The 17-minute performance Donald Sutherland spent four months preparing for
When Donald Sutherland passed away in 2024, the world mourned the loss of an acting giant. To younger fans, he will always be the villainous Coriolanus Snow, the main antagonist of the ‘Hunger Games’ franchise. Older cinemagoers will remember him from his bevvy of dramatic roles, ranging from Klute to Don’t Look Now, A Dry White Season to Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Three of his children followed him into the movie business, including The Lost Boys and 24 star Kiefer, ensuring that his legacy will definitely live on.
Though his heyday might have been during the 1970s, Sutherland continued to impress audiences decades after his so-called ‘prime’. In 1991, he played a brief yet crucial role in JFK, Oliver Stone’s epic tale of presidential conspiracy. His character is the mysterious ‘Mr. X’, an insider who assists Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) with his investigations into the Kennedy killing. A composite of CIA agent Richard Case Nagell and Air Force official L Fletcher Prouty, the character is one of the most controversial in the entire movie, which is really saying something, given how infamous JFK has become.
Sutherland clearly recognised the gravitas of what he was taking on, as he put an insane amount of effort into getting Mr X right. According to Variety, the legendary performer spent four months preparing for the part, even though his overall screen time was just 17 minutes for a three-hour-long movie. According to Sutherland, “I didn’t want to simply be repeating the words. It had to come from my gut.”
Originally, the plan was to cast Marlon Brando as Mr. X, but things fell through between the director and the notoriously difficult actor. Stone himself would admit that he was glad Sutherland ended up taking the role instead of his first choice.
This wasn’t the only time the acclaimed star went above and beyond for the call of duty. Also in 1991, he made a brief appearance in Ron Howard’s Backdraft, a film about an arsonist running roughshod throughout Chicago. Sutherland plays Ronald Bartel, a convicted criminal whom the fire department initially believed to be the one responsible for the recent outbreak of blazes. Bartel is only in two scenes of the movie. However, according to Sutherland’s wife Francine Racette, “Our whole summer was made up of that pyromaniac.”
Another testimony to the actor’s preparedness came from Rod Lurie, director of the TV series Commander in Chief. Sutherland appeared in that show as Nathan Templeton, a Republican politician with a vendetta against the first female President of the United States (Geena Davis). “He doesn’t just show up and hit his marks,” Lurie said of his former colleague. “When we were nominated for the People’s Choice Award, he was asked to present. He wouldn’t just read from the teleprompter, he insisted on memorising his entire speech. As far as he was concerned, it was a performance.”
You don’t get to be an actor of Sutherland’s standing without putting in some seriously hard work. Though he never went full method like some of his contemporaries, he wasn’t afraid to get inside a character’s mind, even if it interfered with his personal life. As the great man himself once put it, “I don’t think I’m an actor who takes their characters home with him. But I certainly do take the preparation home.”
