We had the pleasure of talking with Blair Underwood and Jason Ritter from NBC's much talked about new series, The Event.

I'm so glad that you're going to tell us all what exactly The Event is, right?

Blair Underwood: Right. Of course. Of course. Listen, what I can tell you and tell you all is that The Event is something very eventful but it is something that is - can potentially change the course of mankind as we know it. In a nutshell that's what is to come.

You've had so many great roles in your career and I'm pretty sure this is the first time you've played the president. How does it feel taking on such an iconic role like that, especially since we've seen, you know, black presidents on television before? Dennis Haysbert did such a great job on 24, Morgan Freeman's done it on screen and now, you know, we have Obama in office. So how does it feel today taking on a role like that?

Blair Underwood: Well it's exciting. You mentioned Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact and Laura Innes and I actually did the film Deep Impact 15 years ago and at that time conference calls like these and lots of the questions from the press was, "Do you think we'll ever have an African American president?" It was unheard of at that time. And now that it is a reality in the world in which we live and we have seen it on television, it's not an enigma anymore. It's not even unique.

That said, to play a character that is a leader of the Free World is very exciting for me and especially the way we're approaching it because one of the things Jeffrey Reiner and Nick Wauters and Steve Stark, our producers, said from the very beginning from our very fist conversation - what's up Jason? Jason Ritter just walked in everybody.

Jason Ritter: How's it going?

Blair Underwood: Good.

Jason Ritter: Good to see you.

Blair Underwood: But what they wanted to do with this president was not just see the president as we would see him on the news, CNN, Fox, whatever else, on news stations, but really see the human being behind the office and they've done a great job of doing that so far.

So Jason you know the past few years you've done a lot more like low-key independent movies. I just saw this move Dry Land which you were really great in and now you're probably like in the biggest role that you've had yet. So how does it feel to go from like smaller independent stuff to something as big as The Event?

Jason Ritter: It feels really great, you know. I mean I felt - after a couple of years of doing that I felt really ready to jump into something like this and challenge myself. Not that it was my choice. Not that I had made the announcement to join something like this but I, you know, I really worked hard on the audition and I was excited. You know, I mean it definitely feels like a lot of pressure.

You know, and one thing about an independent movie, you know, there's a lot of room to experiment and make mistakes and things like that. But then on a show like this where there's so much money going into it, the pressure is higher but there's also - you realize that most of that is coming from your own self and it's still just a group of people making the best thing that they can and it's been a lot of fun. I mean this project in particular has been a dream.

What jumped out of the script to get you interested or what drew you in?

Jason Ritter: For me I just was - I was fascinated by having to put all these puzzle pieces together, you know. Seeing these characters, you know, jump back and forth through time and have, you know, for instance my character be in a completely different place emotionally in the space of 11 days was really intriguing to me. And then on the other hand all the characters felt fully fleshed out and real and it felt like we were in the hands of the first chapter of a really great story. And that was exciting to me.

Blair Underwood: You know, like Jason said, feeling like we were in good hands. I initially sat down with producers and discussed what this whole world would be and what was most impressive to me - actually Jason and I had the same agent and before I went into that meeting our agent said that Jason had gone in, he was impressed and I think you will be too with how much they strategized the seasons.

They've thought through this world, the mythology of this world, these characters and really kind of plotted out the first five years but really clearly the first two years. Now we know in television that can alter depending on what the audience wants to see this, that and the other but it's important I think to take a stab and know where you're going.

So what impressed me was their expertise in that and their clarity in that. And then again, you know, the specific character and then also the cast members. The fact that Laura Innes was attached from ER I have great respect for, the fact that Jason was attached. It just - it was a win-win situation of all parts. Great cast. Great pedigree of talent to kind of helm the whole project.

And also that said, you know, we were talking about independent films with Jason. The fact when you can do independent films and take a lot of risks, it's one thing and you can sometimes be creatively fulfilled but sometimes those films can sit on the shelf and I've been in that position. You work hard, you're proud of the work but people never see it.

Jason Ritter: Absolutely.

Blair Underwood: So to have the creative that you're excited about and then also have a network that's going to get behind it, that also of course plays into the decision-making process.

Blair Underwood: That was a long answer. Sorry about that.