Kiefer Sutherland regrets eating a goldfish on a “dare” from Kevin Bacon.

The former wildman, 57, said he gobbled the animal while co-starring with Kevin, 65, on the 1990 film ‘Flatliners’, which saw a group of medical students bring back a demon by making themselves temporarily dead to see if there is an afterlife.

Kiefer told The Times: “I regret eating a goldfish on a dare from Kevin Bacon. “We were shooting the film Flatliners. The three remaining fish looked at me and would scatter any time I got near the aquarium.

“I didn’t realise that when you swallow something your whole throat constricts, so you can hear the back break.”

Kiefer – who has also been touring with his band as well as pursuing acting – added his current food tastes include an obsessions with pastries from the UK’s Greggs bakery chain.

He said: “Greggs is popular with Yanks and Canadians. I like a sausage roll. “My band is from the States and, when we first toured here, the first stop they would make before we even got to the hotel would be a Greggs.

“I think some of them only did the tour because they knew they were going to get a Greggs.”

Kiefer also told how he has only recently got into food as he used to wish there was a pill that could replace meals.

He went on: “I remember thinking, ‘I wish they just had a pill for food’. I had a very limited palate in my twenties.

“I ate food just as a necessity, mainly because I was very busy and having to eat three meals a day seemed like a waste of time.

“I managed to live on chicken breast with vegetables for about a decade. “Learning to cook has opened up food for me.”