Amy Smart, director Alex Aja & Kiefer Sutherland at the 2008 San Diego Comic Convention.

Having never done what he considers a true horror film, 24 star Kiefer Sutherland tells MediaBlvd magazine that he was intrigued by the prospect of working with Aja on Mirrors.

MediaBlvd Magazine> This film is very intense. What drew you to this project, and what did you draw on for some of the stuff that was required of you?

Kiefer Sutherland> For me, growing up, there wasn’t a genre of film that could give you any stronger a visceral reaction through watching it than horror. I had always heard that, as an actor, that is something that would draw you to a genre film. You can actually affect an audience that powerfully and that quickly. So, the genre was something I was really interested in. Alex had made The Hills Have Eyes, which was a film that really harkened back to the 70’s horror films. They dealt with things, in those films, that I think were much more different than what we now term as slasher films. Amityville Horror, The Exorcist and The Omen are all films that had character-driven plots that made you invested in the characters, so that the horror was really a combination of the affection that the audience had with a character, combined with the horrific circumstances that character was put in. I had read the script for Mirrors and loved it because, if you took all the horrific elements out of the script, it still played as an unbelievable strong family drama. And so, this idea of being able to meld these two worlds, these two genres -- the drama of a man really trying to put his family back together, combined with this horrific circumstance -- I found an unbelievably exciting opportunity. Obviously, when I had seen The Hills Have Eyes, I could also see that Alex is an unbelievable filmmaker. He has such a strong visual perspective of what he wants to do and how he’s going to tell his story. I remember looking at Alex and saying, “I believe that I can make you care about this guy. You have to guarantee me that you can scare the shit out of everybody.” He smiled and said, “Absolutely!” To play hope and fear, at the same time, was something that was a real challenge for me. That was what made me really want to be involved with the film. 

MediaBlvd> What made you want to work with director Alex Aja?

Kiefer> I wanted to work with Alex because I really loved The Hills Have Eyes. I thought it harkened back to these horror films that I liked, which were the original Amityville, my father’s remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Changeling, The Exorcist and The Shining, and all of those films were character-based. I also felt that this was character-based. It was a drama, for all intents and purposes, up until 1/4 of the way through the film, where you’re seeing a guy who’s living on his sister’s couch. He’s at an all-time low, with regards to his own confidence. At any moment in the movie, instead of going to get the job at the security place, he could have gone to fight the investigation of him, as a police officer. The film really gives you an opportunity to really become invested in this guy’s situation, this family that he’s estranged from, what he wants to do with his life and where he’s at. He’s at the bottom and you want him to go up. And then, all of a sudden, this horrific circumstance arises, and it moves into this genre. I was really attracted to that story and that idea, as much as I was anything. Those are the kinds of stories that, when I go to see something, I really respond to. I really responded to the Gene Hackman character in The French Connection. That’s a really tortured guy. He had this great scene where he wakes up and he’s handcuffed to his own bed by the ankle, and the girl is running naked through his apartment. That’s not a healthy guy. There are so many films. Nick Nolte in 48 Hours was that guy. I have always been drawn to those characters, as a viewer and as a fan. I guess I’ve been attracted, certainly on some level, to those characters. I feel like I understand them.

MediaBlvd> What are your personal favorite horror movies?

Kiefer> This is going to be kind of embarrassing, but I think the one that scared me most was not The Exorcist, which has scared so many people. It was also not The Omen. There was a film made in 1977, called The Car. The irony of this is that I lived on a 14^th floor in an apartment complex in Toronto, called Crescent Town, and The Car was a movie about a car that was basically possessed by the devil. It was a black Lincoln with yellow windows, and it went into this small town and basically ran everybody over. This car could go through houses. The only place it couldn’t go was a graveyard or a church. Every time the car came into town, the wind would start to blow and music would start to go. I don’t think I’ve ever been scared by anything more, in my life. I lived on the 14^th floor and I was still scared that this car was going to manage to get up there and run me over. And, I wasn’t that young either. I think I was 12 years old. I should have known better, but it lasted with me for months.     

MediaBlvd> You seem to specialize in tortured characters, which must be very fun to play. Was there a point in your career that you realized that this was something you were good at or that you gravitate towards?

Kiefer> It’s never that thought out, maybe because I’ve never gone for a character, specifically. I’ve always gone towards a story, and those are the stories that have interested me. This is a genre that I really don’t think I’ve done, even though people have compared The Lost Boys or Flatliners to a horror film, which they weren’t, in my book. They were thrillers. The Lost Boys was a smidgen of a lot of stuff, from comedy to pop culture, which is exactly what (director) Joel Schumacher wanted to do with it, with scary moments in it. And, The Vanishing was a thriller to me. It was not a horror film. This was really, specifically going after the horror audience. I can’t watch horror films a lot. Maybe one a year. I liken it to getting on a roller coaster. You haven’t done it in four years, so you go to the amusement park with your daughter or son, and you’re standing there, thinking, “This is going to be great!” You get in line, and then you get close to it and you’re saying, “What the fuck am I doing here?” And then, you start to try to walk out, but there’s 300 people behind you, and your kid’s looking at you, so you’re stuck. The slow ride up is just torture, and then it’s done, and you walk out going, “Wasn’t that great?” Then, four years later, you’ve forgotten the front part and you do it again.

MediaBlvd> With a film like this, so much of it is in the editing. What did Alex do on the set to help you understand how he was going to make these scenes be scary?

Kiefer> He’ll explain it, to the T. And, I’ve been doing this long enough that, in a long crane shot that’s coming through that building, finds me at the bottom of the stairs, and then there’s another minute and a half until I get up into the main room, I know it’s a music cue. Ten years ago, I would have gone, “This is really slow.” For instance, in the changing room sequence, I never saw a lady screaming and I never saw anyone on fire. Alex would just say, specifically, “This is where I want you to look for this because this is going to happen and this is going to happen.” He would just be really clear about what he wants to do. When we did Dark City, Alex Proyas had to do a lot of that as well. There is a relief in someone who is so clear about absolutely everything that they’re going to do. Whereas, I have worked with people too, where CGI is not something they’re familiar with. They’re a good storyteller with a great style of camera, but they say, “It’s going to kind of be like this.” And, the second I hear “kind of,” I’m like, “Okay, well, do you kind of want me to do this? Or, do you kind of want me to do that?” So, there’s a huge relief with someone like Alex. It’s all in his head. There were storyboards, but I don’t think I ever saw him pick them up. He knows clearly, in every crevice, what’s going to happen. So, when I saw the finished film, he was dead right. Everything was exactly what he had said it was going to be. And, even in that context, I still really enjoyed the film, even more than I thought I would, which is a good thing because I’m naturally pessimistic. Out of 60 films, I would say I was really excited about 15 of them, and not one of them started out without the best intentions. Not one film, have I ever walked onto the set the first day and thought, “This is going to be a piece of crap!” You always have this hope and this faith that this one unit, whatever group comes together, is going to make this thing and it’s going to work. The reality is that life is just not like that.

MediaBlvd> At what point do you know that a movie is going to be a piece of crap?

Kiefer> Each one has its own telling points. There was one moment, and it was a first-time director that I won’t name him because he was a nice enough guy, but the camera operator and the cinematographer had gotten in an argument about crossing the line, which is camera technical terminology. When you’re in a scene, there is a line that’s created between you and the other person, and you can’t cross and the camera can’t cross, once you’ve established that line. Sometimes, given some movement, it can get complicated. So, they were having this argument, and I looked off and in the corner was the director, sitting down, trying to figure it out. And then, he just went, “Oh, forget it!,” and threw up his arms. So, at that moment, I knew I was in deep trouble. In every film, there are certain scenes that you just know you have to hit. It’s not rocket science. Your guy has to cry here, and then he has to do this and he has to do this and he has to do this, otherwise the arc isn’t going to matter and who’s going to give a shit? And, you can just tell, when you’re doing those scenes, that it’s not working right, and everything that built up to that moment didn’t work, even though you thought it did. But, it’s usually when you go to loop it that you realize, “Oh, I thought that had more energy,” or “I thought that was better played.” There’s a huge, mysterious quotient to making a film. There’s so many other different elements, conspiring together to make something great or not. I saw Stand By Me for the first time and thought my career was over, so I’m not the greatest judge, except that I knew I felt great when I was making it.

MediaBlvd> How did it feel, as an actor, to do that scene in the bathroom, where you’re looking into the mirror and really seeing what’s there?

Kiefer> The bathroom scene was really difficult because I had to look straight into the mirror, and I’m not great at looking at myself. For me, everything about acting is no different than watching a movie. It requires you to suspend your disbelief, put yourself in a position and go for it. That’s very hard to do if you’re looking at yourself. So, I found that incredibly difficult. That was the first scene I had to do like that, and it was one of those things where I literally felt like I had to just jump in and go for it. I missed it a couple times, and that took awhile to get. And then, I started cheating, finding ways to look in a mirror where I could look off-center, so I couldn’t see anything very clearly. I’m self-conscious, and that heightened it to a level that I certainly have not experienced. So, that part of it was a real good challenge for me. But, I did enjoy doing that scene because it was really tangible, and it was one of the few times I got to react like that, with another person. The first time Amy came flying into the room, which is how we found the softer yell and then the larger yell, I don’t think she knew I was going to fly as far back to the bathtub. So, when she came in, she was looking for me and, while she was looking for me, I said the first line and she didn’t respond. She was still adjusting to where I was. So, I had to yell at her again. And, it’s funny, something as unplanned as that can dictate the tone of a rise of a scene. And then, we just worked off of that. It took a minute with the mirror to get going.       

MediaBlvd> Did you shoot alternate endings for the movie?

Kiefer> Yes, we did.

MediaBlvd> So, were you surprised at the ending they chose?

Kiefer> No. That was Alex’s ending. He shot the alternate endings to pacify the powers-that-be, who thought maybe there was a safer way to go. We did the same thing on 24, the first year. I was sitting there with (co-executive producer/director) Stephen Hopkins and Leslie Hope, and I was vehemently opposed to her dying. I didn’t think you could take an audience through 24 episodes, when the whole point was saving his family, and then lose them. They’re going to go, “Forget it! I’m done! I’m over this!” I was wrong. But, when we sat there and we all agreed that this was what we were going to go for, we had five hours left in that day. It was the last thing we shot. So, we spent four and a half hours shooting the ending where she dies, and maybe 20 minutes shooting the alternate ending. I don’t know why studios insist on doing that to directors because, clearly, the ending they want is going to come back and they’re going to go, “That looks great!” And then, they’ll look at the other one and go, “Who’s that fat guy with the pole?” 

MediaBlvd> Have you ever done a project where they’ve gone for the other ending?

Kiefer> Those were really the only two experiences that I’ve had, and they both went the same way. The one film that surprised me was Flatliners. I literally thought we were going to make the medical version of Paper Chase, and it was going to be done out of Harvard and be really serious. I had gotten the script in England, and Joel Schumacher and I talked on the phone. I thought it was going to be really serious, like Coma was really serious. It was in the real world. And, the first scene I did was running to the gurney that we were doing the experiment on, and there was this huge grate with steam coming up from it. It looked like an AC/DC show. It was the most unsanitary, ridiculous thing I’d ever seen. No medical student would ever perform any experiment over a subway grate. I don’t care how cold it is in Chicago in December. Joel said, “It’s going to be alright,” and I was like, “No, it’s not!” And then, the next scene, Kevin Bacon was climbing out a window, repelling down the side of a building. I was like, “This is bad! This isn’t good at all!” And then, the last straw was that I was running through the university and I was like, “What the fuck?,” when I saw a huge Statue of Liberty’s head right there, and then across the way was this steel box with rubber gloves sticking out. I had a breakdown. I was like, “I can’t do this! You’ve got the wrong guy. I thought we were going to make Paper Chase!” I was 22, and Joel pulled me outside and said, “Kiefer, if you don’t think that there isn’t a night that I go to sleep where I know your future is in my hands, you’re crazy! You’re going to have to trust me.” I was raised as an actor, from the beginning of my career until now, that you work for a director. You make that choice when you go in. You swing for that person until you come out the other end. And, I went and saw that movie, and it was the first time I realized there were people who were a lot smarter than me because I loved it. I was so taken aback because I was so ready to just bury my head in my hands, but I loved it. I thought it looked beautiful. And, Joel was right. He created this fantastical world that wasn’t real, so you could accept all of these other things. I had a very similar experience with Alex Aja on this, and with Alex Proyas on Dark City.

MediaBlvd> Because of the writer’s strike, you have been absent from the small screen for a little while, but 24 is finally coming back. How excited are you about that, and what can fans who have missed the show expect from this next season? 

Kiefer> There is a two-hour movie, that we finished shooting about two months ago now, in Africa. As difficult as it was for us to take the break because of the strike, I think the audience was affected the most. It was something that no one wanted to do. I don’t think the writers wanted to do it, certainly the actors didn’t want to do it, and production didn’t want to do it, but it happened, nonetheless. I think Fox made a very smart decision, with regards to 24, because it is at its best when it’s released continuously, so you can watch all 24 episodes in a row. So, we’re waiting till January. The most difficult thing for 24 is the writing, and it gave the writers an unbelievable amount of time to really craft this season. We, as actors, had scripts available to us, which we’ve never had, in the past six years of making the show, and I really believe it’s the best work we’ve ever done. The stuff we did in Africa is really some of the stuff I’m the most excited about.                      

MediaBlvd> Will new fans be able to appreciate it?

Kiefer> We are certainly going after them, so I hope so, yeah.

MediaBlvd> Did making the 24 prequel get you excited about the thought of doing a theatrical film version? Do you see Season 8 as being the last for 24 on TV?

Kiefer> I love making the show. Season 8 would have to be extraordinary, and we would have to hit a whole different way of telling the story for us to go further, but anything is possible. The African prequel did a lot. It reinforced everything, for us, that we were doing in Season 7, to that point, which was episode 15. There was a small handful of us, only 16 of us, that went to Africa to do that, and there was something liberating about it. We were away from this machine that we were responsible for creating, for the last eight years. All of a sudden, we were free, and we all got energized by that. We worked 15-16 hours a day, six days a week, for the three weeks we were there. We made the equivalent of a film, in three weeks. And, I think it looks extraordinary. So, we saw its potential, yeah. To be able to tell a finite story in two hours, as opposed to 24, which is the equivalent of 12 films, it became a very exciting prospect. For the writing, it was the most liberating. For Howard Gordon to be able to write two hours alone, without having to worry about how it was going to connect to everything else, because he’d already had the connection shot -- it just feeds into Season 7 -- he could close that off easy. I think he forgot how good a writer he was. He was like, “This one was really easy!”

MediaBlvd> Those two hours are still in real time, right?

Kiefer> It’s in real time, yeah. And then, the two-hour feature, which would be even more liberating for them, would probably be a two-hour representation of a 24-hour day. But, this was a real-time, two-hour, straight-up deal.

MediaBlvd> You are so well known for 24 now. Does that make it harder to disappear into a movie character?

Kiefer> No, I think it actually makes it easier. Because 24 presents such a strong backdrop, it’s very easy to counter-balance something against it. This character is, obviously, very different. When you put the two together, you can really see that this is a departure from that work. I’m still trapped in my own physical body, with my voice and my sense of interpretation, so there’s going to be similarities, in everything that I do. But, I think this film was a great opportunity to show another part of the reflected image.       

MediaBlvd> What would you like to do after 24? Is there a project or a genre that you haven’t worked in that you’d like to?

Kiefer> I want to do comedy. I’ve been really lucky. The genres aren’t as important, unless you’ve never done one, and I haven’t really done comedy. It’s the story, though, that really gets me. It’s really intimate and simple and personal. God knows, if I had read whatever script on Friday, it might not have hit me the same as it did on a Monday. The choices are really that organic. I’ll go, “Oh, I really dug that. I think I know what to do with that.” On a Friday, I might not see it as clearly. That’s how I go to watch a movie, too. Have you ever gone to a movie in a movie theater and not really liked it, and then saw a scene, when you were flipping through the channels on cable and thought, “Oh, yeah, I remember that”? You leave it on and, all of a sudden, you love the film and you can’t figure out why. I choose films the same way, for better or worse.

MediaBlvd> When you look back at movies, like The Lost Boys and Stand By Me, as an actor and as a person, and then you see yourself now in this film, what has the journey been like? What’s been the growth and the lessons learned, along the way, as an actor?

Kiefer> Well, the lessons learned never stops. Stand By Me was the first film I got to do in the United States, and I remember when I first went to go see that film, I thought my career was over. And then, the film became the success that it was, and a part of American film history. So, I realized that I should probably not watch my work. The best thing for me to do was to just make it, and then let the audience be the judge, and that’s served me quite well. With the journey from there to now, 24 has been an unbelievable experience for me. Acting is almost like working out. It’s a physical exercise that one has to go through. The more that you train, and the more you use whatever that instrument is -- your body, your brain, your voice, and all those thing combined -- it can be an unbelievable tool to help you figure out things that work and don’t. That was a huge learning tool. But, each film is its own beast. I certainly figured out, over time, ways of breaking down and interpreting material that is faster. But, I hope I still approach each project with the same kind of youthful excitement and exuberance that I did with something like Stand By Me or The Lost Boys, tempered with some experience and an ability to add a little more to each project.