Kiefer Sutherland Says Working With William Friedkin On ‘The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial’ Fulfilled A Teenage Dream – Contenders TV
13.04.2024 - 21:39
/ deadline.com
When the late, legendary filmmaker William Friedkin called Kiefer Sutherland to gauge his interest in playing the lead in the Showtime and Paramount+ film The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, the actor hung up almost immediately. But not because he wasn’t interested in working with the director he’d long revered, Sutherland explained. “I thought it was one of my friends making a joke.”
During Sutherland’s appearance at Deadline’s Contenders Television panel alongside producers Annabelle Dunne and Matt Parker, Sutherland revealed that Friedkin had exerted a powerful influence on his professional path from an early age.
“William Freakin was responsible for me,” Sutherland said of his desire to work in film. “I was working as a theater actor – I was only 15, 16 years old in Toronto, Canada. My mother was a great theater actor. It’s the community I grew up in and I was very dedicated to. That was the actor that I wanted to be. And I went and saw The French Connection when I was 15. I didn’t know anything about the film, and my response to it was so visceral and the film was so honest and aggressive. And then obviously the performances of Roy Scheider and Gene Hackman would have affected any young actor.”
He continued: “I left that theater that day knowing that I wanted to make films, and I wanted to make films like that,” Sutherland said. “And it had a profound change in my life.”
Decades later Sutherland received a cold call from the filmmaker out of the blue. “I get a phone call one day and I don’t recognize the number, but I answer it anyways,” he recalled. “This guy on the other end says, ‘Hi, my name’s William Friedkin and I would like to talk to you.’” Assuming he was being pranked by a friend, Sutherland simply hung up.
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