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	Printed Articles & Interviews Boston Herald April 2, 2000 featured article

A few bad men: Greenwood plays another villain in `Rules,' then nabs JFK role by Stephen Schaefer

Actor Bruce Greenwood was memorably smooth and sleazy as Ashley Judd's two-timing, Kandinsky-loving conniver of a husband in ``Double Jeopardy.'' He returns to the big screen this week in ``Rules of Engagement,'' and he's devious again.

The military drama casts Samuel L. Jackson as Col. Terry Childers, a career Marine. He is brought up for a court martial when a host of civilians are shot and killed by his soldiers while protecting an American embassy in the Mideast. Tommy Lee Jones, Greenwood's ``Double Jeopardy'' cast-mate, is the soldier-lawyer who defends Childers. Greenwood is National Security Adviser William Sokal.

Sokal, it turns out, isn't above putting American policy in the Mideast above ugly truths that might free Childers. In fact, he isn't above destroying evidence that would free Childers.

``It's simplifying this character to think he's just bad guy,'' Greenwood said. ``He's got a very tough choice. He has to do what's necessary to prevent the interests of the United States from evaporating in that area, so he sets up Sam Jackson for a fall.

``One of the issues here is the elusive nature of right and wrong,'' he said. ``That and the untenable position the military is put in when they're forced into conflict. The rules of engagement become absurd and don't apply. Sokal knows what he's doing is morally wrong, but in a larger sense he's saving more people by keeping the lid on what could be a terrible explosion in the Mideast. It's like one squadron sacrificed to save four squadrons somewhere else.''

Unlike many in the cast who went through a brutal week of military training, Greenwood ``had zero contact with the Marines. For me it was wearing a suit and having my tie look good. Actors like the chance to get out and play.''

Asked if his life has changed since ``Double Jeopardy'' became a $120 million box-office hit, Greenwood joked that ``my friends called.''

He calls this string of playing prominent villains ``a coincidence,'' adding, ``I've played my share of baddies, but that may change with this.''

He's referring to this fall's highly anticipated ``13 Days,'' a behind-the-scenes saga of John F. Kennedy's October 1962 confrontation with the Soviet Union over atomic missiles in Cuba. Historians rightly consider it the closest the two superpowers ever got to making the Cold War extremely hot. In ``13 Days,'' Greenwood makes a switch from playing the familiar face of evil to playing JFK. Kevin Costner is JFK's closest adviser, Tom O'Donnell.

``I'm hoping I'll look different enough as Kennedy (that) they won't think `Double Jeopardy' or William Sokal,'' Greenwood said. ``It's so new to me, thinking in terms of image. I don't give it much thought.''

He did give a lot of thought, however, to getting JFK right.

``It was a little overwhelming really,'' he said (he had been cast just five weeks before filming began). ``I started reading before the shoot and didn't stop until six months later. I watched every piece of video on JFK and listened to tapes, his speeches and conversations. I'd do that until I fell asleep. Then I'd wake up and start reading again. I realized pretty quickly you don't become a Kennedy scholar in six months.

``I don't know if I got him,'' Greenwood said. ``O'Donnell's son was generous. He came to the set and told me I sounded fine, but he's a kid. Certainly as an actor, it's been my biggest challenge. Whether it turns into a career break, who knows? It is a career high-water mark. I'll never forget it.''

Greenwood was born in Quebec 43 years ago but grew up in New Jersey. ``My dad was a student at Princeton, and then he went to Washington and then to Vancouver. He's geologist-physicist,'' Greenwood said. A Canadian citizen, Greenwood has lived for several years in Los Angeles with his wife (``She's not in the business'') and is planning to become a U.S. citizen.

Greenwood points to Atom Egoyan's 1998 hit, ``The Sweet Hereafter,'' as the turning point in his career. He starred as the father of a girl injured in a deadly school bus accident.

``A lot of people saw that, and I could get into the rooms to audition,'' Greenwood said. ``Before that, I couldn't get into the room.

``I'd always made a living as an actor - I never had to wait tables,'' he said. But he did work ``straight jobs'' in a chemical factory, a steel mill and even a diamond-drilling rig in Alberta for two years.

``I quit because everybody I knew was missing fingers. Teeth too. And a lot of common sense,'' he said. ``After two years I'd been shot to the ground hooking bales to helicopters. I was thrown from a mast once - a 30-foot mast. I fell 20 feet but landed on the plywood roof. I'd seen the driller I was working with with a chain saw in his leg. All kinds of stuff that made me go grab that felt hat and start singing and dancing again.''

As for the future, he said, ``I've had a great run the last year and a half and am looking for a job now.''