PLUS! - Saturday, January 20, 1990 - 15 SPRUCELAND 367.1667 ★★★★ tar TPark Continued from page 10 journey with the irreverent Hopper destroys his veneer and brings him back in touch with his radical roots. But in Sutherland’s own case, he’s never abandoned those roots. Father Donald Sutherland was a controversial anti-Vietnam War activist 20 years ago. Mother Shirley Douglas, with whom he grew up in Toronto, actually fell afoul of the FBI because of her involvement with the Black Panthers and was forced to resume acting back in Canada. Earlier in the day, he shocked some conservative American reporters with family memories. “Take my mother’s political problems," he told them. “Those were things I was incredibly proud of. My mother knew how to head-butt someone before it became fashionable. She was taught by my grandfather.” “Grandfather,” of course, was Tommy Douglas, former CCF premier of Saskatchewan, the man who brought medicare to Canada and later became first leader of the federal New Democratic Party. “He was a tough little Scotsman, a former featherweight boxing champion,” Sutherland proudly recalls. “My mother practiced his values, and they were passed on to me.” Sutherland’s particularly fond of a moment in Flashback when Hopper’s aging hippie tells his character not to forget his roots. “It’s so true. I think it’s very important for us to progress in a culture, but I know there are things from my past I want to hold on to.” He’s enormously proud of his parents’ acting achievements. - “My father is one of the finest actors of his time. I have incredible respect and admiration and a sense of awe about his work.” As for his mother: “She’s a brilliant, brilliant theatre actress in Canada, and when I was growing up I was seeing her all*tfie: time on stage in places like the Stratford Festival and the National Arts Centre-in Ottawa. “I've finally figured out that my desire *10 become an actor stemmed from watching people very close to me, my mother and her colleagues, be as good as they were.” Canada’s Kiefer Sutherland is on the threshold of becoming a major star rather than just a rising one. He has four big films due this year, starting with Flashback Feb. 2. (Thai's Kiefer at left with co-star Dennis Hopper in scene from Flashback.) Sutherland never rebelled against what his parents represented politically. But he does say his father’s Hollywood success was intimidating at a time when he was starting to act professionally himself. "When I first started working, I vigorously resisted being asked certain questions — such as was I following in my father’s footsteps or did my father help me get work? “I was very defensive of all those things. I was determined to forge my own life in this career and ensure I was the one who’d gone through the difficulty of getting those first few jobs.” Later he realized he’d been holding a “grudge” against his father. The realization came when when he saw several photographs of himself and his father taken when he was five years old. “The way he was holding me and hugging me as a boy was the most incredible show of love I’d seen in a long time. I’d forgotten how much my father loved me and how much he had given me. “I went to the phone and called him and told him I was sorry. I told him I’d been selfish.” By then, Kiefer was no longer defensive about being Donald Sutherland’s son. "i was comfortable with my work. I was feeling comfortable about being accepted." One of Sutherland’s big assets is that he has scrupulously avoided locking himself into one specific acting style. “The only style I have that is consistent in all my work is that I speak slowly. My responsibility as an actor is to create the illusion of reality, to fit into the structure and confines of a film, to adjust to my fellow performers and help them adjust to me.” -Vr/A. • Structure is all important to-Sutherland and stems from his stage experience. “It’s impossible to work effectively if you’re not conscious of it.” Without naming names, he’s gently critical of other young actors of his generation. - “The 'one mistake I’ve seen in a lot of them is that they end up doing each scene as an individual separate entity rather-than as part of a larger jwhole. They may have a character, but they wilt never havfci-the kind of arc a very talented theatre actor has when doing a play from be-.gjnping. tc> enfUn ajangtaeyening.”., ,. . FAMOUS PLAYERS The Most Highly Acclaimed Film of the Year is now the most successful animated film of all time!’ B.C. Warning: Some suggestive & coarse language, scenes of childbirth. PLAZA 400 CINEMAS UvJCt . 364-7C11 (5 EVENINGS 7 & 9 PH. MATINEES 1 PJI. SAT. & SUN. THE LITTLE EVENINGS 7:15 & 9:05 P.M. | MATINEES 1:05 P.M. | SAT. & SUN. (cowaQ Two of LA’s top rival cops ore going to hnve to work together^ Even if it kills them. SILVESTER ST1LL0IE HIT IDSSELL Tango & Cash No Passes for This Engagement EVENINGS 7:00 & 9:00 P.M. ffwSl ! B.C. Warning: Frequent i«id