Kiefer's kid at top of her game on Veep

Sarah Sutherland

Sarah Sutherland

Published Jul 10, 2015

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In Armando Iannucci’s biting White House satire, Veep, Sarah Sutherland is the yin to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s yang. Playing the vice-president’s college-going daughter Catherine, Sutherland is becoming more prominent as each season develops. She has gone from being a neglected pawn in her solitary appearance in season one to being at the heart of the White House in season four.

Theirs is one of the most insightful, heartbreaking mother-and-daughter relationships on screen. Catherine is constantly battling for the attention of her narcissistic mother. It’s a life lived under a foreboding shadow from which she is slowly starting to emerge. If anyone should know about the vagaries of having famous parents it’s the 27-year-old actress. Her father is actor Kiefer Sutherland from his first marriage to actress Camelia Kath. Her paternal grandparents are Donald Sutherland and Shirley Douglas.

However, Sutherland is also a prime example of how being independent and zestful can also quickly deflate comparisons with famous kin. I’ve met her twice. The first time was with a group of actors whom she starred with in Beneath the Harvest Sky in 2013. She marked herself out from her peers with her wry humour and central position. More recently I met her at the Cannes Film Festival when she was starring in Michel Franco’s Palme d’Or contender, Chronic.

Her friendliness and astuteness became even more apparent. Given her dad has gained a bad-boy reputation with his antics, and served jail time for drunkendriving, it’s clear that she’s not a chip off the old block. But where she does seem to be following in dad Keifer’s footsteps is her ability to produce inimitable performances that ensure her lineage almost becomes an irrelevance.

She says of her family tree: “This might sound contrived or untrue, but I’ve really never thought about the fact that they acted as well. It was just something that I arrived at on my own. I was very lucky that my whole family was supportive and gave me space to figure it out and do it in a way that I wanted to do it, which was independent and to experience things for the first time.”

If anyone is able to dole out good advice about being the spawn of a famous actor, it’s her dad. Her grandfather Donald Sutherland remains one of the true Hollywood greats. Yet when I ask if her father gave her any specific advice based on his own experiences about handling the pressure of having a famous parent, she just says: “I know what you are saying, with work especially, but it’s not something that we ever talk directly about.”

The actress has always insisted that Catherine in Veep is not modelled on Chelsea Clinton, or any other daughters who have taken some of the White House limelight. She says the biggest inspiration comes from riffing with Louis-Dreyfus. Before the cameras roll they do a lot of improvisation and rehearsals, desiring to make their on-screen relationship seem mean, but not too mean, while also ensuring there are enough moments of affection. Away from camera, her affection for Louis-Dreyfus could not be more pronounced; “She is classy, intelligent and warm. I learnt so much from watching her.”

The show is also a haven for British comedians working in American television. She says that one director in particular has stood out. “All our writers are British and all of our directors are British and I’d say that other than Armando, someone who directed an episode (who stood out) would be Chris Morris. He is just wildly deviant and intelligent.”

She describes Morris’s working method as meticulous. “There was a shot of us walking up and down four stairs and he must have shot it 15 times.”

Given the fame of her family, I’m surprised by the number of people she says she hasn’t met. Her dad is sometimes cited as being part of the ’80s Brat Pack, more for his partying than being in any of John Hughes’s iconic movies. In contrast, his daughter keeps things low-key: “I’m not someone who if I was to see someone around, would necessarily go up and say something,” she explains. “There is a real time and place to do that. You don’t want it to come across as being opportunistic. I’m not someone who is going to campaign for themself. I truly believe that if you work hard and approach things with heart, guts, intellect and bravery, then that won’t go unnoticed and that is the way in which you can garner opportunities.”

The Independent

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