Kiefer Sutherland was excited to finally see the hospital where he was born – and arrived just as the building was being knocked down.
The ‘Designated Survivor’ actor – who is the son of actors Donald Sutherland and Shirley Douglas – and his twin sister Rachel were born in west London so when he began working on a documentary in the UK, he was looking forward to catching a glimpse of St. Mary’s hospital but wasn’t prepared for what would happen when he finally found the medical facility.
He said: "I was born here in London. I was born in St Mary’s hospital in Paddington.
"It was actually a very funny story. I was taking some friends. We were shooting a documentary of an artist that I had signed to a small label in the US, almost 15 years ago and we were on the subway filming. And we got to Paddington station, and we hopped off. I was like, ‘Look I want to show you where I was born.’
"And I hadn’t seen it ever, and there were all these great signs to St Mary’s hospital so it was very easy to find and I looked and said ‘That was where I was born.
"I said it, a wrecking ball came out of nowhere and knocked a huge hole in the wall."
The 52-year-old star knew he wanted to be an actor from a very young age because he spent so much time at the theatres where his mother worked.
Speaking to Jessie Ware on her ‘Table Manners’ podcast, he said: "I was raised by my Mum, and my Mum is a very successful theatre actor in Canada.
"I have a twin sister and she and I would finish school, and we would go to the theatre, do our homework, wait for my mum’s performance to finish, and then we’d go home. That was our day.
"I spent so much time as a child in the theatre. I could tell that people who worked in the theatre were different.
"When I would go visit other friends, at their house, their parents and their friends weren’t the same. They weren’t just colourful, they weren’t just funny.
"I knew I wanted to kind of live in that world, I didn’t know what I wanted to do."
And Kiefer recalled how much it "blew [his] mind" when he saw his mom on stage for the first time.
He added: "My mother did a production of ‘Virginia Woolf’, and it was the first time I had seen either one of my parents where I didn’t recognise them anymore and it blew my mind. It was like magic, and that’s when I first got excited about what I thought was interesting about acting."
Listen to the full podcast at www.tablemannerspodcast.com.
Kiefer Sutherland shocked by hospital demolition
