Kiefer Sutherland reflects on new movie ‘Mirrors’ and his time in prison
Posted on September 28th, 2008 by Hot Momma
Kiefer Sutherland is on the promotion tour for his new feature film called Mirrors, and he took the time to reflect a bit on his turbulent past with the UK Times. Mirrors, is a genuinely scary horror film (a remake of a Korean film directed by Alexandre Aja) about a man on the edge of a breakdown who begins to see all sorts of terrifying things through the looking glass, a bizarre and somewhat challenging experience.
“I didn’t really think very clearly about the fact that I would be looking into mirrors performing scenes and that I would have to watch myself act, and it was the most unsettling part of the film. It was completely disorientating.
“I started to realise that if you take a good, long look in a mirror it’s a portal into yourself. And the moral of the movie is ‘Be careful what you look for and who you think you are and what you think you want.’ When you see yourself as you really are, it can be a very personal and a very scary experience.”
Sutherland has also been gazing into a metaphorical mirror for months now, after 48-day stint in the county jail over last Christmas on a drink-driving rap gave him plenty of time to reflect.
In September last year, Sutherland had finished another long, 14-hour day on the set of 24 – the TV series in which he plays terrorist hunter Jack Bauer – when he stopped off for a drink on the way home. Later, when police pulled him over in West Los Angeles after he made an illegal U-turn, he was given a breathalyser and found to be more than three times over the legal limit.
“People make mistakes. I never lied about it being a mistake and I had to go through what I had to go through for it,” he says.
“I was incredibly cross with myself for it. It was careless and I wasn’t thinking. Hopefully that’s behind me and I’m moving on. I’ve never had a traffic accident in my life, but if I did in that situation and I had hurt someone, well, your life is over. It was so stupid.
“Especially someone in my situation because it’s quite easy not to do it. I ended up going there straight after work because we’d worked late. I had a car planned for me that night and I didn’t use it. And at some point you go, ‘Well, I’m going to have to get up early and get the car if I leave it here.’ It was really dumb.”
He was already on probation for another drink driving offense from December 2004 and in court pleaded no contest to two DUI (driving under the influence) charges. He was sentenced to 48 days in Glendale City Jail – a facility which houses murderers, rapists and gang members – and was also placed on probation for five years, fined $510 and ordered to attend an alcohol education program.
Mostly, his days were spent either in total seclusion in his cell (bare stone walls, a stainless steel sink and toilet) or working in the laundry room, presumably making sure the orange jumpsuits worn by inmates – including him – were on the appropriate wash cycle.
“I did a lot of folding clothes and thinking about what I was doing in there,” he says. And although it might be going too far to suggest he is a changed man, he is certainly humbled, apologetic for what he did and determined, most of all, that he won’t be going back.
“I keep feeling I should say something more about it. But I made a mistake and I was lucky because people have been really supportive. I don’t ever want to make a joke of it. There were people who were upset about it and they had a right to be because it’s a dangerous thing to do and I regret it very much.”
Prison was dangerous too. Although he recently joked on David Letterman about the day in the prison showers when he dropped the soap and didn’t dare pick it up. “It was at that point I decided that soap was overrated.”
It was far from funny, being a famous face in a jail full of gang members and hardened criminals. “I was certainly very aware of who was near me, who was behind me and who was in front of me. I got to do work, which was a good thing.
“But I did spend a lot of time in lock-down, which was a drag, because they couldn’t guarantee my safety. So I was in a small cell, sometimes for days at a time. It would depend on who they had coming in. It was a county jail so you know, they would be doing gang raids where they were locking up these really dangerous guys, and that’s when I’d get stuck in my cell for a long time.”
These days, mostly he just works, spending ten months of the year filming 24 and, during his last break, making Mirrors. It’s relentless and a personal life of any kind must be difficult. “Yes, but if you take a look at my life, when I’ve had time off it’s not been very good, so for me it’s quite a healthy thing. I love to work.”
Mirrors provided Sutherland with a welcome break from the day job, namely 24. But he was happy to go back. And at the moment, he’s happy to continue with the series. A two-hour special, 24: Redemption, will be shown in November, and the new series, the seventh, will air in January. “I think you have to take each year as it comes because the last thing you want to do is start dragging it down. Invariably it will be an audience that will tell you it’s done.”
No comments yet.