Elisha Cuthbert says making Fox thriller ‘24’—which premiered in November 2001—was a whirlwind, but also a grueling grind shaped by intense night shoots and a relentless schedule. Now, as she promotes Every Year After, she doubts she’d have the energy to do it
Elisha Cuthbert still remembers the pace the way most people remember a storm: not as a single moment, but as a continuous push that leaves you breathless.
When she sat down to talk about her new show. Every Year After—based on Carley Fortune’s book Every Summer After—she couldn’t get far without circling back to 24. The Fox thriller premiered in November 2001 and, as Cuthbert reflected, “It’s hard to imagine, really, the scope of it. It was a whirlwind, too.”.
She said the show’s success was “overwhelming and thrilling and exciting. ” and she also holds on to the memories of that period. But the joy came with a cost. Cuthbert described the production as intense from start to finish. pointing to the reality of working so much that the one-hour format—and the action that came with it—turned every shoot into its own test.
“It was really intense too,” she said. “We were working so much that the one-hour format… especially with all the action and all the intense night shoots, I mean, it was not an easy show to film.”
Even with the machinery behind the scenes, she said the schedule still wore people down. “It was a well-oiled machine, but it still was a grueling schedule,” Cuthbert admitted. And then came the blunt line many fans don’t expect to hear from someone who’s lived through the legend: “I don’t know if I’d have the energy to partake in that again.”.
She did offer balance, though—she called the experience “amazing” and “groundbreaking,” and she emphasized that being part of it mattered. “So it was special to be a part of,” she said.
Cuthbert played Kim Bauer, the only child of Jack and Teri Bauer, on 24. The series ran for nine seasons, with Kiefer Sutherland starring as Jack Bauer, an American counter-terrorist federal agent racing against time to save the world, his family, and everything he cares about.
The show’s structure was built to feel immediate: each episode was filmed to resemble one hour of the day, and each season portrayed a full day. Alongside Sutherland and Cuthbert, the cast included Mary Lynn Rajskub, Carlos Bernard, Dennis Haysbert, and Kim Raver.
As she spoke, Cuthbert also described how the cast’s footprint still shows up in everyday conversations. When asked if she keeps in touch with anyone from the cast, she said, “On occasion, yeah.” She added that it’s striking how often people tell her they appeared on an episode.
“It’s amazing how many actors were on that show,” she shared. “We may not have really worked physically in person together, but certainly a lot of actors pass through over the course of eight seasons, and so we have that in common.”
That idea—the sense of movement through an intense system—matches what she said about the work itself. 24 wasn’t just a storyline built on urgency. It was urgency as a schedule, urgency as a set, urgency as night shoots that never seemed to slow down. And if the timing ever leaves Cuthbert with second thoughts now. it’s not because she didn’t believe in the project. It’s because she felt the grind.
She’s currently promoting Every Year After and looking ahead as 24 approaches its 25th anniversary. For Cuthbert, the show remains “groundbreaking.” But the question she can’t answer with certainty is whether she’d want to step back into the same grueling rhythm again.
Elisha Cuthbert 24 Kiefer Sutherland Kim Bauer Fox thriller Every Year After Carley Fortune Every Summer After grueling schedule night shoots 25th anniversary