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	Printed Articles & Interviews Edmonton Sun September 21, 1999

Trouble in paradise? Actor Bruce Greenwood laments lack of home-grown Canuck film industry by Steve Tilley -- Edmonton Sun

HOLLYWOOD -- As a Canadian-born actor working in the United States, Bruce Greenwood is of two minds when it comes to the film business in his home and native land.

On the one hand, he's glad it's thriving. On the other hand, he's worried that the booming Canadian movie industry is simply riding on Hollywood's coattails.

Greenwood, who co-stars in the Ashley Judd-Tommy Lee Jones thriller Double Jeopardy, realizes the huge number of American movies being filmed in Canada is just a function of economics. But that doesn't mean it's a good idea.

"I have mixed emotions about it," says the down-to-earth Greenwood as he dines on a sandwich and fruit plate during an interview at a swank Beverly Hills hotel.

"I can understand why Canada is working hard to generate as much production as they can, and have it come from anywhere.

"I can also understand people's anger about all the production being siphoned" from the United States.

American film and television production companies flock to Canada because our weak loonie can translate to savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars for a movie shoot - even millions on a big-budget film. And Canada welcomes them with open arms.

"In one sense that's commerce, period, and you can't blame a country for trying to make themselves as attractive as possible to generate income," says Greenwood.

"At the same time, Canada's made this huge, huge mistake, I think, in not really creating a viable indigenous film industry.

"So when those exchange rates change, all that money is going to disappear. It's going to go somewhere else."

Born in Quebec and raised in New Jersey, Washington, D.C., Switzerland and Vancouver, Greenwood left to pursue his film career in Hollywood back when the U.S. and Canadian dollars were more or less at par.

But he frequently returns home to work, having starred in such high-profile Canadian films as The Sweet Hereafter and Exotica (both by Canadian wunderkind Atom Egoyan, and both of which netted Greenwood a best actor Genie nomination), as well as his Gemini Award-winning guest role as Caleb Stokes on CBC's The Road to Avonlea.

In Double Jeopardy, opening in theatres Friday, Greenwood plays Nick Parsons, husband to Libby (Judd). When Nick is apparently murdered on the couple's yacht, Libby is sent to prison for the crime, even though she maintains her innocence.

When Libby later finds out she was framed for the murder of her husband, she sets out on a quest to avenge herself and find her long-lost son, pursued across the country by a craggy parole officer (Jones).

As a perfect example of the kind of production "siphoning" that Greenwood is talking about, Vancouver stands in for the Seattle area, Colorado and San Francisco in Double Jeopardy.

The entire movie was shot in B.C.'s Lower Mainland except for the final quarter, which is set (and filmed) in New Orleans.

While English-speaking countries like Ireland and Australia have thriving home-grown film industries, Greenwood believes the lack of a full-fledged Canadian studio system capable of competing at some level with the nearby Hollywood juggernaut means our film production business could be in trouble if the economy starts to boom.

"When the Canadian dollar comes back up to par, it's going to be a rude awakening."

Whatever the case, it's not likely Greenwood's career will be affected. His next role is a major one - that of John F. Kennedy in Kevin Costner's Cuban missile crisis drama, Thirteen Days, which he just began shooting.

He also will star opposite Daryl Hannah and Jennifer Tilly in the Canadian-made feature, Cord, which was shot in Winnipeg over the summer.

Unlike Cord and Thirteen Days, though, Double Jeopardy sees Greenwood playing a true snake in the grass.

"It's generally more fun to play bad guys, because that's where the conflict is," he says. "The good guys are often there for exposition and to provide some kind of balance against the bad guy."

And unlike many Hollywood stars, Greenwood readily admits there were some flaws in his performance that he's not happy with.

"There's places I could have done less and places I could have done more," he says.

Sounds like the Canadian in him talking.