It's time for holiday festivities on "The West Wing," and all through the White House everyone is stirring -- except poor Josh. While his pals celebrate with President Bartlet, Josh wrestles with terrible personal demons.... Right before this landmark episode aired, AOL members chatted with Josh himself, the incomparable Bradley Whitford.

Bradley Whitford: You get to be passionate about issues. You get to flirt with girls. Tonight you'll see that Josh goes through a very difficult emotional issue. So I guess the thing that I like about this guy most is that there's such a variety of behavior and emotions that he goes through in a day. And if I had to pick one thing, it would be his job, because I just think it's such a fascinating place to be.

Host: How much of his character is like you? How much have you brought to the character, and how much was there originally?

Bradley Whitford: Well, Aaron Sorkin is a dear old friend of mine, and like any great television writer, Aaron is probably one of the best, if not the best ever. The skill they have to have -- and you can see it if -- anyone who knows any of the actors personally in the show, Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, you know that Aaron really looks to exploit whatever you can do. And it was a real mixture. Aaron wrote this, he said to me -- and I don't know if this is true, but he said to me -- with me in mind. I had done "A Few Good Men" on Broadway, that he had written many years ago. But then as it goes along, Aaron writes things at the very last minute, so Aaron is always looking to see what is in there just recently he can sort of capitalize on. So it makes it very much fun and easy to play, because he's always looking to write to your strengths.

Host: Another question from an audience member. She wants to know what the set of "The West Wing" is like and is the show filmed in Washington, is it all Hollywood soundstage or a mixture?

Bradley Whitford: It is primarily a soundstage, where I am actually sitting in my trailer right now in Burbank, California at the Warner Bros. Studios. And we just moved to a -- last year we were at two stages so that the set was split up, which made doing those very long walk-and-talks we do difficult, because you'd often have to film the end of a walk-and-talk in one building before you filmed the beginning of the walk-and-talk in another building, which was very schizophrenic. Now we're in one huge soundstage.

Bradley Whitford: And the set is really one of the great set design achievements in television. I mean, everybody -- it is far and away the most sort of extravagant set I think anybody has ever seen, and certainly for any television show on TV right now. It's -- our "West Wing" is a lot more spacious than the real West Wing. It is a little more elegant. We have -- we're different from the real West Wing in that we need to open it, open the building up visually, so there is a lot of glass and things that you can see through. And the real White House, they tend to be pretty private, so there's not a lot of glass like that.

Bradley Whitford: We go to Washington about once every four months and do exteriors. And in tonight's show, there is a kind of a groundbreaking shot of Donna, Janel Moloney's character, and me coming out of the actual White House, which is unprecedented. I don't think they've ever shot there before, actually going through the security points there.

Host: Speaking of tonight's episode, is there anything maybe you could give us a hint about without revealing too much? I know it is a very important show for your character.

Bradley Whitford: Yes. Josh freaks out.

Host: You can't say it more distinctly than that.

Bradley Whitford: No.

Host: Was this the most challenging single episode for you to play?

Bradley Whitford: Yes. I would say so. It's a very interesting episode in terms of the kind of tone that -- it is a very different tone from the usual tone of the shows that we do. It's kind of a departure for Aaron. It was a difficult task for me, because Josh has this kind of veneer of snappy humor and I had to sort of strip that away, and then I had to find a way to sort of attempt to do it and fail. So it was a very interesting acting experience.

Host: When you filmed last season's incredible cliff-hanger episode, did you and everyone else know who got shot?

Bradley Whitford: Aaron came up to me the final day that we were shooting there... where we were shooting in Virginia, and he said, oh, by the way, you're the one that gets shot. I'm like, wow.

Host: Did people [pester] you to reveal who it was?

Bradley Whitford: Yes, a lot of people pestered me, including my mother, who I would not tell, and who I actually -- she's on the East Coast. And when I was -- I was shooting the day it aired, and I made sure that I called her to sort of listen to the teaser, and she was very upset.

Host: In general, how far in advance do you know what is going to happen to your character in the coming season?

Bradley Whitford: Aaron is incredibly unconventional, in that most television shows -- "ER," for instance, when they come in at the beginning of the year, they have a basic outline for the year. There is what they call a bible, which tells where each character is going, how the stories are going to interconnect. Aaron is much more freewheeling than that, which makes for a lot of tension for him and everyone around him, but gives a kind of energy and immediacy to it. I just read the next two episodes, and that's as far as I know. And I guarantee that's as far as Aaron knows. He doesn't know where these things are going to go.

Host: We have another question from our audience, who wants to know how you prepared for your role, and did you get to visit the White House or did you just wing it?

Bradley Whitford: Before we did the pilot, I -- I had always been a political junkie. I'd always thought a political show would work. The conventional wisdom from the networks was that nobody likes politicians, to which my response was always -- just like they don't like lawyers.

Host: Right. Or doctors.

Bradley Whitford: Or doctors. So I'd always thought this would be a great arena, and partially because I'd done -- it's always been something I'd been interested in. My family was somewhat political. George Stephanopoulos' book was -- should have been retitled "Everything Bradley Whitford Needs To Know To Do His Job." It was a great kind of fly-on-the-wall sense of what it was like to be in the White House. A bunch of books. I did not go to the White House until the show had been on the air and we were working there. And I've been there a number of times. I've met the president several times. I was actually very active in the Gore campaign and traveled around, and that connected me to the White House in certain ways, too.

Host: Did either Mr. Clinton or Mr. Gore give you any advice or criticism about the way you guys do the show?

Bradley Whitford: No, they -- I'll tell you. It is the most -- I was talking with Aaron just earlier today about this. The most surprising thing to all of us -- we always thought this arena would work. We always thought it would be a great place to send a television show. But the last thing we expected was for the show to be taken seriously. And it's taken sort of strangely seriously in Washington for a simple reason, and that is that when we talk about an issue -- let's say -- we did an episode that was one of our best episodes that was a very funny episode, but one of the main issues on it was the census, and whether specific head counts were more fair or less fair than the sort of computer model. And the White House -- the people at the White House said, you know, it is amazing, 15 million people got the difference between the two kinds of census polling. That's a very powerful thing to those people. And it happened with the Recognition of Marriage Act. So people in Washington really want their issues to be seen by 15 million people. So it's taken very seriously.

Bradley Whitford: The White House and people on both sides of the aisle in Washington, I think, are really grateful that there's not a cynical tone to our show, that we are sort of exalting public service and showing a little bit of how difficult the context is. So I think people are -- and people in the White House have been very grateful for that.

Host: We have a member request from Amanda778. She wants to know how you think the show might be affected by the upcoming Republican administration.

Bradley Whitford: Well, I -- people have asked me that a lot. You know, we are, of course, fake. Often people think that we were doing a sort of a version of the Clinton White House. But Bartlet is not at all Clinton. We've always been fake. I think, if anything, it will be a good thing, actually. I personally don't think it will be too good for the country. But I actually think it will be good for the show. I think it might have been difficult if a very conservative Republican, you know, got a 60 percent mandate. I think we would feel a little out of place. But I think now, with this margin so close, with the majority of the people having voted in the country for a more progressive Democrat, I think we've become a sort of energized alternative. But, you know, we're not here to -- we're here to do -- we're not here to serve America their vegetables, you know, and convince them of our political beliefs. We really, truly are not. I mean, we are, you know, just a bunch of pathetic show people who want to be liked. We're trying -- I'm being sarcastic, but we want to do something that is entertaining. We're not here, you know, dispensing political beliefs.

Host: What would Josh Lyman have done if President Bartlet had been in Al Gore's position the last few weeks?

Bradley Whitford: I think that we would have fought to the bitter end to defend the principle that every vote should be counted.

Host: Would you have been to Palm Beach?

Bradley Whitford: I would have been there in a second. I truly believe that regardless -- I think it was a real mistake for George Bush -- and I'm actually not saying this in a partisan way. I think if the situation were reversed, I would have thought Gore should have done the same thing. I think if you lose the popular vote and on election night you're up by less than 300 votes with a lot of people screaming that there were problems in a state where your brother was governor, I think the only thing you can do to avoid problems down the line is to say count, recount, make sure we get this right. I think it was a mistake for him and for the country to run out the clock like that.

Host: On a lighter note, one of our members, CindyBreeze74, said, I love the banter and chemistry between your character and Donna. Does Aaron Sorkin have any plans for making them a romantic twosome?

Bradley Whitford: Well, you know, I adore Janel Moloney, and she -- the very first day that -- she was not a regular when the series started, and we had a scene in the pilot, and I walked out to the monitors after the first take, and I just said to Aaron and Tommy Schlamme, our producer, I love her. And Aaron right away picked up on a sort of really fun relationship to play, which you don't get to play too often. They're these two people who clearly are gaga about each other way down in their reptilian brain cells, but there's no way they can imagine acting upon it. And it is a very fun thing to play. Aaron has no idea where it's going to go. I know that it will -- I'm sure it will go somewhere. It is a tricky thing on television because, unfortunately for audiences, there's often nothing more boring than consummation.

Host: Right.

Bradley Whitford: You know.

Host: One of our other members, named Corky, I think this is the greatest television show, and on Emmy night, how did it feel to be on a show that won more awards in history than any other?

Bradley Whitford: It was extraordinary and kind of terrifying. I mean, we were trying last year -- it was really kind of disconcerting. I mean, it was wonderful, but just nine months before, we had been -- or a little more of -- I guess a year before, we started to -- we were a group of people trying to pull off a show that nobody thought would work. And that's a very exciting thing to be a part of. And it's a specific kind of psychology and mindset. It is a very different thing when you're suddenly the establishment, which is what we all felt when we won all those things. But it was really -- it was really gratifying. It shocked me when I sort of realized how the night was going, when several scripts -- when Aaron won and when directors of ours started to win -- and you sort of realize, oh my God, this sounds like it's going to be our night. And Richard, my dear friend Richard Schiff won, and Allison Janney. I was very upset my wife, the spectacular Jane Kaczmarek....

Host: One of the stars is of "Malcolm in the Middle." Any chance you might make a guest star appearance on that show or she may come on "The West Wing"?

Bradley Whitford: I would love more than anything to do a guest shot on her show. I would love to be her passionate ex-boyfriend who shows up. I think if Lois from "Malcolm in the Middle" walked into the White House, I think the Secret Service would have to shoot her.

Host: Or maybe they could take the kids for a trip to DC, and Malcolm and the brothers could run wild?

Bradley Whitford: Run wild in the West Wing. Absolutely.

Host: How hectic is it for you and your wife to be working on such successful profile shows?

Bradley Whitford: We're stunned. I mean, we have been two actors who have really been lucky to be able to make a living doing what we really love to do. But, you know, we've been knocking around and doing shows that didn't get picked up and, you know, getting rejected all over the place. So to get this luck, this spectacular simultaneous luck, is really almost embarrassing. The schedules are very, very, very hard. Mine is a little worse, because the production values on my show are tougher, and the show is twice as long, and, you know, it's tricky. We have absolutely no life and no interest in any other life except being home with our kids. So we don't go to a lot of openings or any of that junk.

Host: I've heard other actors say working on a one-hour drama is like making a feature film every single week. Is that true?

Bradley Whitford: It is very difficult to convey how much work it is. I mean, you know, it is as if we are doing as much material -- and on a show like "The West Wing," our production values and acting values are very high. It's as if we're making 11 very audacious features in nine months. It's an insane task. And it's especially insane, of course, for Aaron, who writes every word of these shows, which is the most stupendous achievement I've ever seen in my career. But, yeah, it is. You feel -- the metaphor I have is, I feel like I'm in an acting cult.

Host: One of our members wants to know if we'll see more about Josh's background and his friend and how their friendship began.

Bradley Whitford: You know, the entire reason that Aaron wanted to do the shooting was less for the sort of cliff-hanger, particularly the -- he knew he wanted to go back, and that's what our first two episodes this year allowed him to do in flashback, when I was under the knife on the operating table. I don't know. You know, it's fascinating. I would love to go, you know, to see where we came from. It's a very interesting thing, doing a character like this, because -- and this is just an example, and it's not real. But you know, you'll go to a table reading and you'll find out that, you know, your mom died of leukemia or, you know, that Josh's mom died of leukemia or something. And you've been playing a character for a long time, and then you find out these really basic, powerful, formative things that have happened. In an episode last year, I found out my sister died when I was a kid. And it's great stuff to learn when you've been playing these characters for a while.

Host: Another one of our members said the chemistry between characters seems so genuine. What's it like on the set between actors? [Are] there no egos on the set? ::laughter::

Bradley Whitford: Actually, I have to say that there is a tremendous sense that we are a group and there is not a star. If there is a star, we're all happy to hand that to Martin, who all of us -- you know, I think it's really the moment that this show became a hit was when Martin agreed to do it, because the way that our characters feel about Martin's character is exactly the way that we feel about Martin. He's just a -- one of the sweetest, most admirable people I've ever met. And there is remarkably little ego, I would say, on the set.

Bradley Whitford: The hardest thing about starting a show like this is you've got to hit the ground running. And especially with dialogue like this, most people use the metaphor of a tennis match for being an actor, that you hit the ball and then it gets hit back, and this always feels like -- you feel like you're on a volleyball team, because it can go all over the place. And it is amazing how well Aaron is able to give everybody their moments. When the show started, I think there's a kind of natural wariness in an ensemble like ours, you start to think he's going to pick a star, and that's what the show is going to be about. And Aaron has made it very clear that it's about all of us.

Host: One of our members named HueBent wants to know if you'll be doing any movies or theater soon, or if you're just concentrating on "West Wing."

Bradley Whitford: My wife and I talked about perhaps -- there's an actors' strike coming up.

Host: Right.

Bradley Whitford: And so that's -- there's no film I'll be able to do once the year ends. There is a feeling after nine months of this that the last thing you need in front of your face is a stinking camera.

Host: Right.

Bradley Whitford: And it's always a real temptation for me to just go and be with my kids. But you know, there is -- when a show does this way, you do get opportunities that you've never gotten before. Ideally, what I would like to do is a small part in a really good movie. I would hate to do a large, exhausting part.

Host: "The West Wing" seemed to have inspired a lot of people, especially young people, getting more involved politically and in social activism. Is that something you relish, or you just say, wait a minute, I'm not a role model but just an actor playing a part?

Bradley Whitford: No. I -- you know, we certainly are just actors, but I think that that's -- I think that's a good by-product. I think that we are far too cynical about politics and about public service. I think we're, you know, fat and happy, and the richest nation in history, and I think we take for granted the difficulties of making choices that affect people's lives. So I'm all in favor of people getting inspired.

Host: Are you into the Internet at all, Brad? Do you visit "West Wing" message boards on AOL or fan sites?

Bradley Whitford: You know what, people actually make fun of me because I live in fear of -- when you do theater in New York, they always have after-play discussions, and those can be...

Host: Brutal

Bradley Whitford: ...brutal and sort of devastating events.

Host: Right.

Bradley Whitford: And damaging, if you have to do it the next day. And people have said, you know, these very complimentary things, and that I should look at them, but I really kind of live in fear of any "West Wing" Web sites.

Host: What do you think about some of these sites that consider you and Josh Lyman to be kind of sexy?

Bradley Whitford: I'm all for that. I am speechless.

Host: Last week the show had to be preempted. How do you feel about that?

Bradley Whitford: I was actually at the vice president's Christmas party...

Host: Oh.

Bradley Whitford: ...the day after, on Thursday. And I told him that I thought that his speech was spectacular, and I knew that it was a very emotional and difficult thing for him to do, but I admonished him for not waiting just one more stinking day. And he laughed about that. It was absolutely fine for me that the show was postponed. You know, it was such a fascinating turn of events, and I thought the vice president was great, so I'll gladly give him the airwaves.

Host: One of our members named LoriG415, Would Martin Sheen or President Bartlet make the kind of leader this country needs? ::laughter::

Bradley Whitford: Martin Sheen is a spectacular human being who should never be president.

Host: When the cameras stop rolling, does he still boss you guys on the set at all?

Bradley Whitford: Martin is -- the most surprising thing when people meet Martin is he is -- he's just the sweetest guy in the world. He is so gentle, and he's not intimidating. He's not bossy. He's a really sweet guy. So I think Bartlet would be a great president. I think that he's kind of a throwback, in that I think it's gotten to the point where if you're running for president, you kind of have to hide your intelligence a little bit or you won't get elected. And he's not someone who is willing to do that. I think he's -- you know, I think he's flawed. I think he is -- he's certainly pragmatic. But you know, I think politicians have to be pragmatic. And I think actually that's one of the best things that the show dramatizes.

Bradley Whitford: And we don't pretend to have any real experience of what it's like to serve in the White House. But one of the central issues in every show and one of the central issues for my character, always, is how dirty do your feet have to get without you suffocating in the mud in order to get an inch of what you really want done? And that's what we deal with in every show. And that's what -- I think people get very cynical about that from the outside, when they see people compromise and back off from what they really believe in. But the fact is, in this country you have to formulate policy with people who -- who are stupid, and with very bright people you disagree with. You don't get everything you want. And you can't bail out on people who may compromise. You have to make very astute assessments of those people.

Host: Is it safe to say you'll be involved in some campaign in the next two years in terms of midterm elections and campaigning for a candidate?

Bradley Whitford: Me in life or on TV?

Host: In life.

Bradley Whitford: I'll tell you, it's an interesting thing. I mean, first of all, you get this -- being on the show, you get this kind of bizarre political credibility, which is embarrassing and unearned, because we're just actors doing a show. But you also, with the success of a show, get an opportunity to call attention to things that you believe in. And you don't want to become one of those Hollywood idiots who is just blathering about anything. In a good way. You don't want your credibility banana to turn brown, but you do want to speak out about what you believe in. So, yes, I will.

Host: On that note, I'm afraid we're going to have to wrap up for tonight.

Bradley Whitford: Sure.

Host: It was a pleasure talking to you. I hope we can get you back on AOL soon.

Bradley Whitford: Any time.

Host: I want to thank our audience, and thank you to Bradley Whitford. And everybody watch "The West Wing" at 9:00 on NBC.

Bradley Whitford: It is a very special "West Wing."

Host: Thanks a lot, Brad.

Bradley Whitford: Take care.

AOL Live event captioning made possible by the National Captioning Institute.

Copyright 2000 America Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Portions of this transcript may be edited by AOL to correct spelling, punctuation and/or remove any material that violates AOL's Terms of Service.

Many thanks to Erica for the submission!