Kiefer Sutherland Ignores the Stigma of Actors Doing Music

-How are you? -I´m great, man. How are you?
-Good. It´s great to see you again.
-Thanks so much for having me.
-For those who don´t know the premise of the show,
"Designated Survivor" is a real policy where,
when politicians go to the Capitol,
one has to stay out in case something happens.
Something terrible -- -Two, actually.
-Two -- it´s two.
-There is a representative from each party.
-Okay, there you go. Well, that makes sense.
It´s very fair. -Yeah.
-But something terrible does happen on this show,
and so you are elevated. -At the very -- Yeah.
At the very beginning of our show,
the Capitol was attacked during the State of the Union.
And my character, the designated survivor,
becomes president overnight,
and the show takes off from there.
-And you -- one of --
obviously, the -- the thrust of the show
is that you were very inexperienced
in being a president and have to learn on the fly,
which seems very timely.
[ Laughter ]
-And to that, I´m gonna tell you
the show was created, written, and partially filmed
long before our current president
even announced his candidacy.
-Yeah, that´s how TV works. -So, yeah.
It starts a very long time in advance,
and then, sometimes, events conspire,
and you´re making a documentary. -To a perfect --
[ Laughter ] -Yeah.
-Yes. [ Cheers and applause ]
-So, you -- you based this show on a Canadian politician.
-Well, I actually -- I based the character --
-Yeah. -The reference point --
-Oh, the character, yes, of course.
-The reference point that I use the most was my grandfather,
who was leader of the CCF and the NDP in Canada.
He was Premier of Saskatchewan for 16 years.
He was responsible for many things,
but most notably, healthcare in Canada.
-He was the created the single-payer healthcare system,
your grandfather. -Yes, he did.
-That´s incredible! -Yeah, yeah.
-And so -- [ Cheers and applause ]
-Thank you very much. -Yeah.
And -- -Greatest man I know.
-And so you have this character
that´s inspired by a Canadian politician,
who is an American president.
Is it safe to say this could not be farther apart --
farther afield of Jack Bauer than you could have played?
-Yes. They´re very -- They´re very far apart.
In fact, I was going to apologize for my state of dress.
But I was wearing a suit earlier today,
and I know that, if I go through the airport in a suit,
people will recognize me as President Kirkman.
-Yeah. -And they start asking me
if I think the healthcare bill will pass.
[ Laughter ] And I have to say,
"I don´t know," or, "I certainly hope not."
At least, when I was playing Jack Bauer,
they´d just say like, "Do you think the flight´s safe?"
-Right. -You know, stuff like that.
-Yeah. [ Laughs ]
-So, the questions have become more complicated,
so I try and get through the airport as quickly as possible.
But the -- But the truth is,
what I found so interesting about the character
was really taking this incredibly complicated job.
You know, I mean --
the idea that one person is going to manage to please
340 million people at any given time
is -- is, well, ridiculous. -Yeah.
-And so, the idea of trying to approach policy and leadership
with common sense
is one of my favorite things about the show
and the writing of the show,
because I will have a situation put in front of me,
and there is a very obvious common-sense reaction
to that situation.
And I have 16 people next to me telling me why that won´t work.
-Uh-huh. -And so, it is an insight
into the complications of this particular government system
that I find really interesting and remarkable.
And it creates a lot of --
well, as we´re seeing today, a lot of drama.
-[ Chuckling ] Yes. -Yes.
-There is a lot of drama. -It´s a mindless field.
-And it´s a -- I think, like,
no matter what your, you know, your politics,
the nice thing about the show is I do think people like the idea
of watching a character who understands what this job is
and has common sense behind it.
And I think that makes it a nice...
-Well, again, I think -- you know, I think at the root --
and I´ve had the pleasure,
whether it was through rodeos or music,
really traveling from town to town across this country.
And the thing that has always taken me, you know,
being a stranger in all these towns,
people are really good here. -Yeah.
-They´re really kind, and they´re really nice.
And I´ve watched people go way out of their way
to help a stranger.
And so I´m always inspired that --
inspired by that from town to town.
And, again, the government --
the way it is set up --
and representatives from a specific state
has special interests for their constituents --
makes it very complicated.
And I think the American people, on a whole,
really just wish people would just do the right thing.
-Sure. That makes sense. -Yeah.
-You talked about -- [ Cheers and applause ]
Absolutely. -Yeah.
You talked about traveling for rodeo, traveling for music.
You just traveled around Europe. You have a country band.
-Well, yeah, country -- country rock,
something like that, yeah. -Country rock.
And so you are obviously an actor who does music.
And, but, yet, at the same time, you are an actor
who is skeptical of other actors who do music.
-Oh, even when you said it to me there about myself,
my eyes rolled back in my head. [ Laughter ]
You know. [ Clears throat ]
The stigma of actors doing music is -- is historic.
I mean, for... -Yeah.
-...certainly as long as I´ve been alive,
it´s never been a really good thing.
I just finally got old enough where I didn´t care.
-Yeah. -You know?
But the truth is, I have some songs that I really liked,
and I love playing them live.
I recorded them with some great friends of mine.
And -- And -- And the touring
is something that I have really enjoyed.
And I´m a lot better at that than I am golf, so...
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Kiefer Sutherland Ignores the Stigma of Actors Doing Music

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