On the heels of the two-night, four hour premiere, the cast of 24 assembled at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour this morning, to discuss the long awaited new season of the series. Right off the bat, Kiefer Sutherland was asked about a scene in the first four episodes were Jack expresses some regret about the torture he's taken part in to a police officer. Said Sutherland, "That came out of conversations [executive producer] Howard Gordon and I were having at the very beginning about where Jack should go." He noted that Jack "has great contempt" for the senate organization who are questioning him, because he was ordered to do the things he did by the president or others in authority, but that on a personal level, "to counter-balance that, I think Jack Bauer is certainly in a position where he's questioning things that he's done either by personal choice or orders."

Sutherland elaborated that Jack was, "Wrestling with his own history - whether he actually thinks [what he's been asked to do] is right or fair, and whether he was the right person to be asked to do this." He and Gordon both stressed that this thread goes through all 24 episodes of Season 7. Sutherland said he always felt that "the use of torture in the show simply a dramatic device to show how urgent a situation is. It was never meant to validate it in the real world." However, as the debate about torture in real life became bigger, bringing it into 24, was "an important thing to do." Sutherland acknowledged that on 24, Jack seems to always get results from torture, noting in reality, "I think they'll say less than 10% of the results they get from this are helpful." He noted that 24 was first and foremost television show there to provide entertainment, and the torture aspect and information it revealed was there, "to move the plot forward," but that in Season 7, "Underneath that we certainly raise the moral questions of what is right and wrong."

Mary Lynn Rajskub ("Chloe O'Brian") was asked about the addition of fellow comedian Janeane Garofalo to the cast this season, and if they share any scenes together. Said Rajskub, "That's coming up. We tried not to laugh when we were in scenes together. It was really fun and different to have a fellow comedian around. I've known Janeane for years. I replaced here on The Larry Sanders Show, so it's interesting [to work together] on 24."

Gordon said that when it came to adding Garofalo, "Janeane is someone who's a fun, exciting actress. It was a leap of faith. Someone we wanted to see. Someone we wanted to write for. Someone we felt could create something out of the fairly dry material she was given."

Asked if he was surprised to get the call inviting him back to the show after his character seemingly died in Season 5, Carlos Bernard ("Tony Almeida") replied, "I had an inkling that the character wasn't actually dead. I didn't think that they would actually bring the character back, having said that. But I wasn't actually shocked. They called at the end of Season 6, thinking if they could work the character in. None of us were particularly happy with that idea, but it led to Season 7. I always thought there was a crack in the door."

Annie Wersching ("Renee Walker") said that joining 24 this season was a big deal for her, explaining, "I was the biggest fan of the show. I saw every episode while it aired – I didn't wait for DVD! The fact that I'm sitting up here is incredibly surreal." When the panel were asked if there was a chance for Jack and Renee to have a romantic connection, Sutherland implied there was, saying that Jack admired that she could handle trouble as well as he could, adding, "If there's anything that turns him on, it's that." He then noted that the first day Wersching had a fight sequence on the show, he recalled thinking, "Wow, that kind of turned me on too!"

Jon Voight was introduced in the TV-Movie 24: Redemption as the villainous Jonas Hodge. The veteran actor recalled how he ran into Sutherland at a charity event, during Season 1 of 24, and told him, "You're terrific on this show; this is going to be a great show for you. I'm very proud of your work. I'm a fan." He felt that joining 24 years later was "closing this circle. I hadn't done episodic television, so it was an interesting challenge. It's a wonderful crew. They know what they're doing. I said 'Here's what I've got to bring. Show me how I can use it.'" Gordon said we wouldn't see Hodge again until episode 11 of Season 7, but added, "I think you're in for a big treat."

Sutherland was asked why he felt Bauer had become such an iconic character and replied, "It's something I think I'm still trying to figure out. I don't mean that trying to be funny. We spend our time working and we're very focused on that." He joked that walking down the street, "My name is apparently is not Kiefer anymore, it's Jack and people talk to me like that."

Sutherland said he felt that to trace the way Jack Bauer has struck a chord, "You have to go back to the terrible events of 9/11," noting that 24 premiered right in the wake of that tragedy. "I remember I was walking around in a real cloud and a man told me, 'I can't wait for your show to come on.' I asked him, 'How can you be thinking of that at a time like this?' He said, 'It's exactly because it's a time like this that I am thinking of that.'" Sutherland he said people liked Jack because, "he's a character who had these unbelievable responsibilities, but is very human. He could protect David Palmer, but not his wife and daughter. People were very receptive at that time to accept something very human like that. I think that might be how he permeated the culture on some level."

Gordon spoke about how the writers' strike ended up being somewhat beneficial for the show creatively, despite the year long delay. Eight episodes had been shot when the strike began, and Gordon said that coming back, they were able to look at those eight episodes and rejigger them to some extent and "Plan more carefully for the rest of the season." Gordon noted that "As proud as we are of the first half [of Season 7], the second half is my favorite." Gordon brought up how there had been criticism that 24 dragged in the middle of the season in the past, but that this year they were particularly proud of the show moving forward from the eighth episode.

The most recent seasons of 24 had raised the stakes considerably, culminating in a nuclear bomb going off in Valencia, CA at the start of Season 6. Gordon said that going into the seventh season, he and the writers had decided, "The way to speed things up is to slow them down. The most important thing is to locate Jack Bauer emotionally in the context of these stories." Gordon noted that when it came to literally going bigger than ever, "Obviously, unless we blow up the world next year, we can't do that. I think this year, in some ways we've gone back to basics. The first year, it was a very different show. A lot less happened in each hour." Gordon said that in subsequent seasons, the danger was in becoming "kind of like crack addicts. We doubled the dosage. We have to not fall into the 'how can we tap ourselves' question, and hopefully we've done that."