Donald, Kiefer Sutherland act together in film

By LINDSEY BAHR

AP film writer

LOS ANGELES

Donald Sutherland, 80, and Kiefer Sutherland, 49, have nearly 275 combined credits and 85 years of experience between them, and have somehow only shared the screen three times.

The first was 1983’s “Max Dugan Returns.” The second was in 1996’s “A Time to Kill.” Now, finally, in the period Western “Forsaken,” which opened in theaters and on demand Friday, the Sutherlands are not only sharing scenes, but a bloodline, playing father and son for the first time.

The Associated Press sat down with the storied actors to talk about the experience.

Q. Did you have an unspoken agreement that you wouldn’t necessarily try to work with one another often?

Kiefer: I’ve wanted to work with my dad since I started. There were three actors who I admired through school – my dad, Gene Hackman and Bobby Duvall.

Q. So why now?

Kiefer: When it wasn’t working out organically, I started thinking of different ideas. It wasn’t a fluke that we found something and we did it. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for 30 years and just thought we better get it done sooner than later.

Donald: I had always said to him that I wanted to play Walter Huston to his John Huston, do “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” or an equivalent of that. But that never worked out. That’s what I really wanted. And then this came and I was very happy.

Q. Did you learn anything about each other during this process?

Kiefer: There’s a way he goes to work and it’s built for speed and it’s incredibly effective and I think it’s incredibly well thought out. I would have to say this film more than any other single experience I’ve had as an actor, I was caught off guard by how looking into my father’s eyes would affect a scene.

Donald: Wait, what did you say?

Kiefer: That when I would be in the middle of a scene and when I would actually look into your eyes, I would look into your eyes from my life. They have a resonance to me and they mean something to me and so I would have a visceral reaction to that.