EDITORIAL

ROUTTNG 12-28-93

TO:

ENTERTAINMENT

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!

By Frank

Lovece

.i.

He is the

acting

equivalent

of The

Flying Wallendas,

Donald Sutherland

taking

risks and

outre

roles few

if

any established

American

leading

men

would take.

Sure,

there

was

Hawkeye

Pierce

in

(Mx'A*S*H'

(19?0).

But there

was also

the

likes

of

"Fellini's

Casanova"

(1976),

and

the infamous

"F.T.A."

(1972).

Now Sutherland flies without

a net

yet

again

in the

screen

version

of

John Guare's

Broadway

play

"Six

De-

grees

of Separation."

In

seem-

ingly

unflashy

vehicle

-

a witty

drama of

a collegiate

con-man

who

insinuates

himself

into the

lives of

rich Manhattan socialites

-

Suther-

land

plays

the

well-meaning

Flanders

Kittredge,

an

art

dealer who

goes

by

the

preppy

nickname

Flan.

He

and

his

wife,

Ouisa

(Stockard

Channing,

reprising her Broadway

role),

are the

to be the son

of Sidney

Poitier.

Yet though

the

Kittredges

are

played

for fools,

neither actor

plays

them os

fools.

Flan is

capable

of

im-

mense

pomposity

and

pride,

yet

Sutherland

somehow

never

carica-

tures him,

as

many

other

actors

would

have

done.

"He

just

has a character

failure

that

most of us

suffer

from,"

the 58-

year-old

Sutherland

softly

explains.

"And

that

is, he's

never

fulfilled

him-

self as a

person.

He

wanted

to

Paint,

but

he compromised

everything

be-

cause

he

wasn't

sure enough

of

him-

self to

commit

as

a

Painter.

He

studied

law, but

he

wasn't

satisfied

with

law, so he

didn't continue

in law,

and so became

an art dealer

with

a

legal bent.

When

you

start

making

those

kind of decisions,"

he believes,

"they

infect

your

decision-making

processes

for

the

rest of

your

life."

The character's

name,

he

saYs,

helped

him flesh

out the man:

"Flan-

ders," as

in Flanders

Fields,

the

World

War

I

battle-site

made

famous

by

a

poem,

where

untold

Canadian

soldiers

were

killed

and

buried.

"It

represetted

some

sort of

heroic

emblem

for me,"

says

the actor,

born

and

raised

in St.

John,

New

Brunswick.

"And

then," he adds, "the

name

he was

called

late

in his

life was

Flan

-

a crust

with a

Yellow

muckY

substance

underneathl

And that,"

he

says,

smiling,

"was

my

metaPhor

for

him."

Sutherland

-

the

father

of actor

Kiefer Sutherland,

late of

l'The

Three

Musketeers"

-

says

all

this

in

a flow-

ing,

mellifluous

voice.

His

hair

today

is

uncharacteristically

long, scraggly

I

don't

go

see

mavres

that

l'm

in,

My

iob

is

subjective,

and

I

go

and

t

do

my

work

and

I

give

it

to the

director.

I

put

everything

in

his

recalls,

"and

he'd say,

'Ah,

you're

never

gonna

make

it.' And then

(M*A*S*H'

came

out while

we

were

shooting

and did very

well.

And some-

how the

upshot was,

I said

I would

do every

film of his until

he became

a

success. So

I

did

'The

Kentucky

Fried Movie'

0977),Lwas

a

billboard

in

something

else,

and then they

called

to

House.'

He

said they wanted

to

give

me2-Ll2per-

cent of the

profit.

No way!

Pay me

my daily

rate! And it came out,

and

we sat and

watched this

movie and

just

went,

'This

is ridiculous, this

is

not

gonna

make a dime.'Ayyi

yi!"

he

says, rolling

his eyes and

smiling

helplessly.

"Who

was

to know?"

Sutherland

-

who'd

been Canada's

youngest

radio

personality

at age

14

-

got

his acting

start

onstage

in

Toronto and

in

the

England before

breaking into

British TV shows

cluding

"The

Avengers" and

"The

Saint." After his movie debut

with

the

Italian

horror flick

"Castle

of

the

Living Dead"

(1964),

he did a

siew of

British horror

films

until

"The

Dirty

Dozen"

(196?)

began

propelling

his

career.

Twice married and

divorced,

he has a

2l-year relationship

with

former

actress

Francine Racette,

the

mother

of three

oT his

five children.

He's done about

75

films, with

two

more

("Red

Hot" and

"Younger

and

Younger")

coming up soon.

"I

got

stuck

by

British taxes

years

ago,"

he

says,

"and

now

I'd

just

love to

make

enough

money

so that my

family,

when

I die,

will

have something

to

fall back on.

But I don't

know

-

I

just

looked at

the expiration

date

of

my

credit card.

And I

think,"

he

jokes,

"that

I'II expire before

that!"

O, T993

NEWSPAPER

ENTERPRISE

ASSN.

STAR

VIEW

;f:il,iJi'fffI

$ili$3i;1'riilfi

possession

to do

with

artist,

Paul

(Will

Smith),

who claims

aS

WiShgS,

and.

white,

and

he wears

a

ZZ

IoP

beard,

both

grown

for the

CBS

minis-

eries

he's

shooting, "Oldest

Living

Confederate

Widow

Tells

AIl"

-

which,

Iike

most

everything

else

he's

done,

he'll

probably miss.

"I

don't

go

see

movies

that

I'm

in,"

he says.

"My

job

is subjective,

and

I

go

and

I do

my

work and

I

give

it

to

fhe director.

I

put

everything

in-his

possession

to

do

with as

he ?ish'es.

Nonetheless,

the

nature

of the

work

requires

that

you

have

a very

specif-

ic line through

your

character,

or oth-

erwise

you

cannot

maintain

any

kind

of

truth

or honestY

with

resPect

to

that.

And that

line

is

so

indelibly de-

fined within

yourself

that

when

you

see

the

movie

and

you

see

the

waY

they've

(editeO

it, it varies.

So

for me,

it's

too

emotionally

disturbing

to see

them."

One exception

was ditector

John

Landis'

surprise

hit

"National

Lam-

poon's

Animal

House"

(1978),

in which

he had a bit

part

done,

he saYS, as

a'

favor and

a

lark.

"John

Landis

had been

a

gofer

on

.'Kelly's

Heroes)

(19?0),'"

Sutherland

Donald

Sutherland