I come from Nova Scotia, and I'd never seen a theater or been inside of a theater. When I was 17, my dad asked me what I wanted to do, and I said I thought I would like to be an actor. I didn't have any idea what it was to be an actor. None. I'd wanted to be either an actor or a sculptor, which are both essentially the same thing. That's how it all started for me.

Donald Sutherland

Categorized in : Ideas Actors Dad

Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves ?Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here ?Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change ?

Donald Sutherland

hopeful beautiful negative

I never think of this business as fun. I don't know why. I think I've actually said something about it being fun, but I don't think of it that way. It's not fun, doing it. It's joyful, it's passionate, it's rewarding, it's a pursuit of truth, but I don't think of it as fun. It's not a game.

Donald Sutherland

games fun thinking

It's the things we love most that destroy us.

Donald Sutherland

mockingjay president-snow

I have been able to play a lot of guys and they have kept me working.

Donald Sutherland

able guy play

I was so disappointed [with movie Forsaken], but maybe I hadn't talked enough with the director. I don't know. But, Kiefer worked it out. Kiefer took it and re-edited it. I don't know whether he talks about that. He's probably more discreet than I am because Jon is a friend of his. Now, it fulfills what I was hoping for, and what we were working on and doing.

Donald Sutherland

forsaken enough directors

One measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions.

Donald Sutherland

measurement opinion experts

I had a kind of meandering little career, and then I was given a chance to play one of the bottom six in The Dirty Dozen.

Donald Sutherland

careers play dirty

Fundamentally, people are suckers for the truth.

Donald Sutherland

truth reality people

I don't think I have one iota of cynicism about acting.

Donald Sutherland

cynicism acting thinking

I have no idea. I get involved because I think there's value in the project and because I love the character that is presented to me. I love the opportunity to examine a character, and to have him examine me, live inside me and move my hands. I love that. It's irresistible. It's a drug.

Donald Sutherland

opportunity character moving

Not too much, though there's a certain amount of rancour and bitterness when someone tries to fire you.

Donald Sutherland

too-much fire trying

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? Oh, you know something? I'm so far away from believing that it exists, and the only thing I know are jokes about it.

Donald Sutherland

far-away heaven believe

Well, I was always cast as an artistic homicidal maniac. But at least I was artistic!

Donald Sutherland

casts artistic wells

I would look a little silly playing Casanova now.

Donald Sutherland

stupid silly looks

The only thing I feel passionate about is my wife.

Donald Sutherland

my-wife passionate wife

Everything was my fault. I was so dumb. But if I hadn't made the mistakes I made, I wouldn't have met the wonderful woman I've been married to for over 30 years, so I guess that makes the mistakes OK.

Donald Sutherland

dumb mistake years

No, I'm not rich. I had a tax problem in this country, curiously enough, and my accountant said the British government was patently wrong in taxing me, and they were, but we couldn't persuade them and it cost me everything I had.

Donald Sutherland

cost government country

When I do a film, the days before or the night before, I throw up. Sometimes it's just in my mouth and I swallow it back, but sometimes it's real. Whatever it is, it's hard. I don't do the first five or ten minutes of my character's appearance in a movie until the middle of the shooting schedule because I don't want him to be defined by my nervousness. So, we do the middle of the picture first.

Donald Sutherland

real character night

I thought, "Oh, my god, that's what happens every time I talk with a journalist in the middle of shooting and I talk about my character. I describe him, I objectify him, and I kill him." So, I've never spoken with a journalist in the middle of a film. I don't do the EPK until the very end of a film. I can't talk about Kiefer's process, but what he brings to the table is beautiful.

Donald Sutherland

shooting beautiful character

I think we're [me and my son] different. He plans, organizes and intellectualizes more than I do. It wasn't until I worked with Federico Fellini that I understood what my problem was.

Donald Sutherland

different son thinking