He may play Nostradamus on TV, but as a young man Rossif Sutherland didn’t even see his own destiny.
Sutherland, who stars as the legendary prognosticator on the new CW drama “Reign,” comes from an enviable acting pedigree. His father is Donald Sutherland — whose five-decade career includes the 1980 best picture Oscar winner “Ordinary People” — and his older half-brother is Kiefer Sutherland of the 2001-10 Fox spy series “24.”
“I never really had an interest in being an actor, but I was always in awe of what my father did,” Sutherland said recently by phone from his home in Toronto, where the Thursday night show is filmed. “I knew how talented he was; it was just never something that I thought I could do or wanted to do. I didn’t want to be other people — that’s the extent of what I thought acting was.”
On “Reign” — a scandalous retelling of the rise and fall of Mary, Queen of Scots — the 35-year-old actor plays a young, brooding Nostradamus who is a big departure from the AARP-eligible version you’ll find on Wikipedia. Sutherland gives him a come-hither look that can convey either “I want you, desperately” or “Watch your back.”
Sutherland also brings familiar physical traits to the role. His narrow eyes and arching brows come straight from his dad, while his low-volume rasp rivals that of big brother Kiefer during Jack Bauer’s most desperate phone calls with Chloe O’Brian on “24.” (Kiefer’s mother is Shirley Douglas, his father’s second wife.)
Plus, the Vancouver-born Sutherland — who helpfully says his first name is pronounced “ROSS-if in English, Rose-EEF in French” — lends his Nostradamus a thick accent that would melt the heart of any French Renaissance lady-in-waiting. He developed the inflection between ages 7 and 19 when he lived with his mother, actress Francine Racette, his father’s third wife, in Paris, during a time when his dad was traveling constantly between film locations.
Sutherland says his move into show business was an abrupt one. At 19 he left France to attend Princeton University as a philosophy major. In his second year, a friend asked him to direct and act in a short film for her senior thesis. “She just assumed that because I’d been around sets, I would know what to do,” he says. Apparently, she was right.
“It was one of those moments in life, like looking in the mirror and discovering a completely different aspect of yourself, which has been under the soil, just waiting to come out,” Sutherland says. “It felt strangely comfortable.”
He then showed the film to his father, who said to stick with it.
“The other life he had — the stuff he did when he went away — I was just very flattered that he thought that I belonged there,” Sutherland says of his father’s encouragement. “He was welcoming me into his club, you know?”
At 22, Sutherland left Princeton to take acting classes in New York. His first professional film role was in the 2003 sci-fi movie “Timeline,” based on the Michael Crichton novel.
That year he also landed a recurring part as a medical student on “ER,” working with an ensemble that included Oscar winner George Clooney and “The Good Wife” star Julianna Margulies.
“They were very warm and welcoming, they weren’t standoffish,” Sutherland says of his time on the show. “They knew I was a young actor, so they were very patient. I have good memories of that.”
Since then he has appeared in guest spots on a number of shows, like USA Network’s “Monk” and BBC America’s recently-axed “Copper.” Although Sutherland has never performed alongside his older brother, he has acted with his father, both in the 2010 film “The Con Artist” and in a recurring role on his dad’s current NBC crime series, “Crossing Lines.”
As he adds more projects like “Reign” to his resume, Sutherland is glad he entered the business without believing his family connections made it inevitable.
“I really ended up being an actor because although it’s been around me my whole life, it was really my own journey, my own choice. I didn’t fall into it out of convenience,” he says. “I resisted it from the time I was a kid, but I guess it’s very much like falling in love with your neighbor. You see her coming home and bringing groceries every day, and you don’t think much of her. And one day you just realize, my God, it’s staring me in the face. Acting’s done that to me.”
Plus, Sutherland says his father would now qualify as his mentor. “I wear my last name with great pride. He certainly is the example of what it means to be a professional actor, as far as you have to study, and how to work your craft, and how to behave on the set,” he says, adding. “And I think my father also is, strangely enough, my biggest fan.”