A Jack Bauer true confession: Kiefer Sutherland says he gets no special treatment when he goes through airport security, even in the post-would-be-underwear-bomber era.
“I get in the same line as anyone else,” Sutherland told Canwest, laughing and appearing visibly relaxed in an uncharacteristically formal, tailor-made suit and silk tie. No torn jacket or sweat-stained shirt for the man who plays TV’s most famous counterterrorism agent — at least, not on this day.
“I go through the same search as everybody else,” Sutherland continued. “They probably talk to me a little more than the other passengers, but that’s about it.”
” You know, I’m always shocked that the people I’m flying with will say, ‘Oh, I feel safer on the plane.’ I’m thinking, ‘You must not watch the show because everybody around me gets killed.’ ”
24′ s eighth season begins this Sunday on Global and Fox. It has been a remarkable run for the fictional, real-time counterterrorism thriller that first aired in November 2001, just a few short weeks after the 9/11 terror attacks.
Sutherland says he’s still stoked to be working on 24, despite the long hours and gruelling demands on his time, onscreen and off.
“This has been one of the greatest gifts of my life,” he said quietly. “I’ve always said that as long as people want us to make it, and people are really interested in watching it, I’m absolutely open to continuing. Right now, though, my focus is on finishing Season 8.”
Sutherland says that, even though 24 began filming just five weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the program was never intended to mirror real-world events. That it happened was an unhappy coincidence, he says.
“Our objective is, and always was, to create this unbelievably fast-paced dramatic circumstance that takes place in a 24-hour period. The fact that it aligned with things that were happening in the news caught us completely off guard.
“I think one of the things that the audience has been able to relate to is that, in our world, there is some resolution at the end. In the context of the show, Jack Bauer and the other characters are doing something about it, and the audience becomes a part of that. I think we live in a world, with regard to terrorism, in which there is this constant fear, and we feel helpless about it. So I think that 24, in many ways, alleviated a lot of
stress that people were feeling on a day-to-day level.”
The new season of 24 finds Bauer a different man than he was during that first season in 2001. He’s a grandfather. He looks more comfortable in a formal suit and tie. He’s less apt to mix things up with the baddies — physically, at any rate.
“I would have to think that Jack Bauer is probably a little slower now,” Sutherland said, deadpan. “There’s a kind of adrenalin that kicks in when you’re actually doing it. A lot of the physical stuff that we get to do on our show comes in bursts. It’s not sustained over a 12-hour day.
“I haven’t had a break from it for eight years, so I couldn’t really tell you what it’s like to go away and then come back to it. I was at an event recently for our 150th episode with some of the others who were there from the beginning. They put together a montage from the beginning through the 150th episode, and I remember thinking how cool all of this was. And then about halfway through this little documentary, they showed some pictures of us from Season 1. We realized that we had aged. And we stopped laughing.”
