Kiefer Sutherland nervous to act in 24 again

The character changed Sutherland’s life in many ways, but as an actor, it’s something that he grabbed in a very serious way. PHOTO: FILE

LOS ANGELES: 

Actor Kiefer Sutherland is back as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer in the popular US TV series 24. He says despite playing the role for eight seasons, he was nervous about stepping back into the character’s shoes.

“I was nervous… Yeah, I mean there was something about accomplishing the eight seasons and… it’s a complicated answer, there is never a single season that Howard Gordon (who has conceptualised and co-produced 24) and I ever felt was perfect, which was what made us really interested in coming back with something we felt we got better and better at,” he said.

“But there was a sense of accomplishment when we completed the eight episodes. And we felt that they were all very solid.”

Sutherland also said the character changed his life in many ways, but as an actor, it’s something that he grabbed in a very serious way.

“So there’s always the hope of, well yeah, okay, let’s do it. But no, having said yes and I said yes almost immediately. I said do you really feel strongly about this idea? And he said, ‘I do, I think it can be unbelievably exciting and doing the 12 episodes will give me latitude as a storyteller that I’ve never had before with the 24 episodes’. So I said yes quite quickly,” he said in a statement.

Sutherland says the show will remain topical. “I don’t know if it’s going to be as uniquely or even freakishly current as it would be given the nine months’ span of when someone writes something to that. And that’s not something we’re really trying to chase I just can’t help but notice that for four or five years it was doing that.

“But it absolutely will be topical. We’re dealing with issues; everything from US drones to torture procedures, to people’s culpability within the context of working for the government and how they behave and what they do,” he said.