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	Printed Articles & Interviews Famous February 2004

Boy gets girl...FINALLY

Bruce Greenwood is charming, boyish and easy on the eyes.
So why did it take 20 years for him to get his first romantic lead?

He's played villains (Double Jeopardy), wounded souls (The Sweet Hereafter and Exotica), ordinary dads (Here on Earth), and even John F. Kennedy (13 Days), but it took more than 20 years for Bruce Greenwood to get his first romantic lead.

That's surprising for a couple of reasons. First, because most articles about the Canadian expatriate make some reference to either his California good looks, his unusually blue eyes, or his flirty, attractive manner. And, second, because he's at a point in his career where - for most actors - if you haven't already carved out a niche as a romantic lead, you're not likely to now.

When asked his age, Greenwood's cagey answer goes like this: "I'm old enough that you say, 'Wow! It's a miracle he got a job like that!"

For the record, the Noranda, Quebec-born, Vancouver-raised L.A. resident is 47.

The film in which Greenwood finally gets to wrap his arms around an adoring lass and look lovingly into her eyes is The Republic of Love, a lower budget Canadian picture directed by Deepa Mehta (Bollywood / Hollywood) and based on a novel by Carol Shields, the B.C.-based author who died of complications from breast cancer last year.

Earlier in his career, Greenwood played his share of boyfriends and lovers in movie-of-the-week fare, and he was Pierce Lawton (Paige's evil boyfriend)on TV's Knots Landing in the early '90s. But never before had he been a bona fide, big-screen, feature film leading love interest.

"I guess it's just a function of what you as an actor allow yourself to do at certain points in your career, and I allowed myself to play bad guys for a while without thinking that I was perhaps branding myself to some degree," Greenwood says over a crackly phone line that stretches all the way to South Africa. He's there shooting a film that's yet another departure - the kids' pic Racing Stripes, about a zebra who thinks he's a racehorse.

Greenwood actually seems kind of proud to have his first romantic lead come now, as it's an opportunity to create a more realistic image of l'amour than we usually see. "You know, there's no best before date on romance," he says. "There shouldn't be any kind of age requirement - high, low or medium - for romance. People fall in love at all kinds of strange times. And I think we might do ourselves a favour if the movies reflected that."

The strange times at which we fall in love is exactly what The Republic of Love is about. Greenwood plays Tom Avery, a late-night radio chat show host who's been married - and divorced - three times. He's on the brink of giving up on love when he meets jaded mermaid mythology expert Fay (Emilia Fox) at a children's party, and time - quite literally -stands still. Once they snap out of this soppy state of suspended animation, Tom and Fay discover they have friends in common, work in the same underground mall, and even live in the same building, confirming the idea that geography is often the most important factor in finding love.

Although Greenwood chooses not to speak with the press about his love life these days ("Too many people come up to you on the street and say, 'Hey, I read...'"), he will say that he believes in love at first sight. But, he adds, "The question to ask on the heels of 'Do you believe in love at first sight' is 'Do you believe love lasts?' And then, you get into those rather more puzzling questions. I don't know if it lasts. And if it doesn't last, was it not love? No. I don't think so. I think it can be profound and uplifting and life-changing and fleeting."

Although Greenwood won't talk about his personal life, he's surprisingly happy to talk about that old question that's been dogging him for years - when is he going to break big in the States? It seems like a ridiculous query, to be honest. He is, after all, one of the most successful Canadian actors working on either side of the border. But, like that niggling story that keeps chasing The Tragically Hip ("you're big - but why aren't you bigger?") it just won't go away.

"In a way, it's an enviable place to be because if you're always about ot break, it means that people haven't given up," he says with a laugh. "They haven't thought, 'Oh well, he had his shot. I guess he's not really going to emerge.'"

The last movie that was supposed to push Greenwood onto the A-list was 13 Days (2000), the Kevin Costner pic about the Cuban missile crisis in which Greenwood played President Kennedy. An article in Saturday Night magazine published just before the movie was released claimed, "If Greenwood's JFK is well received...his profile will soar."

And although the film was a critical success, and Greenwood's introspective Kennedy was one of the most positively reviewed aspects of the film, there was no soaring of Greenwood's profile. "It certainly helped," he says. "Soar would have happened if the movie had made money. If you get some nice critical ink and the movie makes money then you've got momentum that's got real currency in the industry. It certainly really, really helped me. It let people know that I can do other things."

Other things like romantic leads, perhaps. Even at 47.