William Devane makes 'presidential' look easy

The story line is as contemporary as it gets: William Devane is a president with Alzheimer's. And he's fighting a terrorist attack by drones.

The veteran actor, 76, who has played Robert F. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy, says this presidential season of 24: Live Another Day marks some of the "best work" of his career.

On Monday's episode (Fox, 9 ET/PT), the show's 200th, Devane's POTUS James Heller makes a drastic decision based on his diagnosis, with explosive results. He has agreed to give himself up to terrorist Margot Al-Harazi (Michelle Fairley) in order to stop her from blowing up London with a fleet of drones

Will he go through with it? Can he trust her to keep her part of the bargain? Will Jack Bauer somehow be able to save him and thwart her?

"Things are getting tense," says Devane, calling from London, where filming is just wrapping up.

His vision for Heller as president, he says, was always to present a complex portrait of a man and a politician. "Whenever we see the president, we only see what they want us to see. It's all a controlled profile. Everything we see of Obama is basically what they want you to see."

Devane wanted to give viewers a sense of the private-public struggle, right down to sporting a sweater while hanging out in the West Wing. "The Grandpa look!" he barks. "You never see the president lookin' like that!" He laughs.

"Obviously I'm a big fan of Obama, as a guy who's smart and articulate and supposedly leading all of us. I say to myself, 'what has got to be going on in the private side of this guy's brain' — the pressure, the racism that is thrown out — and he handles it with such dignity. There's a gotta be a private side to him where he goes, 'Why do I have this job?'"

The pressure of the terrorist threat, combined with his Alzheimer's diagnosis, forces President Heller's moves as the clock ticks toward 7 p.m., even if his lack of mental capacity isn't obvious. He's not repeating himself or forgetting where he put the keys to the Oval Office.

Devane says it's meant to be the "suggestion" of the ailment that matters. He's well aware of how the disease manifests itself. His brother died last year from Lewy Body Dementia. "It's the most horrific thing you can even imagine. It's not just your memory that goes. The disease attacks all different muscles. And it's relatively quick."

But Heller's Alzheimer's can't progress that quickly, especially on a show set somewhat in "real time." It has only been a matter of hours since the season began with a hint of his struggle. "We wrestled with that aspect of it," says Bob Cochran, co-creator of 24. "If he was symptomatic to the degree it was noticeable, he would have no business remaining president."

Executive producers Evan Katz and Manny Coto say the key was focusing on Heller's looming fate, not on symptoms. "We have to honor real time," says Katz.

They felt having it not be any more obvious was best. "It's not how you typically depict it," says Katz. "How his condition factors into his decision-making is a fresh way of looking at it. A dire and maybe controversial way to look at it."