Jimmy Smits Joins "24: Legacy" Pilot in Key Role
by Nellie Andreeva
February 26, 2016


Jimmy Smits is set to co-star opposite Corey Hawkins and Miranda Otto in "24: Legacy", Fox’s drama pilot, which reboots the "24" franchise with brand new characters and cast.

Emmy winner Smits will play John Donovan, a powerful U.S. Senator with higher political aspirations.

http://deadline.com/2016/02/jimmy-smits-cast-24-legacy-fox-pilot-1201710012/

http://www.vulture.com/2017/02/jimmy-smits-on-24-legacy-the-get-down.html

Jimmy Smits is everywhere right now — Fox’s upcoming 24: Legacy, The Get Down, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — but he’s always been one of Hollywood’s hardest-working actors. Since he became a known quantity for his portrayal of lawyer-heartthrob Victor Sifuentes on L.A. Law in the ’80s — the first central Latino role in an American TV drama — the Emmy winner and 12-time nominee has had several memorable turns on the small screen. He played a congressman and the president of the United States on The West Wing, a serial killer’s best friend and apprentice on Dexter, and a pimp with a heart on Sons of Anarchy. On NYPD Blue, he broke boundaries by regularly showing detective Bobby Simone’s derriere on camera. Most recently, in Netflix’s The Get Down, he’s in hustler mode again as a “poverty pimp” and power broker in the ’70s-era Bronx. And he’s back to being presidential on 24: Legacy — which premieres Sunday after the Super Bowl and reboots the franchise with a new cast and premise — where he plays a senator with presidential aspirations.

It’s been 30 years since the 61-year-old Puerto Rican–American moved to Los Angeles from New York City to pursue a dream that was so foreign to his working-class family, his late parents wondered if all of his early stage work was prep for a teaching job. In two separate interviews, Smits spoke with Vulture about what keeps him motivated in his acting, his disappointment over the presidential election, and the role he’d love to reprise.