Kiefer Sutherland Interview

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.