The Funny Story of How Donald Sutherland Ended Up in Kate Bush’s Cinematic 'Cloudbusting' Video

Kate Bush wouldn't take no for an answer when pursuing the actor for a part

The entertainment industry is mourning the loss of Donald Sutherland. The acclaimed Canadian actor died on Thursday, June 20, at the age of 88.

While Sutherland will undoubtedly be best remembered for his iconic roles in films like Klute and The Hunger Games, he certainly holds a special place in the hearts of Kate Bush fans for his role in the video for her 1985 single, “Cloudbusting.”

Like the song itself, the video was inspired by author Peter Reich’s 1973 memoir, A Book of Dreams, about his father, Austrian psychiatrist and philosopher Wilhelm Reich. In particular, the song and video revolve around the elder Reich’s experiments with his “cloudbuster,” a machine he hoped would create rain showers, and his 1956 arrest.

In the video, directed by Monty Python alumnus Julian Doyle from a concept developed by Bush and Terry Gilliam, Sutherland played Reich, opposite Bush as his son.

Related: Remembering Donald Sutherland's Life in Photos, from Hawkeye to The Hunger Games

“I wanted it to be a piece of film rather than a video promotional clip,” Bush told MTV in 1985. “I wanted it to be a short piece of film that would hopefully do justice to the original book and let people understand the story that couldn’t really be explained in the song.”

“So we wanted a great actor,” she continued. “We thought of Donald Sutherland.”

But, as he detailed in 1985 edition of the Kate Bush Club newsletter, Sutherland initially had no interest in appearing in a music video.

“Barry Richardson, who was the hairdresser on Nic Roeg’s Don’t Look Now, asked me if I’d do a music video with Kate Bush. I told him no and we went on to other conversations,” Sutherland said.

Related: Kate Bush Loves That New Fans 'Never Heard of Me' Before 'Stranger Things' : 'Really Wonderful'

The actor went on to describe meeting Bush days later when she knocked on his door at the Savoy Hotel in London. “I opened it. There was no one there,” he recalled. “I heard a voice saying hello and I looked down. Standing down there was a very small Kate Bush. Barry had told her where I lived. What can you do?”

According to Sutherland, Bush explained that the song and video were about Reich, whose work he’d become familiar with while filming Bernardo Bertolucci’s Novecento. “Everything about Reich echoed through me,” he explained. “He was there then and now he was here. Sitting across from me in the person of the very eloquent Kate Bush. Synchronicity. Perfect. She talked some more. I said okay and we made ‘Cloudbusting.’ ”

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“She’s wonderful, Kate Bush. Wonderful. I love that I did it,” Sutherland continued. “I remember being in the car and the hill and them taking me, taking Reich, away and looking back through the back window of the car and seeing her, seeing Reich’s son Peter, standing there. And I remember the first morning on set seeing her coming out of her trailer smoking a joint and I cautioned her, saying she shouldn’t smoke that, it’d affect her work, and she looked at me for a second and said she hadn’t been straight for nine years and I loved her.”

“He was so encouraging and made it so easy for me,” Bush told MTV of working with Sutherland. “Whenever we were acting, he was my father. I just had to react to him like a child. He made it very easy.”

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