Commanding respect

DONALD Sutherland is intimidating. Perhaps it is his stature -- he’s 6 feet 4 -- or the shock of white hair or the piercing blue eyes. Maybe it’s that voice, filled with gravitas.

“What are we talking about?” he asks in a businesslike manner at the outset of a recent interview.

A little bit of everything.

Sutherland, a fit, handsome 70, is everywhere these days. He’s stealing scenes as Geena Davis’ nemesis, House Speaker Nathan Templeton, in this season’s only breakout hit, ABC’s “Commander in Chief.”

The Canadian-born actor also gives a winsome performance as the father of five daughters in the new feature version of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” which opens Nov. 11.

And he’s the subject of an American Cinematheque retrospective at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica today, Wednesday and Thursday.

Initial impressions of Sutherland are deceiving. Funny, articulate, passionate about his craft and the proud father of five children, including “24” star Kiefer Sutherland, the actor turns out to be less a lion than a charming pussycat.

With your film career thriving, what prompted you to do a series?

I made a decision to do a pilot. Rod Lurie came to me a couple of years ago about doing a film called “West Point.” He came back and said we have this character [in “Commander”]. It was a wonderful script and a wonderful idea, and I admire Geena immensely. And so I said sure. The idea was that if it were to be picked up, that was fine because my wife and I decided we would be here with the three boys in Los Angeles. To be frank, I didn’t think it would be picked up because it was so good....

I was in a quandary when we started to work because I am so used to a beginning, a middle and the end [for a character], and this has no middle or no end. Then about three weeks into it, I discovered I was a Dickens character in the author’s head and I was creating my own life. My relationship with Rod was really fantastic in terms of creativity. We were bound by osmosis. It was just wonderful.

You’ve said in the past that you didn’t like working with the same director twice. But in television, you frequently work with the same director.

That has kind of gone by the board. Rod directed a couple at the beginning, and then we had some other guys come in. I transferred all my affection for a director, which has been tradition in my life, to the producer and creator. Now, given the change that’s taken place, I am going to transfer that affection to Steven Bochco [who replaced Lurie Oct. 7].

Have you met with Bochco?

I have been with him a couple of times. He came in and put his arm on my shoulder, and I felt like I had known him for 20 years.

But it must have been difficult to lose Lurie.

It was like a death in the family. It is very painful. But I am really looking forward to the particular kind of discipline I know Steven will bring to it. It was inherent in all of the talks that we had. There is a particular kind of security an actor can find in that.

You have always been politically active on the liberal side, especially during the Vietnam War. So what is it like for you playing a conservative?

I have played guys who have killed people, and I have played guys who made love with their daughters.

What movie was that?

“Benefit of the Doubt” with Amy Irving....[Templeton] is a man, and you will find out that he has a wife of however many years. I actually love him. His politics are not the same as my politics, but they are his politics.

You must be excited with the retrospective, especially the selections this week: “MASH,” “Klute” and “Don’t Look Now.”

I remember Connie Hall [the late cinematographer Conrad Hall]. He was buying a suit on Rodeo Drive. I said, “How are you doing?” and he said, “I am doing great. I am doing all of these retrospectives. I think I’m going to die.” And there is that little bit of that about it. I have to be truthful -- I am still looking forward when I look back. All I see are mistakes.

So you don’t look at your old films?

I do look, and sometimes I’ve thought maybe I would have been better than that, but I wasn’t. I enjoy it, actually. I have such a selective memory. When you are working on a picture, all of your concentration, all of your intensity is directed toward the heart of it, to such a degree it burns inside of you. Then after it’s over, it’s gone. My being obliterates everything about it. I don’t have a natural easy social memory of it as if it was something that was a part of my life.

In “Pride and Prejudice,” you and Keira Knightley, who plays your favorite daughter, Elizabeth, have a great bond on screen.

She is really grand to work with -- to watch the intensity that she applies herself and the discipline and the ability, the rigor to not get involved in all of the wasting of time that happens on set. We rehearsed for two or three weeks before filming, and we had a family.

You and Kiefer appeared in “A Time to Kill,” though you didn’t have any scenes together. Are you going to ever do a film together?

We were going to make a movie years ago. It fell apart for me and I kind of let him down, which I am really sorry about. There was something [about it] that wasn’t right for me. So who knows? He’s a wonderful actor.