Rossif Sutherland called the idea of casting someone to play his dad on Murder in a Small Town “tricky” after wishing his father, Donald Sutherland, got the chance before his death.
“I always have the beautiful reality of being able to think of my own dad as the person who would play my dad,” Rossif, 47, who plays Karl, exclusively told Us Weekly about who he would have cast on the Fox show. “He has [played my dad on screen] in the past — and he probably would have loved to do this.”
Rossif doesn’t have anyone specific in mind now.
“I have no idea. I would like somebody who is tall — just so that I could look him in the eye. I imagine this character to be not a weak [and] not a broken man. I see him as surprisingly quite strong and put together,” the actor noted. “But he just made choices that Karl disagrees with. So they should be able to look at each other straight.”
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Based on novels written by L.R. Wright, Murder in a Small Town follows a police chief named Karl (Sutherland) who — along with the help of others, including his girlfriend, Cassandra (Kreuk) — investigates mysterious murders. Season 1 featured guest appearances from James Cromwell, Stana Katic, Devon Sawa, Paula Patton and Noah Reid.
Rossif previously spoke about his father’s interest in bringing the books to life before his death in June 2024 at age 88.
“The weird thing is that my father was tied to this 30 years ago. It’s a little surreal, really — serendipitous I guess,” he told Us in September 2024. “But here I am telling a story that my father would’ve told 30 years ago. I don’t know that I’m following in his footsteps, but I love the man and I miss him.”
Rossif continued: “I think of [my dad] every day. And my beautiful mother that I love and adore, I hope she watches this. I hope this brings her joy … one day at a time.”
After filming two seasons of Murder in a Small Town — so far — Rossif has found his groove as lovable police chief Karl.
“There is a charm to those [small town] environments. Of course it is idyllic but there is telling a story within a context like that. The community is small so you actually get to know who everybody is,” he noted. “That’s another thing that we were trying to do. If we get to do this again, we would do it even more. It is very much about all these characters that make this place a home. It’s a home that absurdly has become a bit of a murder capital but there has to be a reason why people stay. That’s because they have each other.”
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Rossif highlighted his love for the message behind the show.
“It was always that theme of relationships, of finding love and what it means to keep that love alive. It was this idea of Karl, who has this natural ability to solve crimes, to unlock mysteries and to make people speak the truth. All the while there are a lot of mysteries about his own life and abilities that he has to actually speak his own truth,” he explained. “But he finds somebody in Cassandra who was very different from him. Because of this love, they’re negotiating how best to be and this is not what they’d imagined.”
He continued: “They want to make it work. With that will come conversations, vulnerability, intimacy and the building of a family. These are all grand themes but we address them in our own little way in a beautiful place. We tell our little murder stories but it’s very much to me a show about love. There’s a lot of love while we film it and hopefully it translates to the screen.”
Murder in a Small Town airs on Fox Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
