Kiefer Sutherland is an Emmy award winner for his role as agent Jack Bauer on “24,” but he also holds another prestigious title: rodeo champion.
“What I lacked as a roper and a cowboy I could make up for in horses,” the 40-year-old actor says in the January/February issue of Men’s Vogue magazine, on newsstands Tuesday. “Roping is one of those sports like polo where you get infinitely better the better your horses are. I had some great horses.”
Sutherland, who has starred in such films as “The Sentinel” and “A Few Good Men,” learned the basics of horseback riding in 1994’s “The Cowboy Way.” He took time off from making movies in 1998, and wound up winning the national team roping competition twice.
“Those two years on the ranch were my college years,” Sutherland recalls. “Three or four guys riding around in a truck from rodeo to rodeo. It was fantastic.”
The eagerly anticipated sixth season premiere of his hit Fox series, “24,” airs in two-hour blocks on Jan. 14 and 15. Sutherland, who has been married twice, says it’s hard to date while shooting the series.
“There are some people that are great loners, but it is certainly not how I wanted to live my life,” he says.
“When you have five 16-hour days back to back, though, it is tough to tell someone, ‘The only way you can spend time with me is to live with me.’ It’s certainly a weird question to ask on a first date.”