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There were two reports on this news story that appeared in The Canadian Press - the first appeared on the website for a Montreal radio station and the second appeared on a Canadian website for Tandem News. Both are reproduced again here:
Canadian-born Bruce Greenwood is tired of playing the bad guy. That's why the handsome actor, who played JFK in Thirteen Days, decided to change his image and do a love story.
Deepa Mehta's The lic of Love, based on Carol Shields' novel, features Greenwood as a lovelorn DJ for a radio station who's been married three times, but still believes in true love. Fay (Emilia Fox) is an academician who doesn't believe in love even though her parents (Edward Fox, Martha Henry) have been together 40 years. When Tom and Fay meet, it's love at first sight, but sudden situations drive the couple apart. "Playing bad guys is not a mistake I made, but now I've got to sort of snap out of it," says 47-year-old Greenwood referring to his roles in Hollywood Homicide, Double Jeopardy, The Core and Swept Away. "People look at me and they expect me to be a bad guy. In a sense it's working for me because people don't want to hire me as a bad guy anymore. If the bad guy is supposed to be concealed in the movie, why are they gonna hire me?"
Despite his past experience playing evildoers, the Vancouver-raised actor admits that playing a romantic is much more akin to his real nature than his previous roles. "I had to stay closer to home really, cause I'm generally I'm a more of a cheery guy than not," he admits when he was in Toronto recently. "Tom wears his heart on his sleeve, right? He's just one of those guys, who there's no artifice, there's no fakery. There's no agenda other than, here I am. You seem like a nice person and I'm a decent guy and you know, maybe something can happen. He's quite genuine and in spite the fact that he's been married three times, you know, his ex-wives still like him except for the one who is insane. I just, he was a decent guy who woke up in the morning happy and I thought I'd like to do that."
Sure, but he's also somewhat of a doormat. After Fay dumps him because her own parents' marriage is falling apart, Tom is more than willing to take her back. "I think he's in love with the idea of being in love and when he was younger he allowed himself to be swept away," explains Greenwood, who's been married for 15 years to his childhood sweetheart. "It just doesn't always work out but it never spoiled his desire to let it in, right? He didn't fault himself or his ex-wives or his lovers for it not working out, he just went 'well, ok, its alright, its alright, we're just still lookin'; it's bad to try.' You know what I mean? It's not a bad to thing to try being in love and if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out but I'm not gonna stop trying. Would I have taken her back? If I love her, yeah. If she does it twice? No. Once, sure."
Bruce admits that he never had the opportunity to meet Shields in person although the film finished shooting before her death from cancer last summer. "She was sick. I think she was too ill to participate," says Greenwood. "I mean, it was grueling. It was, you know, below zero here the whole time we were shooting so, and there's nothing a novelist can do except be a fly on the wall and go, 'Oh, God, they're ruining my novel.' They're such different animals. But, it came out on Valentine's Day as it should have, and I think it really doesn't matter how old you are everybody wants to be in love, you know, everybody wants to get that seedling that they can nurture and have another one grow beside it and then grow into two old oaks that can't get fight over anything."
You don't find that corny?
"It's no more cornier than a fable. Well, no I don't find it corny but maybe I'm a romantic."
For the past eight months Greenwood has been living from hotel room to hotel room, and hopes to take time off to indulge in his first love, music. In fact, the busy actor moonlights as a guitarist, back-up vocalist and recorder producer. "I want to go home and play my guitar," he smiles.
Born in Quebec, Greenwood also starred in the television series St. Elsewhere and Road to Avonlea, as well as more serious films like Atom Egoyan's Ararat and The Sweet Hereafter.
He'll be seen next in Alex Proyas' I, Robot opposite Will Smith playing... a bad guy. "Enough bad guys... unless it's a funny bad guy," laughs Greenwood. "If it's a funny bad guy, ok. If it's a stupid bad guy, ok. No more clever bad guys for a while. No more really bright bad guys, either. Some really thick bad guys would be fine, though."
The Republic of Love is currently playing in local cinemas.
Greenwood switches from 'bad guy' role for Republic of Love
TORONTO (CP) - Canadian-born Bruce Greenwood is tired of playing the bad guy.
That's why the handsome actor, who played John F. Kennedy in Thirteen Days, decided to change his image and do a love story. Deepa Mehta's The Republic of Love, based on Carol Shields' novel, features Greenwood as a lovelorn man who finds true love in a relationship-shy woman (Emilia Fox).
"Playing bad guys is not a mistake I made, but now I've got to sort of snap out of it," says 47-year-old Greenwood referring to his roles in Hollywood Homicide, Double Jeopardy, The Core and Swept Away.
"People look at me and they expect me to be a bad guy. In a sense it's working for me because people don't want to hire me as a bad guy anymore. If the bad guy is supposed to be concealed in the movie, why are they gonna hire me?"
Born in Quebec and raised in Vancouver, Greenwood will be seen next in Alex Proyas' I, Robot opposite Will Smith - playing a bad guy.
"Enough bad guys - unless it's a funny bad guy," laughs Greenwood who was in Toronto recently promoting The Republic of Love. "If it's a funny bad guy, OK. If it's a stupid bad guy, OK. No more clever bad guys for a while. No more really bright bad guys, either. Some really thick bad guys would be fine, though."
The Republic of Love opens Friday. © The Canadian Press, 2004
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