Elisha Cuthbert: Her Day Has Come

She sure knows how to play the good girl. A role as a host on Popular Mechanics for Kids landed Elisha Cuthbert an invite to the White House and praise from Hillary Clinton. Then came another wholesome kid's show, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, a popular Canadian series that launched the careers of Jay Baruchel (Undeclared) Hayden Christensen (Star Wars) and Rachel Blanchard (Clueless the series).

So, it's about time the 18-year-old had some low-down, dirty fun. Enter bad girl Kimberly Bauer, Cuthbert's newest character and Kiefer Sutherland's onscreen daughter in the Fox drama 24. As Sutherland falls into G-man mode to thwart an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate, Kimberly sneaks out the window for a late-night booty call that ends up going horribly awry. And that's just the first hour in a series that makes a whole season out of one very busy day.

Which got us wondering...

Is she a bad girl in real life?
"You know what, I'm not. I'm really different. I'm very focused and career oriented. And in high school, I really didn't have time to do bad things. But that's the great thing about playing Kimberly Bauer, because now I get to do all that stuff."

What's the worst thing she ever put her parents through?
"I'm afraid to tell you...if they read this, they're going to be like, 'What?!' I think I went to clubs before I was supposed to. It was around my cousin's wedding, and they were all going to a club afterward, and they somehow got me in."

Was she ever worried that the show might be canceled because everyone's so sensitive after the September 11 attacks?
"It wasn't talk about being canceled, but we had some meetings. We wanted to make sure we weren't putting in anything that would be wrong at this time. We got rid of a couple of things in the pilot. A plane exploding was removed, even though it was somewhat different [than the attacks]. It was done by this chick, a very Charlie's Angels type."

She and Kiefer both come from the same hometown--Montreal. Had she met him before the show started?
"No, I didn't. I had met his younger brothers, because they live in Montreal. I was out with one of my friends in Montreal who knows them, and we happened to run into them. And now, I'm working with Kiefer, which is fabulous because he's such a wonderful guy and really, really good at what he does. He does such a fantastic job at it that it makes our jobs extremely easy."

Is it a coincidence that four out of five characters on the show are Canadian?
"It's strange. The show is done by Americans, and Kiefer has been in the United States for a very long time. We joke about it all the time, but it's just a funny thing that happened, and now we kind of play off that."

Are Molson and Labatt served at the craft-services table?
"No, but we talk about hockey a lot. It's an ongoing subject for all of us. I'm a huge fan. I have a lot of friends who are really close to getting into the NHL, and I'm so excited for them and can't wait."

Does that mean she'll get rinkside seats at hockey games?
"I'd better. Our ongoing thing is, 'You have to take me to a movie premiere.' And I'm like, 'You better get me really good box seats.' "

And we hope she scores 'em.
--Lia Haberman