Posts Tagged ‘Kiefer Sutherland Interview’

SOURCE: Crave Online

Q: There was a concerted effort to make 24 a green production last year. Is that continuing?

Kiefer Sutherland: Yeah. We started about, I believe, in almost season four. That’s when we started and the goal was to be able to make 24 and not leave a carbon footprint.

Q: How are you doing with that?

Kiefer Sutherland: Depending on who you talk to, some people believe that we actually leave no carbon footprint. I don’t know how that’s possible because we have to drive to work but all of the trucks and things that we’re using are hybrid trucks. We’re not using gas fuels and there are a lot of things that are done within the office and the production build as well. So, yeah, I can tell you that we made a marked improvement from where we were in season one.

Q: Have we crossed the line where 24 and Jack Bauer are absolutely codependent?

Kiefer Sutherland: No. I’ve always believed that the star of this show was the format. It changed thrillers. The second that you had that moving clock in the corner it made people uncomfortable. It was a fantastic idea and that’s what people were really interested in when they first tuned into the show and it was the challenge for the writers to service. I’ve always felt that was the real star of the show. We’ve had unbelievably loyal fans. I’m forever grateful for that and I would hope that a few of them would be quite cross if I wasn’t doing it but I’ve always believed that the idea was really special. Certainly it was larger than any single person.

Q: A lot of people thought sparks were flying with Jack and Renee last year. Obviously, that doesn’t seem like the way it’s going.

Kiefer Sutherland: What I think is really unfortunate, because we show you four episodes, this is going to have such a shift by the time that you get to the end and we’re very cognizant of that. It was something that I really wanted in season seven and we have to keep reminding ourselves that this is all taking place in one day and you don’t develop those kinds of relationships but they’ve now known each other for quite some time and we were very cognizant, she and I were, even when we were working. We were aware that there is a really wonderful chemistry that I have with her as an actor and that the two character share together and it was something that we definitely wanted to take advantage of this year.

Q: Were you in New York long enough to play hockey with Dennis Leary?

Kiefer Sutherland: In Boston I got to play. They had the game at Fenway Park and the next day they had a classic. It was myself, Cam Neely, some of the great old Bruins and even Dave Schultz from the Philadelphia Flyers which I remember as one of the great fighters of all time on skates. But yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was a charity benefit. I think that they raised almost a half million dollars and it was great and I got to skate at Fenway Park.

Q: What about music activities?

Kiefer Sutherland: Yeah, still doing all of that. The music business is a tough world.

Q: Do you have a label down in Nashville?

Kiefer Sutherland: No. We operate out of Los Angeles and it’s still Ironworks.

Q: Are you still working with Rocco DeLuca?

Kiefer Sutherland: Yeah.

Q: Anyone else?

Kiefer Sutherland: Rocco DeLuca. Honey Honey. There’s another wonderful young band called Billy Boy On Poison. I just signed another artist named Jim Stapley out of the UK. So we’re very excited about all of them.

Q: So you’re still very hands on with the label?

Kiefer Sutherland: As much as I can be, yeah.

Q: Any interest in doing a comedy at some point?

Kiefer Sutherland: I have more of an interest in doing comedy than apparently anybody does having me in one.

Q: What’s the best advice your father ever gave you?

Kiefer Sutherland: As an actor, one of the great pieces of advice that he gave me, and I was very young when he gave it to me and he was actually helping me with an audition and I think that I tried to kind of really fake something and he said, ‘Oh, don’t do that. An audience will catch you lying so fast it’ll make your head spin.’ I’ll always remember that because it says two things. It means to me as an actor that whatever the moment is you find it from somewhere inside yourself. You make it real. The other is have a deep respect for the audience because they’ll catch you if you’re not.

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Emmanuel Itier: How do you feel about the character you play?

Kiefer Sutherland: I think I’d root for him as well, and I think people would like to see him at least have the option to have a good life and we’ve stripped a lot of those components away over the years by virtue of killing everybody. Whether or not he wants to live or die seemed to become almost innocuous, like who cares? There’s nothing really to live for, so what we did for this season is to really try to create something that would make Jack want to live. We started off with this relationship between his daughter, his granddaughter, her husband — that family and him, because his family was literally torn apart after season 1. Once we started with that, a lot of interesting things started to happen, and the history of the relationship between he and Annie Wersching’s character, Renee — that was someone he had obviously very serious feelings for. So we started moving those things around what is the story-line this year, which is a peace conference between the president of Iran and the president of the United States. They started to hit a flow — the writers did — so, for this year, it is literally just to protect, for me as an actor and for Jack as a character. The desire for season 8 is to protect all the things that would make living worthwhile, and live within the context of what he can morally accept doing and/or not doing.

EI: How did you feel about these moral issues being discussed more than ever in the show?

KS: First off, I think that’s the whole point of theater and the whole point of writing — to create discussion in movies and television…all mediums of entertainment. Music was an unbelievable force through late ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, and is responsible for the cultural revolution, so it’s about spawning discussion. By the same token, we’re making a television show, and it’s a thriller, and there’s another television show that glorifies a serial killer. I don’t think that’s what they’re trying to say — it’s entertaining. You have to balance that in perspective, but what I did respect about the writers was that, because Guantanamo bay and the events at Abu Ghraib became headline news and 24 sort of fell into the milieu of that, Howard Gordon said, “Let’s deal with that. Let’s make that this season. Let’s address those issues.” And what I thought was interesting about Jack Bauer — because I always considered him a very political character, just like the secret service guys — they have to work for whatever president they get. They’re not allowed to not stop the bullet for this one because they didn’t like that last bill he was toting, and Jack Bauer is very much that kind of guy. So to watch him wrestle with that moral dilemma of what he knows to be intellectually right and wrong, and emotionally what he can stand by to watch happen is kind of summed up in that last speech. “I see 15 people stuck on a bus and I’ll do whatever I have to to save them because the only thing they did wrong was try to go to work and they had to take the bus. So that’s how I’ll approach it, but I also believe the Constitution is the most important parameter or boundaries for which this country is built on, and maybe you do have to let those 15 people die on the bus in order to protect the values of that Constitution.” That was all of last season, and he kind of copped out because he didn’t find a final resolution because he died, so it will continue through season 8. It is a very difficult question to answer, and I can liken to this as a parent. I am absolutely against the death penalty. I am morally opposed to it. I think it is embarrassing that it is still in place, and yet I could not tell you what I’d do if I knew someone had hurt my child. I could not tell you that I would have such a lofty moral principle in that situation. That’s exactly where Jack Bauer is at.

EI: How do you imagine you’re going to feel when you don’t have Jack Bauer to play every day? Is it going to be freeing, or is it going to be a real loss?

KS: I think it’s going to be very complicated. Whether this is our last season, whether next season is going to be our last season, we certainly know we’re on the shorter end of the stick than on the longer one. I walked onto the stages last year — I think it was around episode 17, and I don’t know why — it was just at that time that I realized that…I looked up at the rigging in the rafters that I’ve taken for granted for the last seven years, and all the guys that had worked up there had all [this] energy. Our stage is as big as this building, and all the rigging and all the lights and all the power, and I realized that that’s all coming to an end, and the rafters looked really lonely and I got really sad. In season 1 and season 2, it’s such a shock to your body — the workload — that you can’t wait for it to be done. And somewhere, somehow, in the groove of everything, you start to get into a rhythm of it and you find ways to make it easier for yourself, and I just got really nostalgic at that one moment. So I know for a fact that it’s not going to be, “Wahoo!” — it’s going to be a combination of a lot of things, and it’s not going to be easy.

EI: Do you ever regret the way you play Jack Bauer?

KS: Absolutely no regret. I don’t necessarily agree all the time. I think Jack Bauer, as a character, has been politicized, and I think he’s been politicized by both the left and the right. I don’t always agree with how he’s been politicized, and with regards to playing him, it’s not regret. I think certainly any actor will tell you, and I am no different, there are moments when I will try for something and miss, or not realize the potential of a moment. I get disappointed with myself, is a better word. Again, I consider the character apolitical and I have a very healthy balance that it’s a television show and it lives within its thing. So no, I have no regret for that at all. There are moments that I felt that I could have done a better job in mining the drama or the suspense of a specific moment.

EI: Is this the last season for you? Will you remain as a distributor?

KS: I don’t know with regards to the last season or anything — I really don’t. It is the last season that I’ve been contracted to do 24, but I really don’t know. They’re so focused on making season 8, but obviously the writers felt that they could really bang it out. If Howard came to me and said, “The way I saw those last scenes play, I have an idea for season 9 that would be unbelievable,” I would have to listen to him for that. I think we’re all very aware of wanting to protect what we believe is a very strong and important legacy that is 24. Again, I think the choices to do it or not to do it have nothing to do with my contract but have everything to do with whether or not an audience still wants to watch it and cares, and whether or not we feel we have something to offer.

EI: Do you think 24 can continue without Jack?

KS: I always felt that, yeah. The idea that I would ever think that I’m the only actor… The star of the show is format and the idea. I remember I pitched Joel Surnow once, in the very beginning of season 1. I said, “You could change it up every year. The next year could be the last 24 hours of Joan of Arch’s life. The next year could be 24 hours in a firefighter’s day, or 24 hours of a woman who’s pregnant whose car has broken down in a snowstorm and how she’s going to save this baby.” It was endless. The format was what was so intriguing. I’ve always felt that way.

Kiefer Sutherland Talks ’24′ Finale and Movie

Kiefer Sutherland is back as Jack Bauer in 24, which finally returned to the tube after a prolonged hiatus brought on by the writers strike. Even though there are still 10 hours remaining this season, Sutherland is dishing on what fans can expect in the final hour — and in a movie!

Now, he’s looking a bit different in the 3-D animated feature Monsters vs. Aliens, playing uber-soldier General W. R. Monger. Sutherland is just as tough and merciless as he is in primetime, but he got a kick out of coming up with a voice that he admits was inspired by cartoon maverick Yosemite Sam.

Q: Give us a hint about the much anticipated last episode of this season’s 24.

A: The most I can tell you about it is that it’s not going to end because someone cuts two wires and the clock on the bomb stops. It is going to end with some of the characters going through a very difficult emotional dilemma which will be much more dramatic than a big action sequence. I believe that it’s the most powerful important ending that we’ve ever had to a season.

Related: Kiefer Sutherland on Chasing Love

Q: The response to Bauer’s willingness to use torture against terrorists has been a controversial part of 24. Does it seem less viable in a new era led by President Barack Obama?

A: I don’t want to get caught up in the controversy, which is why I’m very quiet about my own thoughts. I think Jack Bauer is an apolitical character. You can have Rush Limbaugh on one side and liberals like Barbara Streisand on the other side. They’re all debating how far we should go in fighting terrorism. I think that’s great. But I don’t think you can say 24 has opted for the left or the right. It’s running right down the middle, just like this country is.

Related: See exclusive photos of 24′s Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub)

Q: Will 24 ever make it to the big screen?

A: We thought it would be kind of cruel and unusual punishment to ask the writers to script the equivalent of 12 films a year and then say, ‘By the way, in your off time come up with an unbelievable idea that’s so superb that we could justify making a feature out of it?’ So we collectively decided that when the show is finished then we would take it on. I like the idea of a two-hour representation of a 24-hour story, but I would like to go back and to try to make it much smaller like it was in the beginning, where Bauer’s sole responsibility was to protect one guy and through that his family was placed in jeopardy.

Q: How did you feel about how General Monger looked on the screen in Monster and Aliens?

A: It was a hoot. He reminds me of a combination of Patton and Dr. Strangelove. I think one of the great freedoms of animation is that, as an actor, you get to leave your physicality at the door. I’m 5’10″ and blond, so I could never look like that.

Q: Did you connect with the story?

A: In the midst of the fun there’s a message which is that it’s all right to be different — the thing that might make you uncomfortable or make you feel weird, could be your greatest quality. Certainly, when I was growing up there were times when I felt different than other kids and that scared me a lot.

Q: Were you a fan of animated films growing up?

A: For my generation it was Bambi, which was one of the most dramatic films I’ve ever seen. I mean, the mother dies in the first act and it becomes this great coming of age story. As much as I cried, I was just amazed how much I felt. And that drew me to see other films, and so it opened a big door for me.

Q: 24 was way ahead of the historic curve when it presented Dennis Haysbert as the first African-American president. Do you think it had any influence on reality?

A: First off, Barack Obama is completely responsible for Barack Obama and none of us are taking any, not even the slightest iota of credit for what that man has accomplished. But I also don’t want to undermine the power of television. I can go back to All in the Family and the character of Archie Bunker. I think watching his bigoted, racist character helped to change us as a society in our perspective on what behavior was acceptable with regard to integration, race and homosexuality. When we had an African-American president on the series–10 years ago people would have said it would never happen. So maybe if you start to show people that it is a potential reality they will start to accept it. I can say the same thing about this season where we have a female President. I guarantee you that’s going to happen. It’s just a question of time.

The eighth season of the real-time TV drama 24 will be unlike the first seven, as the cinematic style and the content will reflect a complete change of pace.

“Up to now we have inserted gaps lasting several years between seasons,” said 24 Executive Producer Constance Payne. “Next year we will pick up exactly where this season left off, and show exactly what (counterterrorism agent and main series character) Jack Bauer would do after a 24-hour day where he avoided several attempts on his life and still saved the world each time.”

That is eat, sleep, and finally visit the bathroom.

As the program is switching networks from FOX to AMC, the show will become more contemplative and intellectual. This begins with the point of view, as the entire program will appear from Bauer’s viewpoint. He will climb into the back of the van, then close his eyes.

During the time he is sleeping–which will be at least 22 hours all told–the viewer will see a gauzy, gray static (there will be no effort to capture whatever Bauer might be dreaming). The static will go on for hours at a time, only dissolving into commercial breaks and previews of the next episode.

The eighth season begins (spoiler alert) at 8 a.m. when the exhausted Bauer, fresh after flushing neurological toxins from his bloodstream, falls asleep in the back of a van. There will be no action until two thirds into the 11 a.m. hour, when he spends some time in the john. He falls asleep, then wakes up for breakfast in the late afternoon. He sleeps again, but is awakened by a woman (presumably a character from a previous season. He has a few drinks, then crashes for the final time.

The show won’t be real exciting to watch, and the producers expect that some viewers will use the time to catch up on other things. Which is the point.

“The world is going too fast and there is way too much noise,” Payne said. “We want people to perceive the new 24 as a respite from their busy lives, and use the time to reflect about where they are heading. We expect to keep many of our viewers, and give them a chance to plan their own destinies rather than having to react to a series of deadly crises.”

The program hopes to also attract a substantial new audience, of people who need to decompress. And if the concept succeeds there could be a spin-off, or two.

Last minute details are being worked out for the new-look 24 and are dependent on Kiefer Sutherland accepting a pay cut. If an agreement is not made the show will most likely return to the scripted format.

“For that kind of money we are going to want to see Kiefer kick some ass,” Payne said.

David caught up with Kiefer Sutherland – who voiced General WR Monger for Monsters vs Aliens between shoots on 24 – at the film’s Hong Kong Film International Festival premiere.

The film has a real affection for monster movies of old. Is that a genre you like?

Very much so. I always liked Godzilla and I loved that 70s version of King Kong with Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange.

Was working on an animated film very different from a live-action feature?

I found it very liberating, but you have to work hard at creating a character merely through your voice. The whole experience was nice, coming in for five or six hours at the weekend between shooting episodes of 24. It’s something I’d readily do again.

What was your motivation for getting involved with this project?

Well, I just did the film because of the message – that not only is it all right to be different, but what makes you different can be the best thing about you.

The 3D effects are pretty stunning…

I was so taken aback by the 3D. In the opening sequence, the meteors come at you and seem to be going over your left shoulder. I’m 42, but even I found myself going, “Wow!”. I took my grandson, who’s four, and it must have been amazing for him. In fact, he nearly fell out of his seat.

And a quick word about 24 – is it something you see yourself involved with for a long time?

We just approach every season one at a time, but we don’t believe we’ve made our best yet and we start filming season eight next month. I never thought the show would have such a long run. I put it down to a number of factors coming together – the right crew, the right cast and the audience being ready for it. I’m very, very grateful.

KIEFER Sutherland – aka Jack Bauer in TV hit 24 – talks about breaking into animation for Monsters Vs Aliens.

He also reveals how he had to overcome his own self-consciousness to really express himself, how he went about finding the voice of his character, General W.R. Monger and which super power he’d most like to inherit…

Q. Is your General W.R. Monger some sort of distant relative of George C Scott’s General in Dr Strangelove?
Kiefer Sutherland: Not specifically. When we sat down and talked about the voice there were obvious requirements. This was a life-long military man, and one of the voice that I loved for someone like that was the sergeant in Full Metal Jacket. Obviously, that was a very serious performance and this was to be much more fun, so in my head I loved the character Yosemite Sam, who was in a lot of the Bugs Bunny cartoons. So, the voice was really kind of an effort to bring both of those together. I was messing around with that for a minute, so Reese and Conrad [Vernon, director] laughed, and I’m pretty easy for a laugh, so we went forward with that.

Q. Has this whet your appetite for more comedic roles in the future?
Kiefer Sutherland: I’ve been naturally drawn to more dramatic roles. It’s something that I have felt more comfortable with. The arc actually for me, in these animated movies, has been a giant learning curve. To my own detriment, I think at times I get self-conscious… and with this you find yourself in a recording studio by yourself with 10 people on the other side of a glass window looking at you. I forgot that I did require physical movement to do some of the voices, and this was the first experience where the voice was separate enough from my own, that I really let loose with it.

I had an absolutely wonderful time right up to the point that I realised they were filming it! And then I got really quiet again [smiles]. But it was so much fun for me. And certainly I would always welcome the opportunity to branch out and do other things, but I think probably in live action the comedies that I would be more drawn to would still be kind of dark. But we’ll see.

Q. What’s your favourite movie monster?
Kiefer Sutherland: Just for fun, with regards to our movie, the killer tomatoes were certainly fantastic and I think they really represent the genre just because of the humour aspect of it, which I think was really important.

Q. What kind of superpowers would you most like to have, and would you use them for good or evil?
Kiefer Sutherland: I would have to say I’d love to fly. I think that would be amazing. And I’d hope that I would use it for good.

Q. Where would you fly to?
Kiefer Sutherland: Everywhere… I wouldn’t stop. I was talking to someone earlier today who had been asked a similar question, and that person only wanted to be able to bounce.

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As gun-toting counter terrorism agent Jack Bauer, he rescues Presidents and saves the world – all in a mere 24 hours.

And Kiefer Sutherland is no shrinking violet offscreen either. He’s got a reputation as a hard-drinking, brawling womaniser whose hellraising would put Mickey Rourke to shame.

So his latest role – which he reckons is his best yet – is something of a radical departure. It’s playing a doting grandad.

And it’s clear there is no acting involved when, in our exclusive interview, Kiefer gushes about the four-year-old boy who has tamed his wild ways.

“His name is Hamish Adam Kiefer Sinclair, he’s four-and-a-half and he’s a train wreck,” says Kiefer, who rakes in £20million a year for playing Jack Bauer in the hit US TV series 24.

“He already looks like a failed boxer. He falls down a lot and he gets cut up and he’s just beautiful.

“He’s one of the great pleasures of my life.”

Hamish’s mum is his step-daughter Michelle Kath, from his first marriage to Camelia.

For the past year, twice-divorced Kiefer has been in a relationship with Siobhan Bonnouvrier, a style director at Allure magazine. She’s another steadying effect on his life.

Kiefer says: “I’m very happy at this point in my life and that’s a large part of it. I realised it was time to grow up.”

And although at Elton John’s post-Oscars party in February he was up to his old tricks – knocking back whisky and cokes, slurring his words and ordering four drinks at a time – Kiefer insists his hellraising days are over.

That news will bring a sigh of relief from those who have experienced Kiefer on a full-throttle bender. His heroes are, after all, legendary boozers Peter O’Toole, Richard Burton and Richard Harris.

His years of bar-crawls and brawls have seen him need 140 stitches. He has also jumped fully-clothed into swimming pools and been arrested.

Three years ago he attacked a Christmas tree in the lobby of London’s Strand Palace Hotel. The following year he spent the Christmas holiday in jail after being arrested for drunken driving for the second time.

But he refuses to blame his bad behaviour on the pressure of filming 24, shown on Sky One on Mondays.

“Whatever has happened I’ve created for myself,” he said, as we chat in a suite at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. “I’m not going to blame the show for that. I’ve been lucky enough to work as a professional actor for more than 20 years and for the past few years I haven’t wondered and worried about where the next job was coming from.

“The benefits are so huge I couldn’t even describe them. And whatever dilemmas I have created for myself on a personal level had nothing to do with the show.”

He has recorded his eventful life experiences in a series of tattoos that the 24 make-up artists are kept busy hiding from view.

“I have a lot of tattoos – it’s kind of a disease,” he laughed. “You get the first one and then if it matters to you, you get more.

“I got my first tattoo when I was 16 and had just left home.

“I was really scared so a couple of friends and I got tattoos as a bonding thing.”

That first tattoo was a Chinese symbol meaning strength.

“It was strength of heart and it mattered to me,” he recalls. “And from then on, any time I went through something in my life that mattered to me I had this desire to make a tattoo out of it.

“I kept going and I have a lot of them. There are times when it is difficult. When I work I have to cover them up and at times I’ve seen a picture of myself when I had none and think that maybe I shouldn’t have got any.

“But most of the time it’s a nice map for myself about the journey of my life.”

To get to this point in his life Kiefer has travelled a long and bumpy road. He didn’t have the most normal of starts. His grandad was the first socialist premier of Canadian province Saskatchewan, and his actor parents – dad Donald Sutherland and mum Shirley Douglas – separated when he was three. Kiefer was raised by his mother, who was actively involved with the Black Panther movement.

After seeing his mum in Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, he decided to be an actor. He ran away from school and, aged 16, landed a role in Canadian film The Bad Boy.

The next year he moved to Los Angeles and lived out of his car, before moving into a house with fellow struggling actors Sarah Jessica Parker, Robert Downey Jr. and Billy Zane.

His breakout roles in Stand By Me and The Lost Boys took him to the brink of stardom, but things went downhill in a blur of drink and bad movie choices. His two marriages – to Camelia and then to model Kelly Winn – went down the pan. And he was jilted by Julia Roberts three days before their wedding, when she discovered he’d been seeing a stripper. She ran off to Europe with his best pal, Jason Patric.

The public humiliation sent him into a spiral of boozing and womanising which wasn’t helped by a series of film flops. Disheartened and disillusioned, he retreated to his cattle ranch in California’s Santa Ynez Valley, took up steer roping and travelled the rodeo circuit winning a few competitions.

Then the script for 24 came along. “I wasn’t working much and wasn’t doing the kind of films I wanted,” he says. “So when something like 24 comes along you focus on taking advantage of the opportunity, and that’s what I did.”

He begins filming the eighth series in May with more action, pain and – for once – love in store for Jack Bauer.

Since Jack’s wife died in the first series, his romances have been few and far between. But in the next series he gets hot and heavy with FBI agent Renee Walker (Annie Wersching).

“We figured if you can’t fall in love under the circumstances of life and death you’re in big trouble,” grins Kiefer, who works with the writers on the plotlines.

“One of the things that has brought them together so quickly is this desperate need for each other to survive. Nothing brings people closer together than that.”

Away from the tough action of 24, Kiefer has also provided the voice for General W.R. Monger, a character in the animated comedy Aliens vs Monsters.

He says: “Someone asked me the other day, ‘How do you get your voice? Was it whisky and cigarettes?’ I said, no, I got it from my father.”

“One of the things I really liked about my character is that he realises the monsters are not as dangerous and evil as everybody else perceives them to be, but they’ve been put away simply because they’re different.

“I love the message, which is geared to young people and telling them that it’s all right to be different.

“We shot it while I was making 24. So for five days a week, 14 hours a day, I was very serious with 24, then suddenly, for six hours on a weekend, I got to have fun. I’d forgotten how much fun acting can be. We laughed a lot. I felt like I was five again.”

No wonder he gets on so well with grandson Hamish.

GuelphMercury.com – Life – All in a day’s work for Kiefer.

Interviewing Kiefer Sutherland takes some time. Clad in a green T-shirt that amply displays both his muscles and his tattoos for an interview at a Beverly Hills hotel, he’s perfectly co-operative, but it takes about 20 minutes for him to relax and start spilling the beans on the new season of 24.

Jack Bauer would have broken him down in half the time.

He does have a great deal to talk about, though, especially because he’s both the star of the series and an executive producer. How can the show top a White House shootout, one in which the president of the United States (Cherry Jones) is taken hostage by terrorists plotting a biological attack on the United States? For most shows that would be a great capper, but the seventh season of 24 is barely underway.

“I can tell you that the season won’t end because someone cuts one of two wires and the clock on a bomb stops,” Sutherland, 42, says. “This season will come to a head and eventually end with an emotional dilemma instead of an action-oriented sequence.

“It’s the most powerful and important ending we’ve ever had on this show.”

What about the rumours that this season his character might get snuggly with a certain red-headed FBI agent? Will we finally see Bauer in love?

“I think he’s in the process of it now,” Sutherland says, “in his own speedy way.”

The actor won’t comment, however, on rumours that the president’s surly, plotting daughter (Sprague Grayden) will turn out to be one of the season’s major villains.

“You don’t want me to ruin it,” he says, smiling and shaking his head.

It’s strange to see Sutherland smile. It’s one expression that rarely turns up on Jack Bauer’s fiercely intense face. But he hasn’t needed to smile to make 24 one of television’s biggest success stories, a dauntingly complicated saga with a writer-savaging gimmick — each season’s 24 episodes take place over the course of a single hour, told in real time, adding up to a single day per season — that has become one of the small screen’s most popular and compelling series.

It has long been rumoured that 24 would also be making a foray onto the big screen, but Sutherland is quick to scotch that idea, at least for now.

“We thought that it would be cruel and unusual punishment to ask our writers to basically write 12 films a year, which is the series, and then say, ‘Hey, in your off time, can you come up with an idea so superior that we can justify making it into a feature film?’ ” he says. “When the series is finished, if anyone still wants to see us, we will take on making a 24 film.”

If Sutherland has his way, that won’t be for quite some time.

“I’d love to do this series until I’m 60,” he says. “Of course, the greater question is to the writers. They have the greatest burden of creativity.”

The show’s sixth season was regarded as lacklustre by critics and fans, and Sutherland doesn’t entirely dispute the verdict.

“We’re a really competitive group,” he says, “and we took a bit of beating in Season 6. What I love about our group is how we rallied and didn’t give up. Our show is done in real time, which is a challenge. Our ultimate goal is creating the perfect season. We have that goal every single year, and we will continue to work until people say ‘Stop’ or until we believe we have made the perfect season.”

Seven years in, Sutherland adds, he’s as happy playing Jack Bauer as he ever has been, seven years of running, jumping off buildings and enduring constant beatings from the baddies notwithstanding.

“Physically I feel fine doing the show,” he says. “If you look at Jack from Season 1 until now, he’s a very different guy. He lost his wife and then his daughter. He grew from those tragedies. And it’s vastly interesting for me to play a man whose life is this unpredictable.”

And then there’s the high-powered supporting cast, including Jones, the Broadway stalwart who plays the president.

“Cherry Jones is one of the actors I’ve been scared to work with on the show,” Sutherland admits. “We work at such a fast pace that, when you get a scene and work with Cherry, there are always five different ways to play it and you must choose. I was very nervous about making the right choice when we first started acting together. I wanted to earn her respect.”

One of the hard aspects of 24, the actor says, is that — unlike most television shows — its cast is constantly in flux. Even the most beloved characters can be killed off if the writers deem it necessary. This year Sutherland had to say goodbye to James Morrison, who played Bauer’s boss, Bill Buchanan, former leader of Los Angeles’ Counter Terrorist Unit.

“One of the most difficult things about 24 has been developing relationships with actors and a trust with these actors who become friends,” Sutherland says. “We’ve created this family. Losing them is really hard. It’s twice as hard when I know that it serves the story and it’s exciting for the fans.”

Some have suggested that, by casting Dennis Haysbert as the president in its first few seasons, 24 helped the United States get used to the idea of an African-American president. Sutherland downplays that idea.

“Barack Obama is completely responsible for Barack Obama,” he says. “Contrary to anything anyone has said, none of us on 24 are taking even the slightest iota of credit for what that man has created.

“But, in the same breath, I will say that TV is powerful,” Sutherland adds.

“I also believe that, if you show people something is a reality on TV, then they will accept it,” he continues. “We have a female president on our show now, and I guarantee you that it will happen in real life. It’s just a matter of time.”

There’s more to Sutherland than 24, of course. His most recent side gig is as the voice of General Monger in the animated extravaganza Monsters vs. Aliens, now in theatres.

It’s the latest in a long list of film credits that also includes such classics as Stand By Me (1986), The Lost Boys (1987), Young Guns (1988) and A Few Good Men (1992).

Even with 24 occupying most of his time for the past decade, he’s managed to squeeze in Phone Booth (2002), Taking Lives (2004) and Mirrors (2008).

Kiefer Sutherland Interview, Monsters vs Aliens – MoviesOnline.

(Click on the link for the whole interview!)

Q:  ON ’24′ I’M STILL REELING FROM THE DEATH A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO.

SUTHERLAND:  Which death?  I don’t know what episode you are on.

Q:  BILL BUCHANAN.  HOW DID YOU DECIDE HE WOULD SACRIFICE HIMSELF?  THERE ARE STILL SEVERAL HOURS LEFT.  HOW ARE YOU GOING TO TOP A SHOOTOUT IN THE WHITE HOUSE?

SUTHERLAND:  It’s really funny.  The end of ’24′ this season, the most I can tell you, is that it’s not going to end because someone cuts two wires and the clock on a bomb stops.  It’s going to end because a few of the characters are going through a very difficult emotional dilemma.  It’s going to end on a much more dramatic level than it is going to be a physical or action oriented sequence.  In saying that, I believe it’s the most powerful and important ending that we have ever had.  I think one of the most difficult things about ’24′ has been developing the relationships with actors, the trust with actors, and this family we’ve created, and then losing them.  From Leslie Hope in the first season right down the line, Carlos Bernard, Dennis Haysbert, Carlos Bernard twice.  It’s really hard.  As much as I know that it services the story, it’s exciting and dramatic for fans to deal with, it’s been very difficult as an actor to get into a rhythm with someone and let them go.  It certainly wasn’t my choice.  It was very powerful but for all of us and for James [Morrison] himself, it was a sad day when that happened.