Just about every actor who has ever worked on 24 has nothing but great things to say about Kiefer Sutherland, until now. During an interview with ABC News at Comic-Con, actor Freddie Prinze Jr. lashed out against former colleague Kiefer Sutherland. If you were wondering why there wasn’t any audio commentaries on 24’s eighth season DVD, behind the scenes drama like this might be partially to blame…
The 38-year-old father of two grew into different roles on TV and film until he co-starred in “24” alongside Kiefer Sutherland in 2010 — a role that almost led him to quit acting, Prinze told ABC News.
“I did ’24,’ it was terrible. I hated every moment of it,” Prinze said. “Kiefer was the most unprofessional dude in the world. That’s not me talking trash, I’d say it to his face, I think everyone that’s worked with him has said that.”
He continued, “I just wanted to quit the business after that. So, I just sort of stopped.”
Prinze, who was at San Diego Comic-Con while promoting his new Disney XD series “Star Wars Rebels,” dropped off the map for a while and even ventured into other projects.
“I went and worked for Vince McMahon at the WWE for Christ’s sake and it was a crazier job than working with Kiefer,” he said. “But, at least he was cool and tall. I didn’t have to take my shoes off to do scenes with him, which they made me do. Just put the guy on an apple box or don’t hire me next time. You know I’m 6 feet and he’s 5’4.”
Here’s the audio clip of Freddie badmouthing Kiefer:
Update: some responses from people involved in the production below.
24‘s dialogue consultant Marci Michelle (and close friend of Kiefer) called Freddie a “jackass” on Twitter and said “Ahhh, love it when actors are promoting a new gig by bashing their last gig. Pathetic.”
Scott Meslow tweeted “I PAed on 24, and Kiefer Sutherland was a hell of a lot more professional than Freddie Prinze Jr.” and followed it up with “It’s less a legitimate gripe and more a basic misunderstanding about how leading actors are shot in pretty much everything.”
Former co-stars Sara Gilbert and Aisha Tyler defended Kiefer Sutherland on their morning show “The Talk” today saying that they’ve both had great experiences working with him and that he was very polite. Check out the video here.
Update: Kiefer responds
“Kiefer worked with Freddie Prinze, Jr. more than 5 years ago, and this is the first he has heard of Freddie’s grievances,” Sutherland’s rep tells E! News in a statement. “Kiefer enjoyed working with Freddie and wishes him the best.”
Nice to see Kiefer taking the high road and keeping things classy.