With 24 back on the air, we figured it was time iF Magazine caught up with its lead actor, Mr. Kiefer Sutherland. Sutherland plays Jack Bauer, a top federal agent, who keeps his days busy neutralizing terrorists threats. We get to see every second of it, one day in the life of Jack Bauer. But heck, you already know that.
Now we’re in a new season, with a new president, and a new threat as Jack is cracking down on a government conspiracy in Washington D.C.
Giving us a minute, Sutherland talks to us about Season 7.
iF MAGAZINE: Was there any discussion of playing into the current political landscape with 24? When you were developing last season, Hillary Clinton was sort of the frontrunner for the Democrats, but that obviously changed.
KIEFER SUTHERLAND: We were supposed to actually be out right at the beginning of the Democratic primaries. Barack Obama, nobody had known he was really going to run and the front candidate was Hillary Clinton and we were kind of feeding along with that.
iF: How has it been working with Cherry Jones as your new president Allison Taylor?
SUTHERLAND: Cherry Jones was one of the first actors I got really nervous about working with because I have so much respect for her. We shoot at such a fast pace, and when you’re working with someone like Cherry, you know that they’re many different directions where you can take the scene. I remember that first morning thinking that I hope I pick one that is going to work with her, and that I prepared for with her. So that was just an absolute joy.
The other aspect within the characters of our relationship, she’s kind of a perfect hybrid between Logan and Palmer. Palmer and Jack Bauer were partners if you will. And Logan was obviously the opposite of that. [President Taylor] does not respect a lot of the things that Jack Bauer has done, believes in what is taking place within the Senate investigation, and is also forced into a dilemma where I come up as an intelligence that she requires, and so she does has to deal with me at some level. So it’s a very cagey relationship in the beginning, which is a lot of fun to play and then it develops as the show continues.
iF: Why does Jack have to keep proving himself over and over to the White House?
SUTHERLAND: The White House keeps changing and the people in power keep changing, so the demands of what those people are requiring keeps changing. Some fan either came up to me on the street and was like, “Why don’t they just listen to him?” Well it wouldn’t be a very long show that way. But what’s interesting is with the new relationships, whether it’s Annie Wersching playing Renee or Cherry Jones’ character, he has to earn that trust because a lot of the things that a lot of the intelligence that he’ll come to you with is quite extraordinary. What I do like about this season is that some of it is not accurate. He’s not always right this time. I think that that was something that, in looking back at our previous seasons, we were missing some of that. We were so busy trying to drive the plot forward that we forgot there are two directions you can go in, and backwards every once in a while wouldn’t be so bad. I think the writers did a great job in putting that in. Some of our best twists come out of what Jack might misunderstand or misinterpret.
iF: What’s it like working with Carlos Bernard again?
SUTHERLAND: Fantastic. Obviously I was probably concerned as anybody else when I heard he was coming back and the writers explained how and I went, “okay.” But to have him back as an actor, selfishly is amazing for me.
iF: Wait a minute. Tony pretty much comes back from the dead, and as a bad guy of all things, and then later a good guy, and you just said okay?
SUTHERLAND: Well no, we had to go do it. We had to make sure it worked. When we actually went to play it, it felt right, and that’s when we kind of all agreed to do it. But we were not of the mind that if it didn’t work we were going to go backwards. We would have stopped, re-shot, and done that.
iF: 24 has been at it now for 7 years. Do you find yourself getting tired at all?
SUTHERLAND: No. You’re asking me if I was a sentimental guy. I can tell you I am a competitive guy and so is [executive producer] Howard Gordon and so are all the other writers and [director] Jon Cassar and our crew. Every year we try to make a better season, but I think our ultimate goal is to make what we think is a perfect season. This is certainly the best season I believe that we’ve made so far. But do I believe that we’ve made it perfect? No. I pull a lot of energy from that desire and so does everybody else. I really don’t notice any kind of fatigue until maybe it’s done, and then you might have a week off. Generally everybody just gets sick because their body goes, “Oh you can rest,” and you kind of end up on your back. But I love doing it. I think an audience will probably be done with it before I will.
iF: Let’s change direction here a little and talk about real life. What do you think about the possibility of an actors strike?
SUTHERLAND: It’s not what it does to my head as much as my concern for the thousands and thousands of people that work on crews in this city and around this country that will be out of work, writers, directors, and actors. But it affects restaurants, it affects dry cleaners, it affects everything. But do I believe that the Screen Actors Guild have a right to strike based on new technology and various other entities? Absolutely. So all I can hope for is reasonable minds will prevail on both sides and come to an agreement because I don’t think they could have picked a worse time to be in this situation, and so you hope for that.
Link To Article: http://www.ifmagazine.com/feature.asp?article=3245
Source: iF Magazine.com
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