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By
Suzanne

Interview with Kiefer Sutherland of "Touch" on FOX 1/23/12
I was on this call, but unfortunately, I did not get to
ask a question. When they have calls with the really big stars like
this, sometimes the little peons like me don't get to ask any
questions... the "real" press get their questions first. Not
that I'm bitter :) Oh, well.
Anyway, it was a nice call, and Kiefer seemed like a really nice and
decent guy. He was very down-to-earth and appreciative of the attention
and the fans of his work.
FBC PUBLICITY: Touch Conference with Kiefer Sutherland
January 23, 2012/8:45 a.m. PST
SPEAKERS
Josh Governale
Kiefer Sutherland
PRESENTATION
Moderator Ladies and gentlemen thank you for standing by. Welcome to the
Touch conference with Kiefer Sutherland. At this time all participants
are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question and answer
session. I’d like to remind you that there will be replay available of
today’s conference after 11:15 Pacific Time.
I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Mr. Josh
Governale. Please go ahead.
J. Governale Thank you, Tricia, good morning and afternoon, everyone.
Thank you for joining us on the Touch conference call with series star
and Executive Producer, Kiefer Sutherland. As a reminder the Touch
special preview airs this Wednesday night after American Idol at 9/8
Central on Fox. So without further delay, let’s open it up for our first
question and please welcome Kiefer Sutherland.
K. Sutherland Good morning, everybody, how are you?
Moderator The first question will come from the line of Megan Ward with
TVIsMyPacifier.com. Please go ahead.
M. Ward Hello, how are you doing today?
K. Sutherland Great, Megan, how are you?
M. Ward I’m doing good myself. So you had a bit of a whirlwind to get
here for these interviews, eh?
K. Sutherland Well, we’re in the middle of shooting, so it’s trying to
balance, juggle both, yes.
M. Ward Well, thank you so much for your time.
K. Sutherland No, thank you.
M. Ward I watched the first episode of Touch, absolutely amazing.
K. Sutherland Oh, thank you very much.
M. Ward The title is perfect, completely touched. In the first ten
minutes I felt an emotional connection already. So what I’m wondering is
at what point did you connect with your character and just know that
this was a story that you wanted to tell and be a part of?
K. Sutherland It was funny. I was doing a play in New York on Broadway.
I had a film that I knew I was going to go do and so I read Touch almost
reluctantly. I don’t think I was completely ready to go back to
television yet. I was enjoying some of the different opportunities that
I had had. I think it was around page 30, I remember going, “Oh, ...,”
or I guess something you could print, ..., which I just knew I would be
so remiss if I didn’t take the opportunity that Touch was.
I identified with him out of the gate. There was something interesting
because obviously this is very different than 24.
M. Ward Yes, extremely.
K. Sutherland Yet there is a real similar through line in the kind of
character of the man. Jack Bauer would be faced with unbelievable
circumstances in the course of a day and he would never win completely.
M. Ward No, he wouldn’t and you’d almost fell sorry for him and keep
hoping for the next day to be better.
K. Sutherland Better, yes, and this guy is never going to win either.
He’s never going to have the quintessential relationship of a father and
a son.
M. Ward No, definitely not.
K. Sutherland And yet he perseveres and that’s a great kind of character
statement and so I identified with him greatly on that and I think as a
parent as well just the sense of responsibility combined with not
knowing what to do all the time. Even though this is again a heightened
experience, I think every parent feels that. I certainly can speak for
myself and say that I have during Camelia’s pregnancy when Sara was—for
nine months I’d have these great fantasies of how I was going to be the
greatest dad on the planet. And then she was born and a kind of fear
came over me like none other that I’ve ever had in my life. I was
confronted with the fact that I really didn’t know what I was doing and
it was something that I was going to have to figure out as I went.
And I really relate to Martin on that level and just the dynamic between
he and the son I just find so extraordinary. So for all of those
reasons, those were the first things that grasped me.
Moderator Our next question is from the line of David Martindale with
Hearst Newspaper. Please go ahead.
D. Martindale Hello, thank you. Hello, yes, I saw the pilot last week,
too, I enjoyed it.
K. Sutherland Oh, thank you very much.
D. Martindale Do you like to think that the world maybe does exist and
does work this way that everything is connected and maybe we’re just not
clever enough or observant enough to see all the working pieces?
K. Sutherland Well, I absolutely think it does. Can one focus on every
single moment of their life in this way? No, of course not, but anything
as simple as someone who is late for a bus one day, all of a sudden
they’re not on the bus. They’re taking up other space. They either had
to get a taxi and that affects the taxi driver’s life.
So yes I do believe that there is a cause and effect and a ripple effect
upon everything everybody does and they have positive consequences and
negative consequences. If you start to focus on the kind of minutia of
that, it’s really quite extraordinary, or should I get on the elevator
now or should I wait, and obviously we can’t live our lives like that.
But I do believe very strongly that all of us and all of the other
things in the context of our planet with Mother Nature, all of these
things absolutely have a profound effect. Some of the effects that can
be felt are small and some of them are very large and it was really
interesting to do a show that focused on that.
Moderator Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Steven
Herbert with City News Services. Please go ahead.
S. Herbert Kiefer, you mentioned about how much you like the script. One
of the things is that in the history of television when somebody has a
great even groundbreaking series like 24, they rarely come back to
television and now it’s just been two years since 24 ended. Was it just
the script that made you come back or what was it, what prompted you to
come back to television just …—
K. Sutherland Well, it was a combination of things. I had an
unbelievable experience on 24. We shot 198 episodes and I was as excited
about shooting the 198th as I was the first. So that experience, and I
had a great relationship with Fox, both the studio and the network. And
so that combined with this script, it wasn’t even really a choice
anymore. It was something that I knew I had to do.
And I remember thinking about it really strongly when I was crossing the
street in New York and the person who I work with Susan …, I remember
saying to her if we don’t do this, how are we going to feel in September
watching it knowing all of its potential and how great we both think it
can be. And that answered my question for me. I didn’t want to be
sitting there watching this fantastic show in September if I had had the
opportunity to be a part of it.
But you’re right, it certainly is a daunting thing having 24 been not
only the great experience on a personal level for me, but it was an
incredible success. It’s nice to have that in your pocket and let it be,
but this was certainly something I just couldn’t say no to, so I think
it’s been a little longer than two years, but it feels a lot shorter
than that now I have to say.
Moderator Our next question is from the line of Joshua Maloni with
Niagara Frontier Publications. Please go ahead.
J. Maloni Thanks for your time today.
K. Sutherland Thank you for coming on.
J. Maloni So let me premise my question by saying that I think you’re a
great actor and I know that there’s a lot of people like myself that
would watch you regardless of what the project was.
K. Sutherland Oh, thank you very much.
J. Maloni But for people out there that are used to seeing you on 24 as
Jack Bauer in sort of that action star sort of role, how do you convince
them to give the show a look? How do you convince them that this is
going to be just as entertaining, just as interesting and intriguing as
that series was?
K. Sutherland I don’t know if there is convincing. I think that
ultimately almost in the way that 24 started, people that are initially
interested, whether they’re a fan of Tim Kring or a fan of mine or like
the trailer, they’ll watch it and then if they feel strongly about it,
they’ll tell friends and we have to rely on that.
For me personally I feel that there is a great deal of suspense within
the context of the show, even in the not knowing what the numbers are
and the narrative where the audience actually knows more than the lead
character. So I think that even though we’re not blowing things up, I
think that there is enough excitement around the drama of this show,
that people will not be that thrown by it who enjoyed 24. And we really
do rely on you guys telling people about it and hopefully it will be
something that grows.
Moderator Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Henry Hanks
with CNN.com. Please go ahead.
H. Hanks Hello there, thanks for talking to us today.
K. Sutherland Thanks for coming on.
H. Hanks No problem. So when you see the show, it’s sort of hard to put
it into a genre or …. How would you categorize it as far as being maybe
science fiction or paranormal fiction or something like that?
K. Sutherland No, I’ve always felt that this was a drama. This, we’re
embarking on the journey of a father trying to connect with his son and
trying to have as normal a relationship as he can under the
circumstances. That will always be at the heart of the show and it
certainly from my perspective it would be, but it has all of those
elements.
I think there is an element of science fiction. I think certainly as the
show has developed, you guys have seen the first episode, which has a
lot of requirements to kind of explain where the show is going. But for
us in the subsequent episodes that follow, this really does have a great
deal of energy, so there’s an aspect of it that I would categorize as a
thriller or suspense and certainly the science fiction component as
well. But at its heart it’s a drama.
It’s so weird, I have to admit, to not be able to talk to you after the
question is answered; I hope I’m answering appropriately for you guys.
Moderator Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Amber Dowling
with TV Guide Canada. Please go ahead.
A. Dowling Thank you. The way that Touch is set up, there’s obviously
such a great opportunity for a rather large roster of guest stars and
Martin and Titus Welliver’s character, they had a special connection. So
how many episodes is Titus signed on for and is there also a possibility
of your father doing an episode?
K. Sutherland There certainly is always that possibility. The show is a
procedural show. Unlike 24 and unlike Heroes, which was a serialized
show, these episodes will have a beginning, a middle and an end. But it
does not preclude a character who you’ve seen in one episode being able
to come back five episodes down the line, and we have in fact done that.
I don’t really want to say who. For the people that are going to watch
it, I would like them to see that.
There also might be characters that are way in the background on an
episode that will come to the forefront in another episode. But it
doesn’t stop each individual episode from being its own complete little
entity. And so that’s something I think Tim Kring has done a beautiful
job kind of weaving in and out.
Moderator Our next question is from the line of Cassandra Szklarski with
The Canadian Press. Please go ahead.
C. Szklarski Good morning. Actually since that last caller mentioned
your father, is there really a chance that he would be on or was that
just saying?
K. Sutherland No, absolutely. We’re working on episodes five and six
right now, but I certainly have conveyed to Tim Kring, our writer, that
my father is someone who I would very, very much like to work with. My
father knows of this piece and I certainly have talked to him about it.
We certainly do not have a script or a story or anything like that, but
it certainly is open.
I think one of the things that’s so attractive about this piece is
really Tim Kring’s writing and character development. They give people
an opportunity to show some stuff that they might not normally get and I
would be honored to be able to do something like this with my dad.
Moderator Our next question is from the line of Angela Henderson with
The Herald Dispatch. Please go ahead.
A. Henderson Hello, Kiefer, thanks for taking the time.
K. Sutherland Thank you very much for coming on.
A. Henderson Could you talk a little bit about working with David and
forming that on-screen bond with him when he doesn’t talk back to you?
K. Sutherland He’s an amazing young actor and he’s an amazing young man.
He does something that is really I don’t—I think it would be impossible
to try and teach an actor to do. He has very limited physical response
to anything that I do. He doesn’t talk and yet I can feel his presence
even if he’s not looking at me. I can always sense that he’s listening
and I think that comes across to the viewer as well. That’s a real gift.
He was the first boy out of about 25 young people that I read with and I
remember thinking because I was doing the play at the same time, so I
could only do five or six or seven kids a day. I remember thinking wow,
this kid is amazing. If the other kids are going to be like this, we’re
going to find an amazing kid.
And I remember it was around the tenth kid, I was still thinking—and all
of the kids I have to say were fantastic, but there was something really
special with … and then obviously we should just hire the first kid and
I’m thinking around 20, I say no, the first kid was still better. And
then I read with close to 30 kids and I was finally like would you guys
just please hire the first kid. He was just amazing and so that bond
kind of started right away.
He works a lot of hours with us, and I’ve just been completely amazed by
how focused and attentive he is and interested in it. I think that’s a
big thing. He’s not being made to do this. I think he actually really
does enjoy it and he’s very curious about how to get better and it’s
been a phenomenal experience. I really, really do love working with him.
Moderator Our next question is from the line of Kathie Huddleston with
Blastr.com.
K. Huddleston Hello.
K. Sutherland Hello, how are you?
K. Huddleston I’m doing great. Thank you for doing this.
K. Sutherland Thanks so much for coming on.
K. Huddleston What can you tell us about Martin and his journey in this
first season?
K. Sutherland I could tell you a lot. But I think at the beginning of
the story we discover Martin who has a son named Jake who in the course
or our story we realize has been misdiagnosed with severe autism and in
fact is actually just a truly, truly evolved human being that is years
and years beyond where my character is and our society is at.
And in an effort to communicate with my son, I discover that he has this
unbelievable skill set that allows him to interpret numbers and symbols
in a way that kind of explain our past and to some degree predict our
future and that’s where we start the show off. My journey, very much
like the Chinese fable that the story is based on, which was called,
“The Red Thread” and the red thread is basically a red thread that is
loosely looped around the ankles of all the people that are supposed to
come in contact with each other over the course of a lifetime. This
thread can stretch and it can bend, but it cannot break, and somehow in
our society we have broken this and my son is taking me on a journey to
try and put the thread back together.
Moderator Our next question is from the line of Tara Bennett with SFX
Magazine.
T. Bennett Hello, Kiefer, thanks so much for doing this.
K. Sutherland Thanks so much for coming on.
T. Bennett So because you only have a limited way of communicating with
Jake, who are some of the actors, characters, that are really going to
become Martin’s touchstones, so that we really get to see emotionally
how he’s reacting with this new journey and being able to convert
through this process?
K. Sutherland I think Danny Glover certainly is a character that is
explaining his son’s condition to him, and then Goo Goo plays the worker
at Child Services that is managing Jake’s case. Those are people that
will be very important. There’s Martin’s wife who was killed on the
terrible day of 9/11. Even though she is not with us, I think he speaks
a lot to her. Then I think a lot is going to be between Jake and his
father. I think already in the first five episodes their ability to
communicate has grown exponentially. Martin starts to be able to read a
lot of Jake’s physicality and understand what that is and the audience
does as well even though other people might not understand it in the
context of our show.
But I think one of the things, one of things that moved me the most
about the piece was that I felt that Martin was terribly alone; and I
think that that’s going to be an aspect of the character and certainly
through the piece as well. So that’s going to play into it in a large
way.
Moderator Our next question is from the line of Michael Moore with
Examiner.com. Please go ahead.
K. Sutherland Hello
M. Moore Hello, Kiefer, how are you today?
K. Sutherland Good, thanks, how are you?
M. Moore Doing well. I’m kind of surprised that we’ve gotten this far
and nobody has mentioned The Confession because I thought that was
fantastic.
K. Sutherland Oh, thank you very much, thank you.
M. Moore So I have a little bit of a two-parter here. One is do you
think we’ll ever any time down the line get a second season? And can you
talk about the difficulties or the challenges that come into play when
you’re doing an Internet series, and then you kind of transition to
network television, which might have—it’s positive, but certainly you
might have to be a little bit more restricted regarding creativity
because of certain demographics that are at play ... the viewership and
everything like that.
K. Sutherland Okay, to answer the first part, yes, I would love to do a
second part of The Confession. There certainly is a story there that
Brad Mirman, who wrote and I have discussed. John Hurt had a wonderful
time on the show as I did and so we would both love to do that.
I think the real challenge, because I think The Confession was from a
production standpoint was quite high end with regards to a lot of things
that have been produced for the Internet. The real difficulty is trying
to figure out how to galvanize and pull in an audience because the
Internet is so fragmented that there is no real kind of central post, if
you will. The movie business has theatres. Television has set
scheduling. The Internet is kind of when you want it, how you want it
and trying to really corral an audience was what we found to be the most
difficult. But I think that that’s starting to explain itself. The more
things are produced for the Internet, the clearer it becomes how to go
about finding that audience.
With regards to transferring back into network television from an
experience like that, I don’t find any real shift in creativity. When I
take a look at what I think Tim Kring is doing with this show, I
certainly haven’t been a part of anything more creative. Certainly there
are language issues that prime time television might restrict you for,
but in all fairness, if you can’t convey an idea and an emotion within
the vernacular that is provided for you by network television, then I
think you have a problem in your ability to tell a story. So it’s never
been a real issue for me.
The one nice thing about coming back to network television whether we do
it or not is you certainly can corral an audience and as long as your
product is, as long as what you’re presenting is worth an audience
seeing. So that’s an exciting part when we were making Touch is that we
knew that if we did a good job that people would see it and there’s
something very exciting about that. It’s why we do it.
Moderator Ladies and gentlemen, we have time for one more question,
which will come from the line of Reg Seeton with The DeadBolt. Please go
ahead.
R. Seeton Hello, Kiefer, how are you doing?
K. Sutherland Good, thanks, how are you?
R. Seeton Not too bad man, it’s a big thrill since I’m from Nova Scotia.
K. Sutherland Where in Nova Scotia?
R. Seeton I’m from Halifax.
K. Sutherland Oh, fantastic.
R. Seeton Yes, I went to school with two of your cousins. Let me ask you
this. How do you feel that Martin allows you to mature in new ways as an
actor, given what the material calls for emotionally?
K. Sutherland I think again I kind of referred to his loneliness earlier
in one of the earlier questions. That’s a tricky thing to play because I
don’t want people feeling sorry for Martin, yet I want them to
understand that the further he is able to communicate with his son, the
more enlightened and enriched his life will be; and he might be able to
move past some of the pain that he’s experienced from the loss of his
wife and his son’s condition.
Those are all real subtle narratives to play. They’re not actually
written. They’re tonal qualities and that’s something that I’m trying to
focus on a lot with Martin and it’s also something that I felt I really
learned at least how to do better through my experience on 24. I think a
lot of the things that I learned were trying to focus on little small
changes within Jack Bauer, whether it was from season to season or even
over the course of one of those days.
What I learned in that process is something that I am trying to bring to
Martin; and so that there’s a lot going on, or a lot more going on than
what is simply written on the page or what one scene might simply
require. That there are through lines within the context of the
character that are going from episode to episode. And if we are lucky
enough to do multiple seasons, that we’d connect those as well. So
that’s really an extension of a technique that I really hadn’t focused
on or thought of before my experience on 24; and Touch is a perfect kind
of show and Martin is a perfect character to try and weave those things
in.
So I hope that that’s an aspect of me maturing as an actor over the
course of these experiences and I hope that answered your question. In
fact to all of the people that asked questions, it’s very odd not to
talk to you after I’ve answered the question hoping that I’ve actually
answered what you were looking for.
I think that was the last question, so I just wanted to again thank you
all so much for taking the time. This is something that certainly
obviously I’m very passionate about and care a great deal about and
really appreciate your help in getting it out.
J. Governale Thank you very much. As a reminder, the Touch special
preview airs this Wednesday night after American Idol at 9/8 Central on
Fox. Kiefer, thank you very much for your time; I know production is
waiting for you.
K. Sutherland Okay, Josh, thanks again and everybody thank you very,
very much for taking the time this morning. Have a great rest of your
week. Okay.
J. Governale Thanks, bye, bye.
K. Sutherland Good-bye.
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