Role Recall: Kiefer Sutherland Talks 'Stand by Me' and 'Lost Boys,' Does Killer Colin Farrell Impression
To younger viewers, Kiefer Sutherland is known as Jack Bauer, one of TV’s all-time great heroes from the long-running, real-time thrills of Fox’s 24. To those of us a little older, though, Sutherland will always be one of our favorite ‘80s bullies, vampires, and/or gunslingers for his roles in Stand by Me (1986), The Lost Boys (1987), and Young Guns (1988), respectively.
The Canadian actor, who turns 50 later this year, returns to his favorite genre, the Western, in the new movie Forsaken. The film, written by Brad Mirman and directed by Jon Cassar, not only reteams Sutherland with his A Few Good Men co-star Demi Moore, it pairs him onscreen with his famous father, Donald Sutherland, for the first time ever.
As Forsaken hits theaters, Sutherland shared with us stories from the sets of his most famous films — and did one helluva Colin Farrell impersonation. The highlights:
Stand by Me (1986)
Sutherland didn’t go too Method as the “cheap dimestore hood” Ace Merrill, saying he befriended the four young actors he bullied on screen, especially the “really serious” River Phoenix. Still, Sutherland got a laugh from the time two of his young co-stars accidentally bought pot cookies from a nearby “hippie fair.” (While Sutherland wouldn’t mention them by name, he has previously outed Jerry O'Connell as one of them.)
The Lost Boys (1987)
The actor was dating a young woman who lived on the beach as they shot this teen-vampire favorite, so after visits to her house he would sleep in his car outside the Warner Bros. lot and have the security guard wake him up in an effort not to be late. Once the guard didn’t show up, and director Joel Schumacher caught Sutherland in the act. “I got a talking to for that,” he said.
Young Guns (1988)
“That was the most fun I ever had on a film,” said Sutherland of this testosterone-fueled Western co-starring Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen, Lou Diamond Phillips, Dermot Mulroney, and Casey Siemaszko. “We hung out in the bar together, we hung out in the restaurants together. We were really good friends.”
Flatliners (1990)
Schumacher’s dark medical thriller introduced Sutherland to future fiancée Julia Roberts. But the costars did not get off on the right foot. In their first meeting, Kiefer cracked a joke “that was maybe not very proper” to his male co-stars (like Kevin Bacon and William Baldwin), to which Julia replied, “You really think that’s funny?”
A Few Good Men (1992)
Sutherland said the entire cast — even those not working that day, like himself — turned up to watch Jack Nicholson film his soon-to-be-classic courtroom scene in this Aaron Sorkin-scripted ensemble. “He did it in two takes, and that’s when I realized Jack Nicholson worked really hard at being Jack Nicholson.”
Phone Booth (2002)
The actor lent his voice as the psycho on the other end of the phone line after Colin Farrell had already wrapped all his scenes. He recalled asking Farrell how he pulled off the scene where the Irish actor has a full-blown meltdown. Farrell’s answer was impressive enough, but Sutherland’s Farrell impression is even better.
Forsaken (2016)
Kiefer grew up mostly with his mother, and though he went on fishing trips and to baseball games with his father, Donald, Kiefer said this experience marked the most time the two ever spent together. “Now I look back and go, 'Well, I spent eight weeks, 12 hours a day making something with Dad,” he said. “I’ll have that forever. And it knocks the crap out of a fishing trip.”
Forsaken is now in theaters.