Awards Daily talks to Critics’ Choice nominee (Best Actor in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television) Kiefer Sutherland for his commanding work in William Friedkin’s final film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.
When Kiefer Sutherland appears on screen in William Friedkin’s The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, it’s jarring. This is not the Kiefer Sutherland we’ve come to know for nearly 40 years in hits like Stand By Me and TV obsessions like Fox’s 24. His voice is different, his body language nervous and uncomfortable. Unlike Jack Bauer who can get anyone out of any situation, Sutherland’s Queeg is a man at the end of his rope.
“He had a little bit of a mid-Atlantic dialect, so that would have been a tip of the hat back to the original production [Edward Dmytryk’s 1954 film starring Humphrey Bogart],” said Sutherland over Zoom. “But it’s not unheard of for navy people and their educations [to be] kind of worldwide. So I wanted that part to give a false sense of sophistication.”
Sutherland is only in two scenes in the film, something he found fascinating in how they impact one another.
“The first piece is his conflict with the navy himself and his defense of his behavior with what he felt was a mutinous crew. Then, after hearing testimony from other people in the trial, this became a conflict within one’s self. This is where it starts to break down for me, and I start to have great empathy for him. The person who we want to be versus the person who we really are is invariably going to be different. To what degree is what defines us all as individuals and people. Unfortunately for this person, given age and circumstances over time, the person who he wants to be and the person who he is are two completely different people. He has to come to terms with that during this testimony, and it undoes him.”
I had a great conversation with Sutherland about his work on The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, including what it was like to work with both director William Friedkin and actor Lance Reddick on their final films. Watch below.
