The China Mail - Kiefer Sutherland still in action, but ibuprofen lending helping hand

Sutherland -- in Venice for the premiere of his new film "Father Joe," where he shares the limelight with Al Pacino -- told AFP Saturday that some things had changed in the two and a half decades since "24" first aired on television.

The political thriller about US counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer ran from 2001 to 2010, with a revival and finale in 2014.

"I do remember the days when I could run around on "24" and I could do it for 12 hours straight," he told AFP in an interview.

"And now I've got this brace going on, I've got that brace going on, I've got whatever else, you know, these pads and these," he said.

"And so there's a lot of anti-inflammatory medicine used now that wasn't used 20 years ago," he joked.

In the film directed by Barthelemy Grossmann from a screenplay by Luc Besson, Sutherland plays a gun-wielding New York priest seeking justice for the city's youth, menacing drug dealers and the mob boss, played by Pacino.

"I don't get a lot of opportunities to do a fantasy, which this film is. It lives in its own world. It's good versus evil. It's broad strokes," the actor told a press conference earlier Saturday.

Sutherland said he had to master a different style of fighting than what he was used to in the film, and learned a lot during the process.

"And I only got hurt twice," he added.

On the vicissitudes of his career, the Canadian/British actor said that now at age 60, he worries less about the inevitable dry spells.

"It's going to go down. Then it's going to go back up," said Sutherland

"And I think that just when you're down, the confidence that it's going to go back up -- because it always does, you know -- is like, 'Oh!' You don't need to worry as much."

A rough patch came at about age 27 when he didn't work for a few years, he said.

"I was panicked that it was over. And that really messes with your head," he said.

"If it's the thing you love doing and it's the thing you want to do the most and it's the thing you care about the most, the feeling that someone can take that away from you is real. And it's very frightening," he added.

"And so every time it has kind of gone back up, the relief is significant."

Sutherland last appeared in the 2025 UK holiday film "Tinsel Town".

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