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.
- Roy Haddad, Behind The Red Door
-Bob Wolverton, Freeway
-David, The Lost Boys
-Hank Braxton, Cowboy Up
-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
-Denver Bayliss, Last Light
