Q&A: Prodigal Son

Kiefer Sutherland released an album last year, stars in the new series Rabbit Hole and shows no signs of slowing down—except when it comes to doing his own stunts

- COURTNEY SHEA

You haven't saved the world on TV for a while. What drew you to Rabbit Hole?

I'm a big fan of the creators, John Requa and Glenn Ficarra. They wrote Bad Santa, which is one of the most ingenious scripts ever. They told me how moved they were by films such as Three Days of the Condor, and I felt the same. Then they wrote Rabbit Hole incredibly fast-six to eight weeks. It was exactly what they had said they were going to write, and it was so nuanced.

For fans of 24, how is your new character, John Weir, different from Jack Bauer?

John Weir is very layered. He's incredibly smart, with a great sense of humour, but he's also neurotic. Jack Bauer was almost simplistic-a blunt object-whereas John Weir is a scalpel.

How does doing stunts in your 50s compare with doing them in your 30s?

I'm a bit older and slower. My bones creak more when I get up. But the biggest difference is that Jack Bauer was always the aggressor and John Weir is always taking the beating. If your character doesn't see the punch coming, you, the actor, have a good chance of getting hit. This show made me realize that I owed a lot of apologies to stunt people I had worked with on 24.