Kiefer Sutherland: ‘I don’t know how we filmed so many episodes of 24’
Kiefer Sutherland has said that he doesn’t know how he coped with the physical demands of filming 24.
In an interview and photoshoot with Esquire, the 47-year-old actor opened up about filming the hit US series.
“Physically, 24 is a hard show to do,” he told the magazine. “I look back and see we did 192 episodes over eight seasons. I don’t know how we did it. It makes you want to go take a nap.”
Sutherland also said that he was struggling to cope with aging, and spoke about turning 45.
“That was the first age I ever hit where I started doing the maths,” he said. “‘In five years I will be 50. Oh my God, in 10 years I’ll be 55. In 20 years I will be 65. At 65 you get half-price tickets to f**king movies, holy s**t.
“It made me acknowledge how much I’ve enjoyed my life. I’ve got a really wonderful family, and some fantastic friends.”
He also spoke about starring alongside his father Donald Sutherland in upcoming movie Forsaken.
“There’s something about saying this dialog and telling this story and looking into that face and the experience I have had, like any son does, of wanting my father to be proud, wanting him to love me.
“My memory of my life with him took over. It may be one of my most honest moments as an actor.”
He also alluded to the fact that filming the movie together brought the father and son closer together.
“Every once in a while I will have a cigarette,” Sutherland continued. “My father is a staunch non-smoker and he finished a couple of days before I did on set.
“The last thing he said on his way out, and my father is not one for goodbyes, was over the walkie-talkie. He said: ‘I just want to tell all of you, including my son, that this has been one of the great joys of my career and my life. Smoke ’em if you got ’em.’ And everyone on set laughed, and lit up.”
The full interview appears in Esquire’s July issue, on sale Thursday, June 5. Also available as a digital edition.
