Kiefer Sutherland became one of the most iconic faces on television in the 2000s and early 2010s when he played a federal tough guy on the Fox hit series, 24.
In Season 5 of the show, Kiefer's character, Jack Bauer finds himself pitted against his father, Phillip, who becomes one of the main villains of the season. In September 2006, Fox announced that the role would be played by actor James Oliver Cromwell (Easy Street, Six Feet Under).
Flaws In The Character
Before all this, Kiefer had asked his father Donald Sutherland to join him in the cast of 24 and play the said bad guy in Season 6. Sutherland senior however refused to portray Phillip, because of certain flaws that he found in the character.
Phillip Bauer first appeared in the series shortly into the sixth season. At that point, he was trying to cover up the fact that he had been involved in a plot to help terrorists acquire Russian-made nuclear suitcase bombs. The terrorists intended to deploy these on US soil.
At first, he managed to convince his son Jack - working for the federal agency, Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) - that he was only doing it to protect the family business and Jack's brother Graem from indicted on treason charges.
It eventually turned out that the conspiracy ran much deeper than that, and that Phillip's motivation had only been the preservation of his own legacy. In the course of his self-serving quest, he ended up killing Graem, threatened to kill his grandson, Josh, and came very close to killing Jack himself.
This type of character was not in the least appealing to Donald Sutherland. In an old engagement with a reporter, he said, "I told Kiefer, 'I'd love to play Sean Connery to your Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), but not a father who wants to kill you.' We're looking for something else we can do together."
No Humanizing Traits
Cromwell was himself critical of the writing of his character, as he did not see any humanizing traits that would have made him connect with Phillip Bauer and his motives better.
"I had never seen the show before, and I took it because my agent said it was important to do, that it would be a good thing. They paid me a lot of money to do it," he said in an interview after he had exited the show. "And then I’ve taken my son captive and I’m torturing him, then I was going to take my grandson captive and threaten him. So I went to the producers and I said, “Look, are there any redeeming qualities to this character?” They looked at me as though I was nuts, I was asking something bizarre."
Donald made the comment about his desire to work on a project with his son in 2008. Nearly seven years later, the Sutherland father-and-son duo finally got to live their dream. They came together to create the Western film, Forsaken, where they indeed played a father and his estranged son.
Kiefer was elated at the outcome and shortly before the movie release, he was quoted saying, "I’ve wanted to work with my father for 30 years, and I’m really grateful that I finally had the opportunity. And it ended up—the experience and, I believe, the film—better than I could ever have hoped for."
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