Kiefer Sutherland has spoken exclusively with The Big Issue about why he’d happily “live [his life] backwards” in A Letter To My Younger Self.
The film titan and singer-songwriter recalled making his first movie, The Bay Boy, aged 16 in Nova Scotia.
“I remember checking into the Holiday Inn,” he said, “unpacking all my toiletries and looking at myself in the mirror. A crooked smile came across my face and I remember this moment as, my life just started…”
On getting to know his father, Donald Sutherland, he said: “Growing up, I didn’t have much contact with my father. And I couldn’t go to the movie theatre to see MASH or 1900, or Fellini’s Casanova – they were adult films. Then when I was 18 they started bringing out video tapes and I sat down and watched his films.
“They were extraordinary…And the one I liked best, what’s it called, the red coat movie.. Don’t Look Now! And I called him up and I actually cried on the phone, I was so embarrassed that I didn’t know what an important actor he was. And I considered myself a serious actor. So that was very embarrassing and I apologised for that and he was so sweet, he said ‘Oh my God, that’s okay, it’s not your fault, how would you know?’”
When asked if he could tell himself one thing, he said it would be simple: “Don’t be so panicked, don’t be so nervous.”
