“Rabbit Hole” stars Kiefer Sutherland as a corporate espionage consultant who must go on the run after being framed for murder by a shadowy but powerful group, a character used to being on the receiving end of punches. , the opposite of the character he is best at. “24.” Known for.
The Paramount+ series pairs Sutherland with “Crazy, Stupid Love,” “This Is Us” and “Vcrashed” writer-directors John Riqua and Glenn Ficara. When they pitched him on the ’70s conspiracy thriller “Three Days of the Condor” and a series of “Marathon Man” and “The Parallax View,” he was fully on board. “I was very lucky that they called me first,” Sutherland told TheWrap ahead of the series premiere on March 26.
Fans of “24” will be pleased to see the actor back in thriller territory, but his “Rabbit Hole” character John Weir is very different from Jack Bauer. For one thing, it’s been 22 years since “24” first premiered and Weir isn’t the action dynamo that Bauer was.
TheWrap: Great to see you back in action. But your character isn’t too happy about it, is it? Like in the scene where he is being chased by a policeman on a horse. He’s like, “Oh, do we really have to do this?”
Kiefer Sutherland: That just comes with age. (Laughs) In “24” I get to take all kinds of beatings, and in “Rabbit Hole” I get beaten up all the time. At first, I thought, “Well, I guess he had it coming.” And then there’s a real technical difference. Usually, you don’t see the first punch coming. So for most of “24”, I punched first. And the first big fight sequence that I did in “Rabbit Hole,” I get hit from behind. And obviously, I can’t see that. So, to all the people I have done fight sequences with before, I salute you. It’s hard not to freak out knowing you’ll be hit from behind, but you never know when. That was a little education for me.
In one scene, you collide with a skateboard. How does he move when you’re filming him? does that really hit you?
Oh, that kills you. You just hope you only have to do it once. We did it three times. But that’s only because I flinched. (laughs)
I love the scene where he brazenly sneaks into police precincts with basically nothing but a badge and a lot of attitude. It must have been fun to play.
it is. Doing this as an actor is almost as much fun as I have to believe doing it as a real person. And if you ever see these crazy videos… I saw one the other day where a lady was stealing a leaf blower and she put it down the back of her pants. And with two feet of the leaf blower still popping out the back of her pants, she can’t get her jacket over it and she fades away. She confidently walks out the door with half a leaf blower sticking out of her pants and I’m like, “Well, I guess confidence does a lot.”
Weir has an interesting relationship with Haley, played by Meta Goulding, where he is forced to move in with her after she publicly accuses him of being a murderer, and they do not trust each other. . It’s a lot more fun than I thought.
John Weir begins to fall in love with a girl he knows he shouldn’t be in love with. He does everything he can not to fall in love with her. And that’s like a tractor beam on the Death Star. There are few things more charming than two people falling in love when they’re desperately trying. I think there’s something very innocent and cute about it, and almost third grade about it. John and Glenn are incredibly funny people. Yet they do it so deftly, but also so delicately. It was an absolute privilege to be able to do some of that stuff.
The situation with Hailey is sort of pulled out of “Three Days of the Condor”.
Yes. Except if you take a look at Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway in that movie, she’s actually a victim. And the reasons she starts helping him remind me too much of the relationship in “The Bourne Identity” where it’s kind of a quasi-attraction and Stockholm syndrome. It’s approached with a much more astute sense of humor. And [in “Rabbit Hole”]They hit it out of the gate and yet they both know they shouldn’t because it’s a really bad situation.
And then with Enid Graham’s FBI character, they have this adversarial, but almost affectionate relationship.,
Correct. You have two people who absolutely hate each other, but they think it’s so funny. He is hysterical. Enid is just an extraordinary actor. And he has one of the greatest timing sense, and the greatest deadpan looks I’ve ever seen. And who would have thought that a cop driving around chasing a criminal whose 15-year-old daughter is stuck in the back of his car because she got kicked out of school? This is one of the funniest scenarios I have ever seen. Enid handles that part of the show exceptionally well.
What is your take on conspiracy theories?
This show isn’t dealing with conspiracy theories as much as we are dealing with the manipulation of information that isn’t true. This might have happened. Technology is allowing us to manipulate information to make you think it is something different than it really is. And it’s potentially really dangerous. We definitely use it as a tool in the context of our shows.
How crazy are you personally on a daily basis?
I’m too old to be mad. I don’t care, I’m on my couch with a bowl of popcorn. (laughs)
The first two episodes of “Rabbit Hole” are streaming now on Paramount+.
