‘Murder in a Small Town’ star Rossif Sutherland reveals on-set injury — and his connection with famous late dad

He was armed. 

Rossif Sutherland, who stars in the Fox drama “Murder in a Small Town,” broke his arm while taping Season 2 – and kept filming before finally going to the hospital. 

“It was a silly accident,” Sutherland, 46, who is the son of Donald Sutherland and half-brother of Kiefer Sutherland, exclusively told The Post. 

“I had to run onto a porch to try and arrest somebody. And, Vancouver being Vancouver, it was a rain-drenched porch, and I just flew,” he explained. “I’m a middle aged man, so my bones didn’t survive a fall.” 

“Murder in a Small Town” returns for Season 2 on Sept. 23 (8 p.m. p.m.) on Fox. 

The show, which is based on a book series, follows Karl Alberg (Sutherland), the Chief of Police in Gibsons, British Columbia, as he solves crimes in his local community and finds romance with local librarian Cassandra Lee (Kristin Kreuk, “Smallville”). 

“I still had a couple scenes to do, and we were gonna lose that location if we didn’t finish those scenes then,” Sutherland recalled. “I didn’t actually know that my arm was broken. I just knew that I couldn’t move it.”

“Apparently I was just white in the face. But they shot it, and then I went to the hospital.” 

His injury complicated the story, but he said, “we’re in the business of make-believe, so we found solutions.”

“The production was quick on its feet, and they were finishing up a block of two episodes. So I just had to act for a few days with my broken arm, which had me sitting on a table with the arm resting,” he told The Post.

They later wrote the injury into the script, giving Karl Alberg a broken arm, “which ended up having a silver lining,” he noted.

Having a broken arm made it so that Karl, “this person who is always the fixer, the solver, always in control, was vulnerable” he said, and “needed to rely on others.” 

Sutherland said his father, Donald, was responsible for him entering showbiz. 

“I wouldn’t be an actor if it weren’t for my dad. That is the ultimate gift that he gave me,” he said. “I didn’t want to be an actor. And listen, the profession of acting is still quite confusing to me. I love the process of the work, but it’ s a cruel business in many ways.”

But, he explained, when he was studying philosophy at Princeton, he did a student film. 

While watching that, “my father saw in me something that I didn’t – a tendency to lose myself in  a character,” he explained. 

“I humored him and took classes,” he added. “One thing led to another, and I ended up falling in love with the craft.” 

Donald died at 88 in June 2024. 

Sutherland said that he feels “a connection” with him “whenever I’m on set.”

“I wasn’t really a set kid, but I did have the privilege of being able to go on some of my father’s productions,” he said. “My relationship to the work started with watching my father do it. So whenever I’m starting my day and putting on the costume, my dad’s there with me.”