Donald Sutherland attended a Pride + Prejudice cast party in a gas mask.
Donald Sutherland wore a gas mask to a cast party
The late screen legend – who died a year ago aged 88 – had a clause in his contract that nobody be allowed to smoke cigarettes anywhere near him but he relaxed his rule to hang out with the rest of the stars on the 2005 period drama by taking his own precautions.
Discussing her favourite memory from making the film, Keira Knightley told Vanity Fair: “There was the party that Donald Sutherland came to.
“You weren’t allowed to smoke. He had it in his contract that nobody on the set was allowed to smoke anywhere near, and you couldn’t smell of smoke.
“But of course everyone smoked back then. And everybody would be smoking, and then you’d be sort of spraying yourself.
“But the party he came to, he came in a gas mask. And he was like, ‘I want you to all be able to smoke. And I wanted to come to the party.’ “
Donald also amused the cast when he suddenly remembered a luxury car he’d forgotten he had owned for years and had it delivered to the set.
Rosamund Pike said: “He was amazing. He also remembered halfway through shooting that he had a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow that he’d bought while making Don’t Look Now or something and completely forgotten about. [He] remembered it was garaged somewhere up near Manchester and had it delivered to set.”
The two actresses admitted very few co-stars have matched the entertainment they got from Donald.
Keira said: “I have to say, most actors have been a disappointment since then.”
Rosamund agreed: “Donald was pretty legendary. We did have dinners with him sometimes, and he told us some pretty wild stories which cannot be shared.”
Keira was nominated for an Oscar for her work on Pride + Prejudice, which she found “confusing” because she felt she was viewed as a “terrible actress” because of her role in Pirates of the Caribbean.
She reflected: “It was pretty big for my career. If people will come up to me, it’ll be about that one.
“Pirates of the Caribbean had already come out, but I think in the public consciousness, I was seen as a terrible actress.
“But I had this phenomenally big success with Pirates. And I think this was the first one that was a phenomenally big success, but was also critically acclaimed.
“So I remember it coming out maybe the same year, maybe around the same time as Pirates 2. And I got the worst reviews ever for that, and then also being nominated for an Oscar at the same time—it was, in my 21-year-old head, quite confusing.”
