Connecting Touch and 24 with Kiefer Sutherland

Kiefer Sutherland returns to television and the Fox airwaves on Wednesday, January 25 at 9pm in Touch. Although it’s been a little under two years since Kiefer Sutherland left the shoes of Jack Bauer on 24, Sutherland is ready to step back into regular TV in a new role.

In Touch, Kiefer Sutherland plays Martian Bohm, a widower and single father haunted by an inability to connect to his emotionally challenged 11-year-old son Jake (David Nazouz) who doesn’t like to be touched but has a special gift for mathematics. Sutherland’s Touch character soon learns his son has the ability to perceive hidden patterns that connect life on the planet and that it’s his responsibility to decipher and find meaning in the patterns Jake sees.

So, what’s the new challenge for Kiefer Sutherland and the role of Martin Bohm in Touch two years removed from 24 and Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) agent Jack Bauer?

When The Deadbolt spoke with Kiefer Sutherland this week ahead of Touch, Sutherland revealed that it was the loneliness of Martin Bohm as a disconnected single father that posed the biggest challenge.

“That’s a tricky thing to play [loneliness],” said Sutherland on a break from shooting, “because I don’t want people feeling sorry for Martin, yet I want them to understand that the further he is able to communicate with his son, the more enlightened and enriched his life will be; and he might be able to move past some of the pain that he’s experienced from the loss of his wife and his son’s condition.”

In trying to convey that through his new Touch character, Kiefer Sutherland also revealed that it’s about connecting to what’s not on the page in order to be effective, something that he was somewhat disconnected from prior to 24.

“Those are all real subtle narratives to play,” added Sutherland. “They’re not actually written. They’re tonal qualities and that’s something that I’m trying to focus on a lot with Martin.”

After playing Jack Bauer for eight season on 24, Sutherland admitted that he was able to pay more attention to tonal details as Bauer that only served him well on Touch.

“It’s also something that I felt I really learned at least how to do better through my experience on 24. I think a lot of the things that I learned were trying to focus on little small changes within Jack Bauer, whether it was from season to season, or even over the course of one of those days. What I learned in that process is something that I am trying to bring to Martin. There are through lines within the context of the character that are going from episode to episode. And if we are lucky enough to do multiple seasons, that we’d connect those as well.”

Although Kiefer Sutherland grew up on film in such hits as Stand By Me, The Lost Boys, Young Guns, Flatliners, A Few Good Men, and more, Sutherland candidly confessed that picking up on unseen nuances as an actor was something that evolved over time.

“That’s really an extension of a technique that I really hadn’t focused on or thought of before my experience on 24; and Touch is a perfect kind of show and Martin is a perfect character to try and weave those things in. I hope that that’s an aspect of me maturing as an actor over the course of these experiences.”

Touch airs Wednesday, January 25 at 9pm on Fox before resuming as a regular series on Monday, March 19.