Donald Sutherland says Louis Riel's story isn't his to tell
CBC Archives | Posted: July 17, 2018 12:00 PM | Last Updated: July 17, 2019
After working on a CBC Radio drama about the Métis leader, the actor had questions
Over his years as a film actor, Donald Sutherland has portrayed real-life figures from Canadian history such as Dr. Norman Bethune and manhunting Mountie Dan Candy. But his interest in Canadian historical figures didn't end there.
In 1985, for a CBC Radio drama coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the Riel Rebellion, Sutherland played the role of commissioner of an inquiry into the history and survival of the Métis.
The film he wouldn't make
While talking about the role, he told a CBC interviewer he had once considered making a film about Métis leader Louis Riel, but then thought better of it.
"I'm not the person to make a film about Riel, " he told interviewer Jonathan Shanks. "That person has to be someone with a Métis heart. That is a very distinct and specific thing."
Why Sutherland's interest in Riel's story, which is rooted in Western Canada, when he was born in Saint John, N.B., raised partly in Nova Scotia and went to university in Toronto, Shanks asked.
"I'm a Canadian," responded Sutherland, explaining his parents' connections to Alberta and the west. "My humour, who I am as a person, is rooted here."