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The mantra of Kiefer Sutherland’s most famous TV show, 24, could well have been, “Trust no one”.
That same phrase could just as easily apply to his latest series, a compelling new drama entitled Rabbit Hole.
In this dizzying conspiracy thriller which is executive-produced by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, who collaborated on I Love You, Phillip Morris and Crazy, Stupid, Love, things are not what they seem.
The story, full of deadly secrets, focuses on John Weir (Sutherland), a highly talented corporate spy whose career is based on untraceable deception.
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Overnight, his world is turned on its head when he is falsely accused of the murder of Treasury Department official Edward Homm (Rob Yang). He and Hailey (Meta Golding), the new girlfriend with whom he has just spent the night for the first time, are drawn into a realm of malevolent forces bent on world domination.
To help extricate himself from his perilous position, Weir is forced to lean on the shadowy agent Dr Ben Wilson (played by Charles Dance from Game Of Thrones).
Ficarra describes Wilson as, “a spy who’s been out in the cold too long”.
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Actor Kiefer Sutherland plays corporate spy John Weir in the new thriller drama series Rabbit Hole.
“What if you were forced to trust this man?” adds Requa.
Sadly for Weir, the one person who could provide answers about his current predicament – Edward Homm – is no longer around to help him.
According to Requa, who says Rabbit Hole is influenced by classic 1970s conspiracy thrillers such as Three Days Of The Condor, “Homm is the guy who knows where all the bodies are buried but, unfortunately, he’s dead.”
Sutherland, who won multiple awards for his performance as unkillable counter-terrorism agent Jack Bauer in 24, details why he was so eager to take on the role of John Weir.
“To have the opportunity to play a character whose entire essence is founded in being in control, only to have that stripped away, and then thrust into a world where up is down, left is right, was very exciting to me. That made this one of the easier decisions I’ve had to make.”
The executive producers expand on the themes aired in the show.
“John Weir can see all the angles, but sometimes he can’t tell which one is real,” Ficarra says.
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Kiefer Sutherland and Meta Golding appear in Rabbit Hole as on-screen couple John and Hailey.
“Rabbit Hole is about a man whose life is built on a lie, who lies for a living, who gets thrust into this battle of wits when he’s framed for a murder of a government official – or it might be something else entirely. It’s about manipulation. It’s about disinformation. It’s about questioning your everyday reality. What is real?”
Some of the main question marks in Rabbit Hole hang over the character of John Weir. Is he a reliable figure?
“It’s one of the reasons why Kiefer is part of the show,” Ficarra reflects.
“He is not out to fool the audience, but the way the storytelling works, he’s a guy who could fool the audience. And yet you’re still with him because he’s got this built-in reputation as a good guy and a hero.
“You know he is doing the right thing and you enjoy the way he does it. Everything’s on a need-to-know basis and he tells as much as he needs to.”
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“I don’t find myself running around as this character swearing,” says Kiefer Sutherland as Rabbit Hole’s John Weir.
Rabbit Hole is made for the United States streaming service Paramount+ and Sutherland has enjoyed the freedoms that this has afforded him. He has a lot more licence to portray the full gamut of a character than he would on a mainstream US network.
Famously, the strongest swear word Jack Bauer was allowed to use on 24 was, “Dammit”.
Sutherland notes, “The real difference for me on a show like Rabbit Hole, compared to the different iterations that television is going through – certainly from the beginning of 24 – is that we’re not as restricted in what kinds of stories we can tell, and we’re not restricted about how we tell them either, whether that be language or sensuality, or even violence.
“Those restrictions certainly with streaming have been lessened, which is funny because I don’t find myself running around as this character swearing. But the option’s there, and somehow that makes you feel different.”
Requa concludes that the major idea running through Rabbit Hole is trust.
“It’s about people trying to figure out what trust is. Isn’t that the centre of all relationships?”
Rabbit Hole, TVNZ+ from March 26.
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