Martin Sheen campaigns for another term as president

LOS ANGELES -- The guard at the entrance to this location shoot wouldn't let Martin Sheen in.

It's not often that the actor who plays the president of the United States on television isn't recognized.

"You need a dose of that now and then," said a laughing Sheen, who eventually was cleared to enter the abandoned airport for the filming of a promotional spot for "The West Wing."

He is relating the experience later that morning while sitting barefoot and tieless for an interview in his location trailer. Yet he still looks presidential, with neatly coiffed hair and crisp blue shirt.

Now in reruns, "The West Wing" inaugurates its fourth season with a two-hour episode at 8 p.m. Sept. 25.

Sheen, who plays chief executive Josiah "Jed" Bartlet in the highly rated NBC series, received his third Emmy nomination for the role in July. It was one of 21 Emmy nods the drama is up for this year; awards are to be presented Sept. 22. "The West Wing" has won 17 Emmys since its 1999 debut.

Hard on the campaign trail when the new season starts, President Bartlet presumably wins another term in office because Sheen has signed a new three-year contract that reportedly awards him around $300,000 per episode.

"I signed an agreement to keep it secret and as far as I'm concerned it's still a secret," Sheen said.

On the first season of "The West Wing," Bartlet was to appear only about once a month. "The only thing the contract said I could not do was play another president elsewhere. I was fine with that," said Sheen, who in 1983 starred in the title role of the TV miniseries "Kennedy."

But it quickly became apparent to "West Wing" producers that "the old man," as Sheen calls Bartlet, should be a full-time, anchoring presence on the ensemble show created and written by Aaron Sorkin.

In the fictional Oval Office, Bartlet has a plaque on his desk similar to one President Kennedy was said to have had.

"I refer to it a lot," Sheen says, referring to himself, not his character. "It's a 13-word prayer. It's very powerful. 'Oh Lord, your sea is so great and my boat is so small.' That kind of says it all. Life is difficult. It's supposed to be. But you are not out there alone."