Kiefer Sutherland discusses ’24’ while rumors about a potential movie still loom overhead…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
When ’24’ was revived for the recent 12-episode run on FOX, Jack Bauer himself wasn’t really sure it was such a good idea.
Actor Kiefer Sutherland, who portrayed the ass kicking action hero for eight seasons of the popular show, wasn’t quick to sign on to bring Jack Bauer back to life without a really, really good reason to do it. While there was no single season of ’24’ that he believes was that much better than the others, when looking at the series as a whole he was completely satisfied with the eight years they already had in the books.
When producers came together and said there was an idea for a ninth season of the show, even up to the day of filming, Sutherland needed extra convincing.
“Over the course of eight seasons, we’ll never say we made a perfect season. Not for a second. But there was enough that we were proud of that after we put it to bed for the eighth season, we were really proud of everything we did. So the idea of opening that up again and potentially damaging that was massive,” Sutherland said on Thursday at San Diego Comic Con.
“So for six months between when we agreed to start shooting season 9 and to shooting it, I had managed to turn myself inside out and into a complete mess. So by the time that I got to London when Jon (Cassar) first saw me, I didn’t know how to talk. I was so worried about not serving the character and the story and the franchise, 24, justice.”
Thankfully, Sutherland changed his mind once filming got underway and 12 episodes later the newest story involving Jack Bauer not only got great ratings on FOX, but it was a critical and commercial success as well. That doesn’t even encapsulate the fervor that built up for the ’24’ audience as Jack Bauer was back on TV screens for the first time in four years.
The new cast added onto the classic ’24’ feel with no hiccups including former ‘Game of Thrones’ star Michelle Fairley, who played big bad Margot Al-Harazi for the largest part of the season until her character made an untimely exit thanks to Bauer. As it turns out, Fairley and Sutherland weren’t even supposed to share a scene together during the entire season, but that didn’t sit well with the leading man of the cast.
Sutherland has usually interacted with almost every major actor and actress during his time on ’24’ and he couldn’t imagine not sharing at least once scene with Fairley in the show. Needless to say what resulted was one of the most talked about moments on ’24: Live Another Day’ when Jack tosses Margot out of a fourth floor window to her death on the sidewalk below.
“As it was written, I come through the window and shoot her and kill her. I looked at Jon and was like ‘I don’t get to have a scene with her, I don’t get to talk to her, I don’t get to do anything?’. I was like I have to have a scene with her, she’s fantastic, I at least want to be able to say I worked with her,” Sutherland said.
“So we did the few lines. She’s the strongest, shortest person you’ve ever met. I remember trying to wrestle her to the ground and I was like ‘we can act this’. So I never actually got to have a scene with her because I spent the entire time trying to hold her still. She was unbelievably strong so by the time I actually chucked her out the window, I was quite happy.”
Neither Sutterland or executive producer Jon Cassar talked much about the future of the character of Jack Bauer or ’24’ outside of a few hints that there’s still a possibility he could return again at some point.
Right now the only thing in the works in the DVD and blu-ray set for ’24: Live Another Day’ but Cassar did tease the long talked about ’24’ movie that was rumored to happen after the original show wrapped in 2008, but never came together.
“We’re still talking about the movie, it’s still potentially out there,” Cassar said. “So that’s good news.”
