This ain't no blog

My prayers have been answered!

2009-04-05T22:52:00.003-04:00

I will never underestimate the power of the Internet again. Nor will I deny that of the written word. Back in season 5, I wrote a letter to the people over at 24. It might have taken them a little time to read it, but they did. Oh, they definitely did!

And now, in the incredible season 7,

a) Tony's back and looking hotter than ever;

b) No more Palmers, yet the new president rocks;

and

Dear Dr. House

2009-04-05T21:56:00.003-04:00

Dear Dr. House,

I'm offering you a case you won't be able to resist. It's the differential you've been waiting for. It's the one patient Cuddy, 13 and even Taub will beg you to save. It's your opportunity to laugh at a federal agent who carries a manpurse. It's Jack Bauer.

In order to be helpful, here are some of Mr. Bauer's symptoms:

-Been exposed to a bio weapon

-Never goes to the bathroom (bladder infection?)

-Neverending feeling of urgency and doom (schizophrenia? depression?)

-Whispers and constantly out of breath (asthma?)

-Been exposed to and possibly bitten by a rodent otherwise known as Audrey Raines (rabies?)

Thank you and please save him before next Monday night.

P.S. Keep him away from Kutner. Unless you get bored and want to learn about his past life as Ahmed the terrorist...

Another Jack fact

2009-03-05T23:31:00.000-05:00

If you're holding a gun to Jack Bauer's head, don't count to three before you shoot.

Count to 10.

That way, you get to live 7 seconds longer.

I'd buy it!

2009-01-07T14:47:00.002-05:00

There’s a Jack Bauer action figure available in stores now. Shouldn’t there be a Tony Almeida action figure too?

“Well, they’re big on Jack. I saw one of those action figures. They were handing them out to the crew a couple of weeks ago. I think I’ll have to get one and paint his hair and give him a soul patch. Turn it into a Tony!” -Carlos Bernard

(source)

I had a little fun and tried to turn a Jack into a Tony. Here's what it looks like:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

2008-12-06T07:17:00.003-05:00

Kiefer Sutherland will finally receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame!

The unveiling ceremony will be held on Tuesday, December the 9th, outside the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

I was happy to read that his father, actor Donald Sutherland, as well as moviemaker and friend Joel Schumacher will attend the ceremony. Mr Schumacher cast Kiefer in various and interesting roles, displaying his outstanding acting talents and charisma with roles such as David in the Lost Boys, Nelson in Flatliners, Freddy Lee Cobb in A Time to Kill and the caller in Phonebooth.

If anyone deserves a star, I believe Kiefer Sutherland does. He is a huge movie and television star, but from all the encounters I've read, he is too bright to act like one.

This teacher is getting happier by the second...

2008-11-13T20:46:00.003-05:00

Awwww! How do I get Carlos and Mary Lynn to come to my school?

TV actors vie to debut plays by child writers
By Tony Castro, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 11/13/2008 12:11:06 AM

CHATSWORTH - Imagine the voice of actor Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer on the television series "24": "The following takes place between the closing of school and dinnertime." Bong. Bong. The seconds on the clock tick loudly.

The site is Superior Street Elementary School, and there are a lot of faces of counterterrorist agents you regularly see on "24."

Their focus is on nine subjects.

But they aren't terrorists. They are fourth- and fifth-graders, and the only thing they're a threat to is bad screenwriting.

With the help of professional screenwriting mentors, they have each written short scripts that actors from the cast of "24" and other shows are bringing to life in the school auditorium in front of parents, friends and news photographers and video cameramen.

Veteran actor Gil Bellows, who played a State Department officer in a TV movie prequel to the seventh season of "24," recently portrayed the dog Spike in student Nathan Torres' script "Good Dog ... Or Is He?"

But Bellows only raised the bar for fellow cast mates Janeane Garofalo, Carlos Bernard, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Carly Pope in their performances.

"This is really remarkable. Can you imagine having children, fourth- and fifth-graders, and having their written work brought to life by these professional actors?" said Superior Street Principal Jerilyn Schubert. "Nothing like this has ever happened in our school."

It is happening, Schubert said, because of the Young Storytellers Foundation, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that each year mentors students at a couple of dozen LAUSD schools and then stages performances of screenplays written by the children.

Actor-writer Jason Pugatch, the group's communications director, said it is an effort the mentors - including top writers and producers - and the performers take seriously.

In the minutes before the performances at Superior Street last week, Pugatch directed the audience to the scene on stage, where the professional actors were talking to the student writers, and described real competition for parts in the upcoming plays.

"Right now these actors that you have seen on television are really fighting to get into the show," he said. "These are young, brilliant writers who have written every word that you're going to hear tonight.

One of the writers, fifth-grader Katie Anderson, has already written a book, she said, and is apprehensive about the debut of her script.

"It's about two boys and two girls who ask each other to a homecoming dance and then everything gets mixed up. It's a comedy," she said. "I'm really excited. It means so much to have written this."

All the student writers are introduced by their mentors - among them "24" executive producer Howard Gordon, who drops a compliment on his protégé , Nathan, that professional writers might swoon for.

"Nathan has a knack for slapstick comedy," Gordon tells the audience. "If he had lived years earlier he might have written gags for Charlie Chaplin or Harold Lloyd."

Nathan appears unfazed by the compliment, but on stage two of the actors look at each other with raised eyebrows.

The school's principal is understandably pleased.

"The members of Young Storytellers for six weeks have trained these students in one-hour sessions," she said. "They worked with them and mentored them out of dedication and caring.
"And the kids just enjoy writing. I think they've been inspired by these professional screenwriters to go ahead and dream that perhaps one day they may be professional television writers themselves."

24 star Robert Carlyle backs Jack Bauer in battle of screen tough guys

2008-11-03T17:23:00.002-05:00

Robert Carlyle says a fight between movie tough guys Jack Bauer and James Bond would have only one winner - and it's not 007.

The actor is starring in the eagerly awaited movie version of hit TV show 24 alongside Kiefer Sutherland, who returns as secret agent Bauer.

But Carlyle was also memorable baddie Renard in Bond flick The World Is Not Enough and claims a licence to kill would not stop 007 - now played by Daniel Craig - getting a whipping if he came up against Bauer.

He said: "Jack Bauer or James Bond?

Jack Bauer probably - he kills more people. Kiefer could definitely kick Daniel Craig's ass."

(link)

Alien Raiders Trailer

2008-10-25T07:20:00.001-04:00

Carlos Bernard -Mr Tony Almeida himself- stars in an upcoming movie that looks very promising. Check out the trailer! Oh, how I missed hearing that sweet yet commanding whisper...

sometimes I wish I were a lamp post...

2008-10-13T16:40:00.003-04:00

"Also there's just this sexual charge to everything because of the urgency. "We have to stop the bomb, now! This might be our last day on earth! We're all going to die, let's get our rocks off!" That kind of thing. And then you've got Kiefer and his velvety voice. He's got chemistry with…the lamp post…anything."

-Reiko Aylesworth (Michelle Dessler), on 24

Happy birthday...

2008-10-13T16:25:00.004-04:00

...and welcome back to the world of the living!

Oh, how I missed you!

You still look dashing, by the way! I love that bad boy vibe you've got going on. I'd say you only get better and better with time.

For those of you going "WTF?",

October 12 was Carlos Bernard (Tony Almeida)'s birthday.

Little White Lies Interview

2008-10-07T13:47:00.002-04:00

Interview by Adam Tanswell (link)

LWLies: What are your favourite horror movies?

Sutherland: The films I really love in this genre range from my father’s version of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, The Changeling, The Omen, The Exorcist and The Shining. All of these films start off like a drama – and then a horrific element takes place. With films like these, I’m not only frightened because of the music; I’m frightened because I don’t want something bad to happen to these characters and people that I care about. [Writer and director] Alex Aja’s script for Mirrors was the first thing that touched on that balance, and I loved that about it. I care about this family getting together and I care about this guy getting back with his wife.

LWLies: Did any horror actors from the past influence your role in Mirrors?

Sutherland: No, because I really related to my character in Mirrors on a personal level. This was much more personal for me. There have certainly been films in the past where I’ve done that, though. There have been films that I’ve been cast in where I’ve thought, ‘I know the perfect person who should’ve played this role.’ And when that happened, I would think about what they would do with that part.

LWLies: Is Mirrors a character-driven piece?

Sutherland: Very much so. You become invested in my character before any horrific experiences start to happen, which is what drew me to the film. I haven’t seen a script like this in a long time, although I’ve wanted to do something in this genre for quite a while. There are aspects of The Lost Boys and Flatliners that frightened people – and I wanted to do another horror that would do that again. I think this is that horror.

LWLies: Why do you think there are so many Asian horror movie remakes at the moment?

Sutherland: I don’t think I’m up to speed on horror movies because I didn’t know there was an onslaught of Asian horror remakes. But I can tell you what’s happened with horror films in the States. Once we start making parodies of horror films in this country, there’s nothing new and creative coming into it. Whereas, in Asia, something obviously is. There is a group of filmmakers that are making films that are exciting and taking on the genre with a new perspective and a new light. They are making people like Alex and others around the world say, ‘I want to do a movie like that.’ In this country, I know that when we start parodying a genre with a $100million movie, we’re in trouble.

LWLies: Asian horror films are often more internal and thought-provoking when compared to the horror of Hollywood with its many monster movies.

Sutherland: That’s exactly what happened when I did a movie remake called The Vanishing. I worked with the director of the original on that film, but he wanted to try and make a different version. Firstly, it was in English, which was different – but he also wanted to do a different ending. The original movie was a horrific movie and it was beautifully made, but it was much more internal. When the same director came to work in Hollywood, the movie became much more extroverted – and I don’t think it was nearly as effective.

LWLies: Have you ever been surprised by the success of some of your movies?

Sutherland: The movie that most surprised me was Flatliners because I didn’t get it at all. There’s a film called Paper Chase which is about some young legal students in Harvard in the ‘70s. It was quite radical and it was a very smart, cool film. I thought Flatliners was going to be a supernatural film shot in the same way as Paper Chase with these guys being the bright, young scientists of their time – but it wasn’t.

LWLies: What happened?

Sutherland: When I got to the set, Joel Schumacher has a gurney over a grate with steam coming up and loads of weird props. It looked like the ridiculous set of a music video rather than a serious movie and I panicked. I remember saying, ‘I can’t do this movie. Sorry, you’ve got the wrong guy.’

LWLies: Did that go down well with the director?

Sutherland: Well, Joel said to me, ‘Kiefer, you have to understand something about me. I go to bed every night knowing that your future is in my hands and I take that really seriously. You’re going to have to trust me.’ I don’t know if I trusted him completely or just felt that I couldn’t walk off the set – but I finished the film and I was very scared of it.

LWLies: And how did you react when you finally saw the finished movie?

Sutherland: That was the one film I went to and was just caught up with it. Working on that movie and then seeing the finished product was like finding your Christmas presents before Christmas, where you have to pretend you didn’t know what was coming. When I went to see it, the film was so much better than I ever imagined it to be. I remember phoning Joel saying, ‘Thank you for getting me through the movie – I love it.’

LWLies: Was it the same with The Lost Boys?

Sutherland: No, because The Lost Boys was kitschy and fun. I think we both knew that was going to be a fun ride and we were both cool with that. But with Flatliners, I just didn’t get it when we were making it. Joel was very right, though. He created a surreal world that allowed this almost ridiculous idea to take place.

Kiefer bought Sarah Dawson a hot dog!

2008-09-08T22:12:00.001-04:00

Posted by Sarah Dawson
on the Celebrity Cafe

I was in high school (about 15 years ago!) and on a class field trip to the Royal Ontario Museum and the Art Gallery of Ontario. We were from a really small rural town and so excited to be spending the day in the big city of Toronto!

Some friends and I snuck away from our teacher and the group and went cruising down Queen Street West because we wanted to see Much Music, not see ancient Egyptian artifacts - we were 15 after all!

We couldn't believe our eyes when we walked right past Kiefer on the sidewalk! He was heading in the other direction but stopped to talk and laugh with us when the six of us caught sight of him and became (probably annoyingly) excited to see a real celebrity! He was so friendly, telling us he was in Toronto to catch a hockey game and asked us all about ourselves. We walked (tagged) along with him for a couple of blocks or so, barraging him with questions (he's a really fast walker!)

We couldn't believe how cool he was when we approached a street hot dog vendor and he bought us all hot dogs! Kiefer shook all our hands and thanked us for being fans... it was my first, and best, celebrity sighting!

yup! Another reason to love Kiefer

2008-08-26T18:10:00.004-04:00

Kiefer loves teachers!
(and this teacher loves him back!)

"The kind of money generated around the industry is way out of proportion.
The admiration bestowed on actors is also out of perspective.

Doctors are the stars of our society, people like my grandfather
who was responsible for the health care in Canada, as well as teachers,
firefighters and police officers".
-Kiefer Sutherland
source

Is that a gun in your pocket?

2008-08-23T19:36:00.003-04:00

Alright, by popular demand (well, since I only have 2 readers and Mitch requested it), here's a new game!

This time, I'm showing you the weapon and you tell me who it belongs to.

Come and play with me!

2008-08-17T17:29:00.007-04:00

Alright, it's been raining here almost all summer and I've only got 1 week left of vacation.
So I thought we could have a little Kiefer fun together.

Kiefer Sutherland is a wonderful and very prolific actor and one thing he seems to be good at is "dying". So we're gonna play what I decided to call the "undertaker game"! I'm actually very proud of the name I came up with!

Anyways. It's not a complicated game. I'll give you the cause of death, you give me the character's name or the movie title. Or both, if you're really good!

Alright, let's play! Just put your answers in the comments and I'll add them as we go. Don't be shy, come and play!

#1 AIDS
- Roy Haddad, Behind The Red Door

#2 strangled
-Bob Wolverton, Freeway

#3 impaled (2 possible answers)
-David, The Lost Boys

-Hank Braxton, Cowboy Up

#4 shot (8 possible answers) (I forgot about Danny, so double points to the sisters for reminding me!)
-Robert Doob, Eye For An Eye

-Curtis Freely, Truth Or Consequences, NM

-Doc Scurlock, Young Guns II

-Christopher Hart, Taking Lives

-Michael Farrow-Smith, The Right Temptation

-Danny Rivers, Promised Land

-Doyle, River Queen

-The Stranger, The Killing Time

#5 electrocuted

-Denver Bayliss, Last Light

Dammit!

2008-08-15T22:49:00.001-04:00

Kiefer Sutherland on Lost Boys Prequel

2008-08-13T20:29:00.003-04:00

source: Ryan Rotten

http://shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=7328

In the years following the release of The Lost Boys, director Joel Schumacher - in addition to nurturing an idea for a Lost Girls film - mulled over a possible prequel.

"There were great [follow-up] ideas," says former lost boy Kiefer Sutherland and star of Fox's upcoming Mirrors. "Joel had one that was a prequel dating back all the way to the earthquake in San Francisco. The one we talk about in the original." And the quake responsible for providing Sutherland's vamp counterpart, David, with a cozy sea-side cavernous crypt.

"The whole thing I found interesting was that once you were a vampire you go back to that youthful state," he continues. "The prequel was always going to follow David when he was mortal before he got sucked into the earthquake and got turned. That was Joel's idea and I thought that was really cool. But apparently Joel was really busy, Warner Bros. was really busy and it didn't happen."

Asked if he was at all approached to cameo in Warner Premiere's DVD release Lost Boys: The Tribe, the actor answers, "No, absolutely not. Lost Boys was a massive part of my life, it still is. You can't crap on that. And I'm not going to go out and do a cameo in a DVD release sequel. Why they never talked to Joel Schumacher in the past 15 years about doing a proper sequel... If you're not going to embrace what you're coming from in its original state...look, it was hard enough for me to do Young Guns 2 which I ended up thinking - because we were all better - was a better film."

Even though David is nowhere to be found in the cinematic sequel, we tell Sutherland his character does crop up in the comic book series Lost Boys: Reign of Frogs, mullet and all. "Really?" he asks with a grin. Yep, the antlers just missed your heart in the first film, apparently. "That's cool!"

One of the best interviews I've read lately

2008-08-13T13:28:00.002-04:00

I copied this interview from this site: http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_15406.html

Kiefer Sutherland Interview, Mirrors

By Sheila Roberts

MoviesOnline sat down with Kiefer Sutherland to talk about his new film, “Mirrors,” directed by Alexandre Aja (“The Hills Have Eyes”). “Mirrors” is the terrifying story of a troubled ex-cop (Sutherland) who must save his family from an unspeakable evil that is using mirrors as a gateway into their home. The cast also includes Amy Smart and Paula Patton.

Sutherland brings his trademark intensity to the role of Ben Carson, a man on the brink of losing everything that matters to him. Broke and desperate to rebuild his life, Carson takes a job as the night watchman at the Mayflower Department Store…or what’s left of it. As he patrols the burned-out ruins of the store, Carson catches fleeting glimpses of distorted images reflected in the enormous, ornate mirrors that line its walls. What he thinks are merely bizarre hallucinations soon intensity as the mirrors reveal shocking and grotesque visions of profound suffering.

The fear factor is amplified exponentially as ordinary reflective surfaces like windows, water, TV screens, stainless steel facades and picture frames are transformed into deadly channels of evil. Suddenly, Ben finds himself not only battling his own demons – but the ones that have hijacked his reflection.

Kiefer Sutherland has won an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a SAG Award for his searing performance as Agent Jack Bauer on the hit Fox TV drama “24.” He has also received an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series as Co-Executive Producer of the show.

Kiefer is a fabulous guy and we really appreciated his time. Here’s what he had to tell us about his new feature film, “Mirrors,” as well as the upcoming 8th season of “24”:

MoviesOnline: 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 something you gravitate towards?

Kiefer Sutherland: It’s never that thought out, maybe more just because I’ve never gone for a character, specifically. I’ve always gone towards a story, and those stories have interested me. This is two-fold because it’s a genre that I really don’t think I’ve done, even though people have compared The Lost Boys to a horror film, 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, and on purpose -- that’s exactly what 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 [a certain audience].

I can’t watch horror films a lot. I can do maybe one a year. I kind of liken it to getting on a roller coaster. You haven’t done it in four years, and you go to the amusement park with your daughter or your son, and you’re standing there and you go, “This is going to be great!” You get in line, and then you get close to it and you’re going, “What the fuck am I doing here?” [Laughs] And then, you start to try to walk out, and there’s 300 people behind you, and your kid’s looking at you, so you’re stuck. And, the slow ride up is just torture, and then it’s done, and you walk out going, “Wasn’t that great?” [Laughs] And then, four years later, you forget the front part and you do it again.

I wanted to work with Alex [Aja] 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, The Shining -- and all of those films were character-based. And, I felt that this one 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. It could have gone that way.

It was a straight-up drama. And, I felt that that 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. But, given the history and the track record, maybe 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. [Laughs] 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, on some level, and I think those films are interesting. And, certainly with something like Jack Bauer, they were interesting to someone else too.

MoviesOnline: With a film like this, so much of it is in the editing. What does Alex do on set to help you understand how he’s going to make these scenes be scary and work?

Kiefer: He’ll explain, to the T. And, I’ve been doing this long enough that I can tell, 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. He 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. Alex Proyas, when we did Dark City, 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 storytelling 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. And, it’s all in his head, too. 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 film, when it was finished, 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 it’s just not like that. Life is not like that.

MoviesOnline: When do you know that a movie is going to be a piece of crap?

Kiefer: [Laughs] Each one has its own telling points. There was one moment, and it was a first-time director. 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. And, 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. [Laughs] 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 this moment didn’t work, even though you thought it did. But, really, usually it’s after. It’s usually when you go to see it and 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, that it’s really not until you see the movie. I saw Stand By Me for the first time and thought my career was over, first time out of the gate, so I’m not the greatest judge, except that I knew I felt great when I was making it. I’m not a great judge when I see stuff that I’m in.

MoviesOnline: Can you talk about doing that scene in the bathroom, where you’re really seeing what’s there? How did that feel, as an actor?

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, even when it’s done. 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 and go for it. I missed it a couple times, and that took awhile to get. And then, I started cheating. I started 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.

MoviesOnline: Did you shoot alternate endings for the movie?

Kiefer: Yes, we did.

MoviesOnline: 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 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. And, we spent four and a half hours shooting the ending where she dies, and maybe 20 minutes shooting the alternate ending. [Laughs] I don’t know why studios insist on doing this to directors because, clearly, the one 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?” [Laughs]

MoviesOnline: Has there been anything that you’ve made 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. 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 it was going to be really serious. I had gotten the script in England and I just read it the way I read it, 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 and steam was 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. And, Joel was going, “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!” [Laughs] And then, the straw was that I was running through the university and I was like, “What the fuck?” There was a huge Statue of Liberty’s head right there, and then across the way was this steel box with rubber gloves sticking out, and 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!” [Laughs]

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.” And, 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. So, I said, “Okay.” 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, and I loved it. I thought it looked beautiful. And, he was right. He created this fantastical world that wasn’t real, so you could accept all of these other things. And, I had a very similar experience with Alex on this, and with Alex Proyas on Dark City.

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

Kiefer: I think if Brett Favre has taught us anything, it’s to never even enter into that. 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. And, 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!”

MoviesOnline: The two hours is 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 one was not. This was a real-time, two-hour, straight-up deal.

MoviesOnline: 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: [Laughs] I want to do comedy. No. 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 kind of 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’re flipping through the channels on cable and go, “Oh, yeah, I remember that”? And, you leave it on and, all of a sudden, you love the film and you can’t figure out why. You think, “Oh, I must have been having an off day or something,” or “Today I’m having a great day.” I choose films the same way, for better or worse.

“Mirrors” opens in theaters on August 15th.

I, for one, would love to see that!

2008-08-08T10:22:00.002-04:00

This is part of an interview by Harold Raker at the Daily Item

I decided to add the amazingly beautiful picture.

Sutherland was asked Sunday if there is another western in his immediate future.

“You just broke my heart there,” he said. “Wouldn’t that be cool.” Sutherland, who spent a few years competing on the professional rodeo circuit and starred in 1988’s “Young Guns’’ and the sequel, would like nothing more than to do another one.

“You won’t find another actor that wants to do a western more badly than I do,” he said. “If you can convince a studio that people want to see them, but unfortunately, a couple of westerns that came out, and they were pretty big-budget things, were not successful, so it’s making them harder to (sell to a studio).” He added, “One day, yes, it will happen” and then added with a smile, “And I hope I’m in it.” And most of Sutherland’s fans would agree.

How adorable is that?

2008-08-07T12:10:00.002-04:00

“I can’t watch a scary film. I’m awful at it,” Sutherland admitted to the press Sunday while visiting the NASCAR race at Pocono International Raceway, where his latest movie, “Mirrors’’ was a sponsor on the race car driven by J.J. Yeley.

“I took my daughter, when she was 9, to see ‘Finding Nemo’ and there is this part in (the movie), which is G-rated, where the shark sticks his head in the boat and the (scary) music cue goes up and literally I lost my popcorn,” Sutherland recalled.

“It freaked me out. And my 9-year-old daughter looked at me and went, ‘Oh, Dad.’”

Good one, Jack!

2008-08-04T12:04:00.000-04:00

When Jack Bauer was told smiling increases your face value, he said not speaking increases your life span.

Dammit!

2008-07-27T00:39:00.004-04:00

Dammit! As if we needed yet another reason to love Kiefer Sutherland!

Recently, San Diego held an event called Comic Con. At some point there was a pannel for 24 in which Kiefer Sutherland and Carlos Bernard participated.

People were invited to ask questions. A boy got up and said, "I've noticed that Jack says the word 'Dammit" a lot. I'm wondering is that in the script, or are a lot of those ad-libbed? And could you do me a favor and say, 'Dammit, Cameron!"

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Kiefer Sutherland seems like a really nice guy. He gave the fans a heartfelt thank you and a standing ovation at the end of the conference. It is also reported that he signed posters and posed for numerous pictures afterwards. Dammit!

secret lovers

2008-07-25T11:31:00.003-04:00

Here's a fun little thing some bloggers have been doing.
You can too, if you want, just make sure to leave me a link in the comments!

Secret Pretend Movie Boyfriend : Kiefer Sutherland
Secret Pretend French Movie Boyfriend: Jean Reno
Secret Pretend Movie Girlfriend: Queen Latifah
Secret Pretend TV Boyfriend : Sawyer Ford Secret Pretend TV Girlfriend: Chloe O'Brian Secret Pretend Musician Boyfriend: Steven Page Secret Pretend Musician Girlfriend: Sarah Mclachlan

this still ain't no blog

2008-07-24T20:37:00.003-04:00

But it is my page and I'm going to do what I want with it.

And right now, what I want is some Tony Almeida.

Tony es muy caliente.

Happy Canada day!

2008-07-01T11:47:00.002-04:00

Happy Canada day, everyone!

Here's a list of some of my favourite Canadian things/people

Maple syrup. Yum! Pancakes simply cannot exist without it.

The music band Barenaked Ladies, also known as BNL. You're always guaranteed to have a blast at their live performances, their lyrics are beautiful, they harmonize, they're great musicians and they have a wicked sense of humour!

Canada Dry ginger ale. Not too sweet, not too bitter. Tastes good by itself, but also great as a chaser and in fruit punch.

Kiefer Sutherland. Mr. Jack Bauer himself. He rocks. He's a fantastic actor. He's sexy. He loves music and helps new bands make it in the business. All the fans say he's polite and considerate. From what I read, he knows how to party.

Having four seasons. Each one is beautiful in its own way. Some are longer than others, though...

Bryan Adams. He writes the perfect rock ballads and driving music. He speaks French with a terribly sexy accent.

Keanu Reeves. What can I say? He's pretty to look at!