Kiefer Sutherland Interview for '24: Redemption'

Kiefer Sutherland Q&A

Oct. 14 -- Jack Bauer, band geek? Not quite, but '24' star Kiefer Sutherland might just be the ultimate music fan.

The actor/executive producer stopped by AOL to cheer on a performance by honeyhoney, a band signed by the music label he co-owns. He also chatted about November's '24: Redemption,' a two-hour prequel movie to season 7 (which premieres in January).

He dishes with AOL TV about reuniting with old '24' friends, the new President on the show and his not-so-guilty TV pleasures. -- By Kelly Woo

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1. The movie shot in different locations. What was that experience like?

It was like a big field trip -- we all went to South Africa and Washington, so from that perspective it was just amazing. And the people that we met in Africa, specifically the actors, that was really the look of Africa that we got so that was really exciting. It was just one of those projects where all of the things lined up right, and arguably I would say it's one, if not the best, thing that we've done on '24' to date.

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2. Did filming the movie feel different than shooting the series?

It was unbelievably different, because it had an end. It's the only thing that we've done that actually had a conclusion. So from the writers' perspective, it was so freeing instead of having to write into this kind of endless vaccuum, which any television show really can become, if it's serialized.

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3. Why did the movie name change from 'Exiled' to 'Redemption'?

I don't know. It's interesting. The beginning of the film is really dealing with Jack Bauer's exile, and the end of the film is really dealing with his own redemption, and I think we called it 'Exiled' in haste. And in the way it connects into season 7, 'Redemption' was just a much better title.

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4. There's a new president on '24,' played by Cherry Jones. Is she a Hillary or a Sarah Palin?

She's definitely not a Sarah Palin. Uh, no. It's very funny -- we were supposed to have come out a year ago, and I would have loved to have seen the influence of having Cherry Jones play a President in the middle of [the Democratic] primary. It creates conversation, and that's our job. But what I love about the way she's playing this character is she's got unbelievable strength, and she approaches her presidency very differently, and I would say maybe with a little more common sense, as opposed to politicizing to appease one group or another.

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5. How has it been working with Carlos Bernard [Tony] again?

Carlos is one of my best friends. It was fantastic to have him back, and I think the writers did a really clever job in how they brought him back, because at first it was something that we were all incredibly nervous about. When they tell you about the idea, you say, "No, you can't do that," then they go, "Well, read it and tell us what you think." And I think it was very clever.

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6. You produce and star in '24,' and you co-own the Ironworks record label. How do you find the time for it all?

There's not a lot of it, in all fairness. But the label really is run by Jude Cole, Jenn Littleton and Amy Meyer, and I do as much as I can, given the time that I have -- '24' really does take up an awful lot of time. The fact that I actually live in the same building as the studio and the label helps ... and they're all my friends, so that makes it easy. But my real participation was building the place for them to make the music, and then they all take care of [the rest].

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7. Do you go to clubs to find new artists?

Different clubs, different tours; we'll always keep our eyes open. But what we were amazed by was how much music we found in that corridor between San Diego and Los Angeles. It just seems like there's a limitless well of really fantastic players and writers. But again, we're such a small label that we want our roster to be really small. Three artists feels like a lot right now because we focus all of our energy on them.

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8. Which bands are on your label roster?

We have three. Rocco DeLuca & the Burden is finishing up his second record, which was produced by Daniel Lanois, who has done every U2 record ever, so we're very excited about that. Honeyhoney's record is coming out [Nov. 4], and Billy Boy on Poison [has] a record that will be coming out probably around November-December.

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9. Do you have any TV guilty pleasures?

Not guilty pleasures.There are a couple shows that I absolutely love: 'Californication' and 'Weeds.' Those are newer shows that I think are phenomenal. And 'True Blood' -- I watched the first couple episodes of that just to see what they did, and [Anna Paquin] is wonderful. And so is [Stephen Moyer]. I was a huge fan of 'The Wire,' and was quite disappointed to watch them stop making that. And then back even a little while further, I was a huge, huge fan of 'The West Wing.'

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