This interview is mostly about Kiefer's voicing a character in the upcoming 'Monsters vs. Aliens' film, but some of it is about '24' that was very interesting.
MoviesOnline caught up recently with Kiefer Sutherland (“24”) at the Los Angeles press day for his new 3-D animated adventure, “Monsters vs. Aliens,” directed by Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon.
When California girl Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is unwittingly clobbered by a meteor full of outer space gunk on her wedding day, she mysteriously grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall. Alerted to the threat of this new monster, the military jumps into action and Susan is captured and secreted away to a covert government compound. There, she is renamed Ginormica and placed in confinement with a ragtag group of other monsters: the brilliant but insect-headed Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D. (Hugh Laurie); the macho half-ape, half-fish The Missing Link (Will Arnett); the gelatinous and indestructible B.O.B. (Seth Rogen); and the 350-foot grub called Insectosaurus. Their confinement is cut short, however, when a mysterious Alien Robot lands on Earth and begins storming the country. In a moment of desperation, The President (Stephen Colbert) is persuaded by General W.R. Monger (Sutherland) to enlist the motley crew of Monsters to combat the Alien Robot and save the world from imminent destruction.
Sutherland gladly joined the project and states, “Animated films, they’re fantastic. There’s something wonderful, because these people operate in such a different world than what I’m used to…to be able to work in a room where people are laughing all the time, and they’ve been working on this film for almost four years. To be able to come into a room four years later and still have the same kind of energy and enthusiasm and find it funny – that’s really inspiring. It makes you really want to impress them and make them laugh. They were unbelievably helpful, knowing that this is a really different kind of thing for me.”
Director Letterman comments, “On ’24,’ he’s a little whispery. But during our recording sessions, he had this country accent and he just started screaming at the top of his lungs, and we thought, ‘That’s great, that’s fantastic!’ He just totally broke out into something brand new and that really nailed the character right there for us.
Kiefer Sutherland is a fabulous guy and we really appreciated his time. Here’s what he had to tell us about his new movie as well as the latest on “24”:
Q: WHAT WAS IT ABOUT THIS MOVIE THAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE A PART OF IT?
SUTHERLAND: It was a combination of a few things. I believe that in the English language Jeffery Katzenberg makes some of the best-animated movies. He was a huge part of this. I had worked with Reese [Witherspoon] before and her voice is in a much higher register than mine. I thought that would be a nice balance. It's in a much higher register than mine. But most importantly I've never chosen films because of a specific character. I have always chosen films because of what the story is and how it affects me. This story specifically was geared to young people and it told them that it was all right to be different. Not only was it all right to be different, but also the thing that might make you uncomfortable or weird, could be your greatest quality. That quality in the context of our movie allows Ginormica to save the planet. Certainly when I was growing up there were times when I felt different than other kids. That scared me a lot. What I liked about this movie was that it told children and young people that it was all right.
Q: DID YOU WATCH ANIMATED FILMS AS A KID? WHAT DO YOU THINK JACK BAUER WOULD HAVE DONE IN THIS SITUATION?
SUTHERLAND: I think that Jack Bauer would have been the first person that the aliens took out. He would have survived somehow for the sequel but he would have been certainly unconscious through this film. Of course I did watch those films. Walt Disney, whatever anybody thinks about him, was a very smart guy. He made an animated film every seven years, for each generation. My generation, the film he made for us, was a film called 'Bambi'. It was one of the most dramatic films I've still yet to see. The mother dies in the first act. It's literally the great coming of age story of how to be a man. That film moved me. That was my opening to films. As much as I must have cried, I'm pretending like I can't remember, as much as I cried when that happened, at the end of the film I was just amazed how much I felt. That drew me to see other films. Animated movies for me were the doorway to the genre of entertainment that I fell in love with.
Q: CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE DECISION TO DO A CHARACTER VOICE AND NOT SOUND LIKE YOU? DID YOU LOOK AT ANY OF THE GREAT MILITARY GENERAL PARTS THAT YOUR DAD HAS PLAYED?
SUTHERLAND: Gosh, I wish I had. That would have gone over well for our Sunday night dinner. Almost all of the animated stuff that I have done before, like 'The Wild' or 'The Land Before Time' and things like that had always wanted my voice to sound like my voice. That way it would be recognizable. When I came in to do this, I had told Lisa [Stewart] and Conrad [Vernon] that I had an idea for a character. I asked if that was going to be all right. They said 'Not only is it alright but that's what we wanted you to do.' So, for the military aspect of the character, I love the voice of the sergeant in 'Full Metal Jacket' because he was so abrasive, loud, and southern. I knew Reese was going to have a southern thing going on so I thought that would fit. Then, to temper that for some humor, my favorite cartoon character was Yosemite Sam. Have you ever seen the Bugs Bunny cartoons? Yosemite Sam used to start off the cartoons he was in, he was always sitting in some kind of western saloon and he would start off with the line ‘I hate rabbits.' And he would go on like that, so I did that voice and the producers laughed. We started joking around with melding the two together. That's how we came up with the voice for the General, which is actually not very different from what I just did, and we went from there.
Q: Full Metal Sam, huh?
SUTHERLAND: That's very cool, I like that.
Q: WAS IT GEORGE C. SCOTT?
SUTHERLAND: This is what is so cool. I've been to Berlin, London, Madrid, Rome, Paris, New York, and here. I've gotten that everywhere. That's the power of the animation. Oddly enough it's a Kubrick film as well. We had never seen any of the animation. The entire time I worked on the film all I saw was the placard of the character. When I saw the animation this is where I think all the George C. Scott references come from. It's the physicality of the character. When I saw the character, he was big. I didn't realize he was going to shrink compared to the 49 foot woman. He's almost like a bee. He's kind of square and physically he reminds me of 'Patton' and 'Dr. Strangelove' but the voice references were completely separate and different. The power of the animation and visual [style] can steer that in that direction very quickly.
Q: THEY DID A LOT OF CLOSE UPS ON THE GENERAL'S MOUTH. WAS THAT YOU?
SUTHERLAND: Nope. You would have to ask the animators. I know that they filmed us the entire time when we were doing the voiceovers, but how much they actually take what our mouths are doing and incorporate that into the drawings, I don't know. I think one of the great freedoms of this is that as an actor you get to leave your physicality at the door. I'm limited by my physicality. I'm 5'10, I'm blonde, I look like this, and there is only so much I can do with that much. But with this there is unlimited freedom. I'm only responsible for the emotional characteristics of the character and the voice. I'm in partnership with the animator. It's a great question but I'm not the one to answer it because I didn't do the drawings.
Q: THERE ARE A LOT OF CANADIANS IN THE MOVIE. DO YOU HAVE ANY THEORIES ON THAT? YOUR CHARACTER IS KIND OF AN AMERICAN ARCHETYPE BUT DID YOU BRING ANY OF CANADA TO THE WORK?
SUTHERLAND: No, because I forgot to say 'Eh'. No, why are there so many Canadian actors? You can say that about '24'. At one point we looked around and the cinematographer, the director, the woman who played my wife Leslie Hope, Elisha Cuthbert played my daughter, we were all Canadian. Why I have to go to Toronto, to the Four Seasons, to meet every American actor I know is also bizarre to me as well. It never crossed my mind with regards to this character. I was focused on two quintessentially American voices.
Q: WITH 'THE SIMPSONS' AND THIS I'M REMINDED HOW FUNNY YOU CAN BE. IS IT A SITUATION WHERE YOUR PAST ROLES HAVE BEEN SO INTENSE THAT IT’S HARD FOR PEOPLE TO CAST YOU IN COMEDY? DO YOU NOT LOOK AT DOING LIVE ACTION COMEDY?
SUTHERLAND: I really don't look at doing it. All of us can be funny at a dinner. The gift of timing, the training of the great comedians of our time, is not light. It's a real talent. Speaking about Canada, I used to watch Martin Short do these camera commercials. He was unbelievable. I was 15 years old and I watched those commercials and knew 'You better be very good at drama because you don't have that.' It's not something innate in me. I don't have that kind of gift. I think to my own detriment I get quite self-conscious very quickly in a lot of different things. A comedian cannot have that. I've also been drawn to drama. That is the aspect of story telling and the human dynamic that I'm most interested in. It would make perfect sense that in an effort to be funny in a movie it would be an animated film. I can leave all the other stuff behind.
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.
Q: WHAT IS THE STATUS OF THE MOVIE?
SUTHERLAND: Again, it would be cruel and unusual punishment to ask these writers to write the equivalent of 12 films a year and then say 'By the way, in your off time, come up with an unbelievable idea that is so superb we could justify making a film out of it.' We all collectively decided when the show was finished we would then take on the idea of making a film. That's if anybody still wanted to see it.
Q: SOMEONE MENTIONED ONE OF THE PEOPLE IN THE RECORDING BOOTH COULD DO PRETTY MUCH EVERYBODY'S VOICES.
SUTHERLAND: He was amazing.
Q: WHO WAS THE ONE WHO DID YOU THE BEST?
SUTHERLAND: I only knew him as Paul and he never did my voice. You would have to ask Reese. I only worked with him once and it was extraordinary. It was actually quite clever the way that they did it. It was the first session I did so that I got a sense of working with another actor. I think the hardest transition, for all the freedom that just doing the voice is, I have a philosophy in life that nothing is free, you have to pay on some level. The payment is actually having to work by yourself. The first time I did a session I got to work with him and he was extraordinary. He was like Mel Blanc's grandson. He was quite something else. My favorite voice of his that he did was his imitation of Hugh Laurie doing Dr. Cockroach. It was even more insidious and I call it British bother, but it's an upper crust British. That voice he did was fantastic.
Q: WHAT SEASON WILL BE THE NEXT OF '24'?
SUTHERLAND: We start the 8th in May.
Q: IN ROCK STAR YEARS THAT WOULD BE LIKE HAVING EIGHT ALBUMS OUT. HOW LONG CAN YOU DO '24'?
SUTHERLAND: I would love to do it till I was 60 but I don't think anybody would
accept it. It's a great analogy to do a rock band because they have to write their music. The harder question is really to the writers. The greatest burden of the creativity is really to them. They are looking tired. It's been a haul, but we are a really competitive group though. We took a bit of a beating in season six. What I loved about our group is that I believe that they rallied instead of giving up. I think all of us believe and understand that our whole experience with '24' has been a giant learning curve. No one has ever tried to do a show in real time. We really do believe that the idea is so special and we also believe that we are capable of making a perfect season. I don't believe that any of us has felt that we've done that yet. Every year we have learned something that was 'Oh God, I wish I could go back and fix that, or do that better.' Certainly, going into our 8th season there were a couple of things from the previous season, which we were immensely proud of, that we feel we can make better. We will continue to work till people say stop or until we've made that season.
Q: YOU SAY IT'S ABOUT THE WRITERS BUT YOU'RE THE LEAD SINGER. YOU ARE THE ONE THRASHING AROUND.
SUTHERLAND: I should do a milk commercial. Physically I feel fine doing it. If you take a look at Jack Bauer from season 1 to season 7, he's a very different guy. The character continually evolves. It's a serialized show so unlike 'Law & Order' where there is a beginning, middle, and end each hour, this guy continually grows. In season 1 he loses his wife and is estranged from his daughter that affects the character through season 2. Then when he meets Kim Raver and finds hope in love, which affects him through season 3. When he loses her in season 5, it affects him and right down the line. The character continues to grow so he's different always. There are things that are vastly interesting for me to play from season to season. Creatively it's continually growing.
Q: DO YOU THINK JACK WILL FIND LOVE AGAIN? AND THE PRESIDENTS DAUGHTER MIGHT BE THE WORST TV VILLAIN EVER?
SUTHERLAND: Well, I wouldn't want to ruin that for anybody. Cherry Jones is probably one of the few actors that I've ever been really scared about working with. You are talking about an unbelievably extraordinary talent. We work at such a fast pace. When you get a scene and go to work with someone like Cherry, there is easily five different ways to play it, three just in volume alone. I was very nervous about picking what I thought would be the right one to start off with. I wanted to earn her respect. She's also one of the most gracious people you'll ever meet. I knew that if I didn't pick the right one she would never tell me. That made me even more nervous. She was fantastic.
Q: WILL HE FIND LOVE AGAIN?
SUTHERLAND: I think he's in the process now in his own kind of speedy way.
Q: THE GENERAL GROWS A LITTLE AND BECOMES PROUD OF THE MONSTERS AT THE END. WERE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT MAKING SURE THE MILITARY GUY WASN'T GOING TO COME OFF TOO MEAN?
SUTHERLAND: No, that was one of the character’s aspects that I liked. That was written before my involvement. He has a responsibility to run this prison, and hold the monsters the way he does, but I think he feels a great deal of sympathy. I think that sympathy comes out when he puts Ginormica in her cell and gives her a new name. She starts to cry and that affects him. I think he understands clearly that these monsters are not dangerous or vicious or mean. He even says it: 'We don't believe that society will understand so we have to keep you away.' I think he feels very sad about that, he feels proud of those monsters. I certainly believe in the speech when he goes to present the idea to the President that they can take on the aliens, he has an enormous sense of pride. I tried to play that when he refers to them and describes them. I wasn't scared about that at all. That was an aspect of the character that I really liked.
Q: YOU TALKED ABOUT THE PHILOSOPHY AND LESSON THAT ATTRACTED YOU. DURING THE ELECTION, THERE WERE A LOT OF THINGS WRITTEN ABOUT PROGRAMS LIKE '24' MAKING IT POSSIBLE FOR PEOPLE TO THINK OF HAVING A BLACK PRESIDENT. WHAT ROLE DO YOU THINK ART PLAYS IN THE SHAPING OF AN OPINION?
SUTHERLAND: I'll give you my answer. First off Barack Obama is completely responsible for Barack Obama. Contrary to anything that anybody has said, none of us are taking even the slightest credit for what that man has accomplished. By saying that, I also don't want to undermine the power of television and film. I can go back to 'All in the Family'. You take a look at a character like Archie Bunker. Through humor and this older, bigoted, racist character we completely through the early 70's changed our perspective and behavior on what was acceptable with regards to integration, race, love, hugging, and homosexuality. They changed the social landscape with that television show, I believe. I also believe that if you show on television or in films, for instance as we did an African American President, 10 years ago people would have said it would never happen. If you start to show people that it's a potential reality, then people will start to accept that. I can say the same thing about season seven. We have a female president and I guarantee you that is going to happen. It's just a question of time. I think Chekhov wrote, in the opening of 'The Seagull', in the opening monologue in describing actors 'I watch these high priests of a sacred art depict the way we'll eat, drink, walk about, make love, and wear our clothes.' Basically he was telling us that these actors were teaching people how to live. I believe that and so yes, I think there is a huge responsibility in that. I know that in my lifetime I believe that I've been a part of projects that have lived up to that responsibility and I've been a part of projects that have taken advantage of that responsibility. It’s certainly there.
Q: DURING THIS SEASON, WE CAN TELL THAT YOU ARE WORKING HARD. DO YOU GET FREE TIME TO DEVOTE TO OTHER PROJECTS?
SUTHERLAND: Yes, I have two and a half months a year to make a film. What is really difficult is finding the film you want to make, that happens to be going in the time slot that would allow you to do it. This year I did not do one. Three years ago I did not do one. 'Mirrors' was a specific project, because of Alex Aja, that I really wanted to do with him. He made it work in that time slot. It's not like it would be if I wasn't doing '24' and I had the time off. I could actually develop a film and go work on it whenever I want. No, it's vastly limiting, but I have no problem with that because I am really enjoying what we're doing on '24'.
Q: DO YOU HAVE A HIATUS COMING UP?
SUTHERLAND: No, this was kind of it. We start up in May. We are quick back to work this time. This is what I chose to do and I'm going to finish it out, hopefully properly, and then I will have time for that.
Q: CAN'T BILL STILL BE ALIVE?
SUTHERLAND: I will pass that along to the writers. I will certainly call James and let him know that you were this concerned.
Q: WOULD YOU PLAY THE GENERAL AGAIN IF THEY DO A SEQUEL OF THIS ONE?
SUTHERLAND: Yeah, I would love to.
Q: ARE THERE ANY BIG SUMMER MOVIES THAT YOU ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING?
SUTHERLAND: I don't even know what they are now.
“Monsters vs. Aliens” opens in theaters on March 27th.
Link: MoviesOnline.com
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