Among the many exciting moments in Sunday night’s premiere of “24: Live Another Day” was Jack’s rescue of Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) from the clutches of the CIA, where she was being held prisoner as a free-information hacker charged with treason for downloading Defense Department files. Coiffed with a ragged “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” haircut, her eyes outlined in thick mascara, Chloe was nothing like the timid counterterrorism analyst we met in Season 3. She now looks like an insane Goth outlaw.
“She works as an underground hacker for Open Cell, a rogue organization headed by Adrian Cross (Michael Wincott),” Rajskub says. “She’s been disillusioned through personal tragedy and has a massive chip on her shoulder.”
Visiting New York for the premiere of the ninth season of “24,” the actress partied on the decks of the Intrepid with her mother and cousin, who came to New York from Michigan, Rajskub’s home state. That Rajskub, 42, has been with “24” this long — she joined in 2003 for the third season — has been the surprise of her career. She is the show’s Cinderella story, especially when you consider she tried to get out of the audition.
“I’d had a really bad ‘CSI’ audition before, so I didn’t want to go in for a drama,” she says. “But it was the best meeting ever. [Executive producer] Joel Surnow had seen me play the overbearing sister in ‘Punch-Drunk Love’ and said, ‘I’m going to write a part for you.’ I didn’t necessarily believe him.”
Fans who love Chloe because of her loyalty to Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) may be surprised that she’s not on board to help him out.
“He wants to recruit her for his cause, but Chloe’s not happy to be with him,” she says. “She’s confrontational towards him for the first time.”
Her relationship with Sutherland developed as incrementally as the characters did, she reveals. Afraid to speak to him at first, she now is comfortable to party with the star — and to take a selfie with him on-set.
“He is really generous, really sweet. But when he’s focused, everybody follows suit,” she says. “He has this classic movie-star feel about him.”
Rajskub flew back to London Monday to resume production on the final four shows of the season and said she’d come back for Season 10, should that happen. “I’m associated with the show whether or not I like it. I’d totally be up for it.”
Until such point, she and Sutherland will try to reach out to more viewers via social media. “He told me he got a memo that he had to tweet more,” she says.