Donald Sutherland Interview, Fool's Gold

MoviesOnline sat down with Donald Sutherland at the Los Angeles press day for his new movie, “Fool’s Gold.” Directed by Andy Tennant (“Hitch”) from a screenplay he wrote with John Claflin & Daniel Zelman, the movie also stars Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson, Ewen Bremner, Alexis Dziena, Kevin Hart, and Ray Winstone.

Ben “Finn” Finnegan (McConaughey) is an affable, modern-day treasure hunter who is obsessed with finding the legendary 18^th century Queen’s Dowry – 40 chests of priceless treasure that was lost at sea in 1715. In his quest, Finn has sunk everything he has, including his marriage to Tess (Kate Hudson). Just as Tess has begun to rebuild her life, working aboard a mega-yacht owned by billionaire Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland), Finn discovers a vital clue to the treasure's whereabouts. Much to Tess' consternation, Finn maneuvers himself aboard Nigel's yacht and, using his roguish charm, convinces the tycoon and his celebutante daughter, Gemma (Alexis Dziena), to join him in the pursuit of the Spanish riches.

Donald Sutherland (Nigel Honeycutt) is one of the film industry's most prolific and versatile actors, with an impressive list of well over 100 credits, ranging from the biting political satire of Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H" and the intimate drama of Robert Redford's "Ordinary People" to the subtle intricacy of Alan J. Pakula's "Klute" and the eccentric romanticism of "Fellini's Casanova." He also garnered Golden Globe nominations for his roles in "M*A*S*H" and "Ordinary People."

Sutherland's career has encompassed collaborations with some of the most esteemed film directors working in the medium, on such projects as Bernardo Bertolucci's "1900"; "Don't Look Now," directed by Nicolas Roeg; "The Day of the Locust," directed by John Schlesinger; Paul Mazursky's "Alex in Wonderland"; "The Dirty Dozen," directed by Robert Aldrich; "The Eagle Has Landed," directed by John Sturges; Herbert Ross's "Max Dugan Returns"; Louis Malle's "Crackers"; "Backdraft," directed by Ron Howard; Oliver Stone's "JFK"; "Six Degrees of Separation," directed by Fred Schepisi; "Without Limits," directed by Robert Towne, for which Sutherland earned another Golden Globe nomination; Clint Eastwood's "Space Cowboys"; Anthony Minghella's "Cold Mountain"; and "Pride and Prejudice," directed by Joe Wright.

His more recent credits include "Reign Over Me," with Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler; "Ask the Dust," written and directed by Robert Towne; "Land of the Blind," with Ralph Fiennes; "An American Haunting," opposite Sissy Spacek; "American Gun," with Marcia Gay Harden and Forest Whitaker; and "Fierce People," directed by Griffin Dunne.

Also honored for his work on television, Sutherland was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role as Manhattan patriarch Tripp Darling in the new hit ABC series "Dirty Sexy Money," in which he stars opposite Peter Krause and Jill Clayburgh. He previously won both Golden Globe and Emmy Awards for his performance in the HBO movie "Citizen X." Sutherland won another Golden Globe for his portrayal of Clark Clifford, advisor to President Lyndon B. Johnson, in director John Frankenheimer's historical HBO drama "Path to War." In 2006, he earned dual Golden Globe nominations: one for his starring role as ambitious Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton on the series "Commander in Chief" and a second for his performance in the acclaimed Lifetime movie "Human Trafficking," for which he was also Emmy nominated.

On stage, Sutherland was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award as Best Actor for his role in the critically acclaimed, sold-out Lincoln Center engagement of Jon Robin Baitz's "Ten Unknowns." He also starred in the London, Los Angeles and Toronto productions of "Enigmatic Variations," an English-language translation (by his son Roeg Sutherland) of Eric-Emmanual Schmitt's renowned French play. Donald Sutherland is a tall, strikingly handsome man who speaks in a rich baritone voice. His flowing white hair frames a long, angular face and piercing blue eyes that are filled with intelligence and passion. Sharply dressed and sporting an elegant scarf and baby blue tie, here’s what the legendary actor had to tell us about his latest movie, “Fool’s Gold”:

Q: Have you developed any special insight into these wealthy men since you've played a few of them?

Donald Sutherland: Three of them. Well, they're not like the rest of us. That's all. I mean, maybe they are, but they're never very far from a really good doctor. Many of them don't think of what things cost, but the ones that I know personally, some of them are self-made and some have familial ties. They're extraordinarily well educated.

Q: It's interesting that the first thing you went to was their access to doctors. Why does that strike you the most?

Donald Sutherland: Because it's just something where I was talking about the difference. I know that when I think, and I'm seventy-two, about it I don't want to live all that far away from a major hospital, a major emergency room. That's how I know these people are. They always have someone very capable very close at hand.

Q: How has wealth affected your life? In what ways has it made it better and how has it complicated it?

Donald Sutherland: Wealth? Personal wealth?

Q: Yes.

Donald Sutherland: I think that you should speak to my accountant [laughs].

Q: Well, you're probably doing a little better than most of us.

Donald Sutherland: No. I've done well and I have not done well. It doesn't even compare. There are certain things. I mean, you still have mortgages and taxes. You have to think twice about just about everything.

Q: This character must've obviously been a brilliant man to have accumulated that wealth, but did you play him with his weakness being his family, that being the point where he was the most vulnerable?

Donald Sutherland: I think that with him he had an invention and I watch '60 Minutes' a couple of weeks ago with that kid who did – what is it called – Facebook. Bill Gates gave him whatever it was, $275 million, as startup money to own fifteen percent of the company. Once that kind of thing happens to you, you have to start making a lot of decisions. George Lucas or Steven [Spielberg], those guys, they have to make a lot of decisions. I think that happened to Nigel, the character from 'Fool's Gold', in such a bewildering way. So he had a lot of time on his hands, more time than he'd ever had before and he was never able to get the reality of his life in harmony, in sync. That was epitomized in his relationship with his daughter and her mother, but physically his daughter. Offspring are strange and complicated beings. I've been incredibly fortunate. If there is a wealth that I've had in my life really, truly it's my five children. I had dinner with Kiefer [Sutherland] last night. I had an end of the night meeting with my son Roeg [Sutherland]. They're just wonderful.

Q: How is Keifer doing?

Donald Sutherland: Fantastic. Fantastic. Could not be more proud of a son and a man and an actor than I am of him. God, he blew me away last night.

Q: How so, his spirit after what he's been through?

Donald Sutherland: I don't think that you could call it his spirit, but certainly his sensibility is so balanced and measured and deliberate and the use that he made of his time – forty-eight days is a long time in solitary confinement, twenty-three hours a day. The only thing that he could do to get out was to do the laundry of the other inmates. He said to me last night, because I was able to put a deposit on the telephone so that he could call me collect kind of like every third day and then we'd have fourteen minutes, no more because they cut you off, to speak. You've never seen fourteen minutes go so quickly in your life, but he was saying that it was so cold in there, just freezing. Then last night he came up, and I had just landed yesterday afternoon, and he was released on Monday, and he said, 'You know what, I said that it was so cold in there, but it's freezing outside!' [laughs]

Q: Where did you have dinner, a special local spot?

Donald Sutherland: Nah, it's just a restaurant up the street that we go to a couple of times. It's a good restaurant. I couldn't believe how much he ate. He was wonderful.

Q: So they didn't let him have visitors or anything there?

Donald Sutherland: No. I don't know whether he could have, but he didn't want visitors.

Q: What did you enjoy about playing this character?

Donald Sutherland: Let me think about it for a second. He just loves women. He does. You don't feel like you're seventy-two even though you are seventy-two and you have to constantly keep reminding yourself that you're seventy-two because sometimes you feel like you're fifty-two.

Q: That's good.

Donald Sutherland: It is good, but it can get you into terrible trouble. But I loved his imagination. Just his eagerness to try and find a relationship with his daughter and to have this opportunity to go on a treasure hunt and to grab at it, to say, 'Oh, I'm going to pay this much money and this is going to happen and maybe my daughter and I will…and what an adventure it is.' And he ends up with a bunch of gold. They were just a lot of fun, Matthew [McConaughey] and Kate [Hudson].

Q: What impressed you about Matthew?

Donald Sutherland: He has discipline and is a professional performer. He's just there.

Q: You know a little bit about fatherhood and he's about to become a dad. What kind of dad do you think he's going to be?

Donald Sutherland: Devoted. Really devoted. Really devoted. No, he is. It's the nature of the guy. He doesn't leave any stone unturned. But he will have…it's funny when it's your own baby. The last three kids I had I delivered them and nothing looks as good or smells as good as your own baby's poop. With every other baby it stinks like what it is. You're just, 'Oh, it's so good!' The compliments. Matthew will be like that.

Q: What will we see you in next?

Donald Sutherland: 'Dirty, Sexy Money', I hope, I think.

Q: I love that show. What's happening with it?

Donald Sutherland: They have at this moment in this community a strike.

Q: But are you going to go back if the strike ends to finish the show?

Donald Sutherland: Oh, the strike is going to end. I know when it's going to end. I'm not allowed to say. But yeah, we have twelve and thirteen that we've finished and so we have eleven, twelve and thirteen in the box, but twelve and thirteen are being edited right now and we finished shooting on the 15^th of December. So they're editing that and as soon as we get the go ahead we'll be back.

Q: Did they give you a rough estimate of how many episodes you can get done?

Donald Sutherland: Nine. They'll get nine more done.

Q: That's a lot considering that most shows can only go through May.

Donald Sutherland: Not for 'Dirty, Sexy Money'. We were actually way ahead.

Q: Did you have to adjust to the TV way of shooting having done films most of your career? Is it hard to get up to the rapid pace or is that close to the films you've done?

Donald Sutherland: The only thing that's disturbing, that I find disturbing is that it's edited by producers and not directors so that you have to form a creative link with the show-runner and that link is vitiated a little bit by studios and networks and a bunch of other people who have input. Hopefully the more successful it gets the more it'll just be Craig Wright because Craig Wright has a vision that's like a knife going through the fire. I mean, he's brilliant, but at the moment, and I don't know who's responsible for it – well, I know who's responsible for it – we're shooting sixty minutes when only forty-one or forty-two minutes can go on the air. So that means that eighteen minutes of work that you've done that you think is part of a line is gone. I mean, the same thing happens in movies, but not so viciously. At the moment then we're cutting it down. I think that they've got it down to fifty-six minutes now, but it should be like John Ford. You shoot what you get and then that's it because they write really tight scripts.

Q: Do you have a sense of the mystery or are you finding out as you go along too? Do you know what you're playing too or are you finding out along the way also?

Donald Sutherland: I know.

Q: He's a very interesting character that you play on that.

Donald Sutherland: Tripp Darling?

Q: Yeah. It's like he has more layers than many of the other characters who are already complicated. Is it fun for you to see what they're going to throw at you with this guy?

Donald Sutherland: They don't actually throw it at me. They give it to me and then I throw it back. Craig Wright, I cannot speak highly enough about him. With the creative process he so involves Peter [Krause] and myself, everybody, but I mean, specifically Peter and myself. It's like there's an organic connection and we're all a part of his alter ego, Jill [Clayburgh], Peter and myself. They don't betray you. Some of the other writers on the show might attempt to, but it never gets past Craig.

Q: Tripp seems very unpredictable, but is very consistent in his character. You never know exactly what way he's going to fall on a particular issue, but it seems to work every time.

Donald Sutherland: He's a very moral man. Really hurt. Really. That line that Craig gave me when I was asking Jill who the child was that was not my progeny and she said, 'But you have to promise me that you won't say anything.' I said, 'I don't have to promise you anything. I placed my life in your hands so that together we could carry it safely to the grave.' You go, 'Holy shit, man.' It's the idea that someone thinks like that. I know that it's for better or worse, 'til death do you part, but it's just a wonderful conception of a partnership. Thai philosophies say that you have to think about death for five minutes everyday if you want a balanced life. You don't necessarily have to think about your own death or dying, but just think about the existence of death and for Tripp Darling to think about the termination of his life as a part of his life, which even I at seventy-two I don't think about except for the fact that I want a doctor near me [laughs], and I went home to my wife and I said, 'I've placed my life in your hands.' It's a wonderful conception and I love it.

“Fool’s Gold” opens in theaters on February 8^th.