of our president's skin."

Haysbert's portrayal has been so well-received that he is asked to run for office, he estimated, at least "three times a day." Recently he went to Washington, D.C., to participate in a panel discussion on how Hollywood portrays D.C. With some time to kill, Haysbert paid a visit to the Senate floor. "I was already dressed for the panel, in my suit," recalled Haysbert. "And every Secret Service agent, every page, every guard we passed, would say, 'Hello, Mr. President.' At one point we were in the president's waiting room, and even senators came up to me and said, 'Mr. President, may I have your autograph?' And the strangest part was, I felt comfortable."


TRUTH OF THE MOMENT


Because of the nature of the program and the need for secrecy, actors on 24 often don't know where their characters are headed. Some actors might find it difficult playing a character whose destiny is constantly open-ended, but Haysbert compares it to real life.

"You don't know what's going to happen today. So you play the truth of the moment. I think it's a shame when people rely too much on the last page of a script." Haysbert reads only two scripts at a time, and even he didn't see certain plot twists coming. "I was stabbed in the back too much this year. I was like a pincushion. And if I knew that was coming, there is no way you would see the surprise. Because if you know what's coming, it will somehow subconsciously color your performance."

Haysbert admitted to being "picky" about the roles he's chosen, having turned down projects over the years for various reasons.

"There are a lot of things that draw me to a project," he said. "Story. Writing. Other actors that are in it. Generally, it's whatever the character is doing. If he's doing something that I find really objectionable, I'll kind of shy away from it. If the audience is not going to learn something from it and I'm not going to enjoy what the character goes through, I can't do it."

One of Haysbert's favorite films is the little-seen Suture, a stylish noir thriller shot in black-and-white that plays with people's perceptions of color. "I played a twin who everyone in the movie saw as looking exactly the same as my other twin, who was white. So the audience was looking at the movie and seeing this," said Haysbert gesturing to his arm. "But everyone within the movie saw me as looking the same as my twin. It's one of my favorite movies, just for what it said."

Haysbert also loved his work on Far From Heaven, in which he played Raymond Deagan, a remarkably overqualified gardener who befriends Julianne Moore's 1950s housewife. In a film designed to ape the style of Douglas Sirk's melodramas, the stars had to walk a fine line to steer clear of parody.

"It could have easily teetered in to cheese very quickly," Haysbert noted. "But with all the wardrobe and the music and the language, what stood out for all of us is the truth -- the truth of the words. And I always contended that my character didn't fit in that world. He made his own world. Most black people didn't fit into that '50s Tupperware Leave it to Beaver/Father Knows Best/Donna Reed world because we weren't invited. What I like to think of with Raymond is that he invited himself. He was kind of making up his own world as he went along, and if you wanted to be in that world you were welcome. But he was definitely going to dabble in any world he wanted to."

Haysbert singled out the scene in which he takes Moore's character to an all-black club and restaurant as the reason he fell in love with writer/director Todd Haynes. "No one has ever written that scene before. Black, white, nobody has written it. I would work with Todd on anything. If he wanted to shoot the phone book, I'd be there."

The other key to Heaven, according to Haysbert, was the friendship between the two characters. "That relationship didn't start off as, 'Hey, you look good in that taffeta, baby.' It wasn't like that. He was a genuine gentleman who saw people, not color. But he recognized that other people saw color; he just wasn't going to comment on it."

Back to those fans. Haysbert is signing a headshot for an admirer, explaining with some embarrassment that he doesn't normally carry photos of himself around. Employees at the Four Seasons, who undoubtedly see an endless parade of celebrities, thank him for coming in and try not to stare. Does this level of attention ever get to him?

"Most of the people who come up to me are from all walks of life, but they get the show," Haysbert said. "They get who this character is. And they can differentiate between me and David Palmer. Then they'll go on to say they like the show, and it's heartfelt. And that's what I got into the business for. If I couldn't be in a show or a movie that taught somebody something, at least I wanted to entertain the hell out of them."



The following article appeared in the March 31, 2003 issue of People Magazine.





The colour of success


He snagged the top job in television's 24. Now, in Far From Heaven - the latest Oscar contender by Todd Haynes - he's Hollywood's most eligible gardener. Akin Ojumu discovers how, at 48, Dennis Haysbert has made the leap from small screen to big movie star

Sunday February 9, 2003
The Observer


As a young man growing up in the 70s, Dennis Haysbert caught his parents by surprise when he first took his white girlfriend home. Given the circumstances, their reaction was understandable. The family didn't really talk about racial politics or the social upheavals of the 60s, but his parents had grown up in Louisiana, where such relationships were taboo - even life-threatening. Things were different now for the family who had relocated to San Mateo, California, shortly before Haysbert was born, but this was a delicate situation. The incident recalled a scene from Guess Who's Coming To Dinner - one of Haysbert's favourite films - played in reverse. 'What are you doing?' his dad asked.

'Well, I don't think he was unhappy about it. He was more fearful for me. From the time he grew up he couldn't walk on the same sidewalk, much less look into the eyes of a white woman in the South. In certain times in the South's history, you'd get strung up for doing that. You don't easily lose those fears. It's a knee-jerk reaction.' He pauses and thinks. 'Or it might have been a certain amount of envy on a certain level. Perhaps he was thinking: "I wasn't even allowed to talk to a white woman, never mind date them." The bottom line is, people are people and the sooner we realise that, the better off things are going to be.'

The complex issues of race, desire and love in America's recent past are addressed in Far from Heaven, a new film starring Haysbert and the highlight of his screen career so far. In this beautifully realised drama set in 1957, Julianne Moore plays a middle-class suburban housewife who falls in love with Haysbert, her gardener, when her marriage breaks down. Directed by Todd Haynes, the film is a moving homage to the colour-coded melodramas Douglas Sirk made in the 50s. Haysbert's character, the widower Raymond Deagan, is a study in goodness: a doting father who holds a business degree, appreciates modern art and still has time to keep the local lawns looking pristine.

'The biggest problem I had was not playing it over the top because the language was written in such a way you had to try and make it sound normal,' he says. Haynes says he cast Haysbert because he's 'this amazingly gentle and lovely and smart and grounded man. He is all those things you see in the film, and Julianne loved working with him.'

The film makes direct reference in plot and title to Sirk's All That Heaven Allows, a doomed romance between a wealthy widow (Jane Wyman) and her younger gardener (Rock Hudson) that shocks the country-club set. Far From Heaven was released in the States last November to widespread critical acclaim and is expected to secure a number of Oscar nominations this Tuesday. Following on from his role as the upstanding presidential candidate Senator David Palmer in the US TV series 24, Haysbert, 48, has finally found himself part of Hollywood's black A-list alongside Denzel Washington, Laurence Fishburne and Samuel L Jackson. It's one of Hollywood's worst-kept secrets that men fare better than women as they get older, but few leading men emerge after they hit 40. Will Haysbert prove an exception to the rule? The best recent example of a late-flowering star is Billy Bob Thornton, who, unlike Haysbert, has made his career playing quirky, often morose outsiders. Even late starters such as Russell Crowe and George Clooney made it big by their 35th birthday. Haysbert, it seems, has some catching up to do.

He eases his 6ft 4in frame on to a silver beanbag, and his limbs shoot off at odd angles like a collapsed mannequin. Haysbert is courteous but initially guarded, amused by the funky decor at The Standard Hotel on Sunset Boulevard but apparently not in the mood for small talk. So where do you live? 'About half an hour from here in this traffic,' he says.

It is a hot day, so we sit by the hotel pool with our backs to the sun. But Haysbert is wearing sunglasses and only takes them off a handful of times during our two-hour conversation. The first time is when he talks about the chaste onscreen relationship between himself and Moore in Far from Heaven . While it is in keeping with the feel and plot of the film, he believes it says something about Hollywood's apparent double standard regarding interracial sex.

'In Monster's Ball [starring Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton] you see them having full-on passionate sex, whereas here you don't even get to see them holding hands. I... I don't agree with that. I'm really tired of seeing it done just one way.'


So why does that happen?


'The only thing I can think is the white establishment is threatened by that. They're threatened by black male-white female relationships and passion being shown on screen. But they're very comfortable with James Bond and Halle Berry [Die Another Day] or Robert De Niro and Angela Bassett [The Score]. Some of our female stars are bedding down with white men in films, which I have no problem with,' he adds quickly. 'But balance it. Let me have a love scene between me and Julianne Moore or Michelle Pfeiffer or Cameron Diaz.'

Fair point. But it's not just a case of Hollywood executives trying to second-guess white prejudices. For a large section of the black community in the US, interracial romances, especially those between prosperous black men and white women, are saddled with such historical and social baggage, the relationships are commonly seen as a form of cultural abandonment. It is a theme that runs through black popular culture, from hip-hop to the growing number of films with black middle-class protagonists. Elvis Mitchell, film critic of The New York Times, recalls going to an LA cinema when a trailer of Othello, starring Fishburne, was previewed and 'the black female audience seemed to hiss in unison: "Wait a minute, I know that's not Laurence Fishburne kissing a white girl"' when he embraced Desdemona. And Denzel Washington famously balked at the prospect of a love scene with Julia Roberts in The Pelican Brief.

'Well, I don't understand that mentality, but if that's how you feel, fine. But I think it goes deeper than that. I don't think we have a choice. I still think that if there is a scene written in a script, then people won't ask for it to be written out. I've heard about Denzel and The Pelican Brief and that's fine by me, as long as it's a conscious choice. If we don't get the choice at all, then I think that is a problem.'

Haysbert and Washington were both born in 1954 and progressed from prestigious drama schools on to the stage, TV and eventually film. Tall and graceful, they are matinee idols in the Sidney Poitier mould, but for most of his career Haysbert has been in Washington's shadow. In 1992, Haysbert almost became a star when he took on a role that Washington had turned down. In Love Field, a road movie set in the aftermath of President Kennedy's assassination in 1963, Haysbert falls in love with an unhappy, dreamy housewife (Michelle Pfeiffer) who is on her way to the funeral. They banter and bicker ('Being bored isn't the same as being black') before falling in love, although they don't manage to fall into bed. While Far from Heaven is a film about the 50s made with a modern sensibility, which exposes the hypocrisy of the era with deceptive precision, Love Field is an all-too-worthy film about the 60s that feels like it was actually made at the time. It was a modest box-office success and helped Haysbert win supporting roles in a succession of high-profile films: he was one of Robert De Niro's crew in Heat, Whitney Houston's married lover in Waiting to Exhale and, most recently, the LA political minder in Gurinder Chadha's What's Cooking.

Until 24, Haysbert was a recognisable actor whose name probably meant little. These days he is approached daily by fans who not only know his name but urge him to run for office. Perhaps he could share the ticket with Martin Sheen (West Wing).Haysbert jumped at the chance to play Senator Palmer, even though it meant a weekly cross-country commute from the Far from Heaven set in New Jersey to Los Angeles. In the second series, Palmer and Agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) face another complex threat, except now Palmer has been elected president.

Haysbert is clearly proud of being the 'first black president on network television'. In the new season, which is being shown in the States, Palmer is told terrorists are planning to to detonate a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles that day - Bauer, he thinks, is the only man who can prevent the attack. 'You should expect the same intensity as the first. No, there is a lot more intensity this time,' he says. American viewers have once again been hooked by the suspense.

Haysbert brings a calm assurance to the role, providing the quiet, contemplative moments in a show that offers more explosive twists and turns than the average summer blockbuster. He has all the attributes of the fictional screen president: a devoted family man who combines the wisdom of Solomon with an infallible moral compass. In addition, he has to cope with the most power-crazed spouse since Lady Macbeth (Palmer fans will be pleased to note that Haysbert hints he has a new love interest in the series). He applauds the writers for creating a character with 'so much dignity'. I suggest that the most impressive thing about the first series was that the early episodes suggested race would play a significant role in the drama, but it played no part in the conspiracy to halt Palmer's campaign. 'I was hoping that it would go that way, that it wouldn't be about the colour of my skin. I take care of business as president. As long as they don't give me any of those silly frailties, I'll be very happy.'

Silly frailties? I thought actors liked to play complex characters. Is this an actors' vanity or high-mindedness? 'I'm glad there's no cheating and womanising. You know, things like that shouldn't be there in the first place.' Obviously President Palmer's sexual mores weren't inspired by Bill Clinton. More than once Haysbert refers to the 'role model' and 'educational' aspects of his profession. He is involved in community groups and visits local schools around his hometown of Pasadena as a motivational speaker. So when he talks about 'an actor's responsibility' and 'film being a powerful medium that should be used in the right way' it doesn't just sound as if he has just stepped out of a Frank Capra movie.

When I ask Haysbert why he decided to become an actor, rather than the usual stuff about meeting girls or gaining some easy credits at college, he replies: '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.'

But surely he would sacrifice his principles for the type of juicy, villainous part that won Washington a Best Actor Oscar last year. 'Yes, but it's just funny for me that he was recognised for that one. One that was so negative compared to one of the more stronger, positive, powerful roles he's played. Really interesting.'

Haysbert was the second-youngest child in a family that consisted of six brothers and two sisters. Despite the obvious strain on resources, the Haysberts were comfortable financially. They were part of the aspiring postwar black generation eager to get their children into college and professional jobs. '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.'

Unlike most of his siblings, who were born in Louisiana, he was born in San Mateo, his family settling in the Bay Area. Moving west had a positive effect: 'Growing up in northern California gave me a more balanced view. Things were more tolerant. I was able to live a life that I wouldn't have if we'd stayed in Louisiana. I wouldn't suggest there was no racism, but not the sort my parents would have experienced.' Encouraged by his parents, Haysbert later enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the famous school whose alumni include Robert Redford, Danny DeVito and Spencer Tracy.

Haysbert speaks with pride about his parents' marriage, but his own marriage to half-English, half-Bajan actress Lynn Griffith broke up a couple of years ago. 'She is a very beautiful woman and a wonderful mother but it just didn't work out', is all he says. They have two children, a son and a daughter, with whom he spends 'as much quality time as possible'.

Since then, Haysbert has been 'dating'. Is he seeing anyone now? 'Well, yeah and no, we're working on it,' he says. 'And, yes, she is, er, Caucasian. I have no preferences one way or another.' We discuss the differences between mixed-race relationships in Britain and America, then he sighs, 'Sometimes when I'm with her [his current girlfriend], a black woman will look at me strangely, but it's not my problem. I just can't take that personally, because that has nothing at all to do with me.'

Haysbert's career is at a crucial stage. At an age when most male actors start to think about playing family men rather than action men, he is buzzing with enthusiasm for future projects. There is a Western and a superhero project he is looking at, but since there will probably be a third series of 24 , these projects will have to wait. Then again, he is a rather old-fashioned type of leading man in the Poitier mould, which might work against him.

But Haysbert prefers to ignore the negative. He smiles, take off his glasses and looks directly at me. 'I always thought things would end up pretty much the way they are right now, but I thought it would happen a whole lot earlier,' he says. 'I dreamt well, and those dreams are starting to come to fruition.'