Daily Inspiration Quote by Kiefer Sutherland

"I'm not that complicated as an actor. I have a formula in which I work, yeah. But not like Sean Penn does. Sean is one of the few actors I know who can work like that, actually becoming the character he is playing, and get consistent results. I don't believe you can ever be someone else. You manifest different levels of your own personality to come up with a character"

Kiefer Sutherland, Actor

About this Quote

Sutherland is doing something rare in actor-talk: puncturing the prestige myth without sounding defensive. He frames himself as "not that complicated" and admits to a "formula", a word that usually reads as unromantic, even mechanical. But the humility is strategic. By putting Sean Penn on a pedestal of transformational method-acting ("actually becoming the character"), he acknowledges the cultural hierarchy Hollywood loves: the chameleons at the top, the craftsmen somewhere below. Then he quietly rejects the whole premise.

"I don't believe you can ever be someone else" isn’t a knock on Penn so much as a philosophical stake in the ground. Sutherland recasts acting as controlled self-exposure rather than possession. The subtext: the industry’s obsession with disappearing into a role can be less about truth and more about marketing - a narrative that sells seriousness, awards, and behind-the-scenes lore. His alternative model is both more modest and, in its way, more honest: characters aren’t imported identities, they’re curated selections from the actor’s own emotional inventory.

That approach also explains his screen persona and career arc. Sutherland’s most iconic work thrives on calibrated intensity - the hard edge, the moral pressure, the simmering volatility. You don’t need to become another person to play Jack Bauer; you need to find the part of you that can live in that extremity for 24 episodes a season. "Consistent results" is the tell: he’s talking like a working actor, not a mystic. The real flex is reliability.

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About the Author

Kiefer Sutherland (born December 21, 1966) is a Actor from Canada.

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