iefer Sutherland is not only riding high on the success of his hit TV series 24, he's also returning to the big screen in an unusual way this month in the thriller Phone Booth.
In it, Sutherland provides his distinctive voice as "the caller" that traps Colin Farrell's character in a phone booth with the threat of being shot dead if he hangs up. Tribute had the chance to talk to him about his career.

Things are obviously going really well for you. Did you ever think, when 24 first went on the air, that people would take to it like they have?
K.S. We did the pilot and then there was a writer's strike coming and a director's strike coming, so I just thought that it would never get picked up. Then it got picked up and we did the first 13 episodes. It was one of those fantastic snowballs that got bigger and bigger and bigger. But no, you can never figure out why something works on that kind of a level and you are just grateful to be a part of it, and we've had so much fun.

Moving on to Phone Booth, even though we don't see you in the film your presence is definitely felt.
K.S. It was a fantastic opportunity. Joel Schumacher had asked me to do the picture and I agreed immediately. We have now officially done four films together. I walked in and we talked about the voice and I said, "Why don't you put up the first couple of cues and I'll have a look at it and I'll try them out." I ended up sitting there and I just watched the whole movie.

Could you explain the process a little bit? Did you have a full script or did you ad-lib at all?
K.S. It was already scripted. Basically, there was a voice that they used as a guide, so they had cut the film with certain spaces allotted for my dialogue. I would put on the headphones and listen to a scene then I would go over it a few times and get used to Colin's rhythm and sometimes Forest's rhythm and then start speaking back to them.

As you mentioned earlier, this is your fourth picture with Joel Schumacher dating back to The Lost Boys. What in your opinion makes him such a special director?
K.S. I trust him. When I was younger I was trying very hard to be serious about my craft and what I did. I look back and laugh now. We were doing a film called Flatliners and I thought that we were going to do a medical version of The Paper Chase. I thought that it was going to be a very serious movie. I remember running down the hallway of what was supposed to be a university and I passed the Statue of Liberty's head in the hall. Joel has a fantastic sense of production
design, and I guess I was not mature enough to get it. So I passed it and I freaked. I said, "This is like a music video," and I was in a panic. He put his arm around me and said, "I know that your career is in my hands and I respect that, but you are going to have to trust me." I went to the screening and I phoned him immediately after I saw the film. I certainly would not have seen it that way but when I saw the movie I was very happy with it. So for me, as an actor, what I find so special about Joel is that I wholly trust him.

- Bonnie Laufer-Krebs