Kiefer Sutherland is probably best known for his starring role as Jack Bauer, a counter terrorism agent in the Fox drama series 24, which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. His latest role is as Lieutenant Commander Phillip Queeg on Showtime’s The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, which is based on Herman Wouk's 1952 novel The Caine Mutiny. It’s the final film by the late director William Friedkin.
More: Kiefer Sutherland loves working with iconic filmmakers (but he prefers TV) (The Treatment, 2024)
Speaking of William Friedkin, for his Treat, Sutherland reflects on his transformative experience watching 1971’s The French Connection for the first time at age 15. The film introduced him to acting legends Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider, whose performances transformed his perception of what actors can achieve on screen. He admired the film's raw authenticity and director William Friedkin's focus on capturing genuine, spontaneous performances. Being a musician himself, Sutherland likens a great film cast to a band, with Hackman as the lead guitarist and Scheider as the bassist, each playing a pivotal role in the film's dynamic. This experience deepened his interest in character-driven narratives and cop films, profoundly influencing his portrayal of Jack Bauer in 24 many years later.
More: William Friedkin: The Friedkin Connection (The Treatment, 2013)
This segment has been edited and condensed for clarity.
I was 15 years old. [The French Connection] was a second run movie, this was before they had VHS or [Betamax] or DVDs, and I went in to see this movie. I had heard the title before but I knew nothing about it, and I was introduced to not only the film but Gene Hackman and his performance, Roy Scheider and his performance. And it blew my mind.
I had just started working as a [theater] actor in Canada, and this was the thing that drove me towards wanting to make films. The fact that they had pulled down what I perceived to be the fourth wall, and that they made something so earnest and so honest just changed my perspective on what I thought actors could actually do and how they could actually tell a story.
And those two actors, Gene Hackman – waking up with a girl he picked up the night before, handcuffed to a bed while his very clean cut partner [played by Roy Scheider] stumbles over the bike in his apartment, which is the bike that the director had let you know she was riding two scenes earlier. It was just such fantastic setups and just so beautifully done.
I do believe that having a director like William Friedkin — who's going to encourage you to go for it, who's going to encourage that first take, that first thought, that burst of energy — is going to allow you to commit to kind of making those driving sequences look the way they do. Because you have to overdo it. It's always going to feel incorrect to you sitting in the car because in front of you is a camera, and the car is not moving, so you're going to feel stupid, and you have to overcome that. You have to get past that, and you have to get past being embarrassed in front of your friends that are the crew. And you have to go for it. And Gene Hackman’s commitment in that movie and his whole career…he’s one of my favorite actors of all time.
The casting of Roy Scheider, the two of them, couldn't have counterbalanced themselves more beautifully than they did, and his work was beautifully restrained. I've always said this about my father's (Donald Sutherland) performance in Ordinary People. Every cast is a band, and Roy Scheider played the bass in that film. Gene Hackman was the lead guitar player, and William Friedkin was the singer. And the band doesn't work without a bass. It just doesn't. But unfortunately, they're not often recognized. And I think my father's performance in Ordinary People, he was the bass player in that band and without him, Tim Hutton's performance, Mary Tyler Moore's performance and Judd Hirsch's performance wouldn't have had the same impact because there had to be the weak victim that kind of let it all happen in the first place. And it was kind of being driven by the father's inability to kind of take charge.
From that point forward, my interest in ever doing a cop film, or even a character like Jack Bauer, was to live in the world that was created for me at the age of 15 by William Friedkin, called The French Connection.