FLARE

February 2001

Dagmar in Hollywood... Meets Bruce Greenwood And, yes, you've seen him before - think The Sweet Hereafter or Exotica

When we met with Bruce Greenwood - last seen as Ashley Judd's evil, scheming husband in Double Jeopardy - at the posh Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, he was promoting Thirteen days (New Line Cinema), a film based on the Cuban Missile Crisis. At 44, the exceedingly charming Quebec native has called Vancouver, London, New Jersey, Maryland, Switzerland and Los Angeles home. Playing John F. Kennedy was a daunting experience...

Dagmar Dunlevy: Has your opinion of JFK changed?

Bruce Greenwood: Yeah. Before, I thought of him as this gorgeous man with tousled hair who ran along the beach, sailed and effortlessly ran Camelot with grace and wit. That was a tiny wedge of the pie, but the rest of it was very serious. He was a man who cared deeply about leading his country.

DD: Were you intimidated?

BG: I'd lie awake and hope that I'd be forgiven for what I missed, not serving his memory in some way. I didn't break it down thinking, `I hope I get his voice right or his hair right.' I wanted to serve him in a broader way.

DD: Did you contact the Kennedy family?

BG: No. It'll be interesting what they say. I had breakfast with Pierre Salinger [JFK's press secretary]. It made it very human for me to sit across the table from a guy who was there.

DD: What did you come away with?

BG: What's great about this film is that it reminds us that it was a magical combination of factors and people that came together to save us from the world being ripped in half. This generation should take the journey that this movie straps them into. They'll realize that not only can this happen but that these missiles are still there and we need people of intellect, foresight, restraint and statesmanship to walk us out from under the shadow. The Bay of Pigs made it clear to Kennedy that not all is what it appears to be with the military sometimes, that even *they* can't control the outcome. It makes a military solution not really a solution. It's just a response. It makes a military response terrifying.

DD: You've taken risks before. Skiing, for instance.

BG: Unfortunately, the risks I took as a skier stopped my skiing career pretty early [laughing]. My favourite sport was downhill, where the speeds are high and the risk of crashing and getting hurt is pretty high. That's what keeps you awake at night and puts butterflies in your stomach. When you're in the starting gate or [in acting] when a scene begins, you're thinking, `If I don't make it through to the end, I'm nowhere.'

DD: You still speak Swiss German perfectly but lived in Switzerland only briefly, while you were a teenager.

BG: We lived just outside of Zurich. I quit school about halfway through the year - without telling my parents - and I started working at a ski and sailboat factory. I'd come home every afternoon covered with white dust because I was sanding sailboat hulls. My parents would question what I was doing in school and I'd tell them we were building stuff. I was acting already [laughing]. About three months later, my dad told me he was taking me out of school for a week because we were going to Paris. I told him I couldn't because I wasn't *in* school. There was a long pause and he said, `Well, I guess you won't be going *anywhere*.' In other words, `I guess you won't be doing anything later in your life either.'

DD: Are you an American citizen now?

BG: No. I'm a resident alien. I keep my green card, which is now pink, in the safe. I've lost it twice, which is freaky. I feel Canadian because [my wife, Susan Devlin, and I] go back [to Canada] all the time. We go to Whistler and Vancouver. I've got a thousand good memories of Canada. Skiing neck-deep powder at Whistler, dropping off the corners in the upper bowl.

DD: You filmed It's a Girl Thing in Canada opposite Elle Macpherson and Kate Capshaw.

BG: I just did a day on that. It's a fun little scene where I play a bonehead who thinks he's God's gift to women and Kate Capshaw throws me out of the restaurant.

DD: You couldn't relate?

BG: [Laughing] That was just for fun.

DD: You have a recording studio and actually toured with a rock band. Are you a rock musician?

BG: No. I just wished I was a rock musician, like every other actor I know [laughing].

(there's also a photo of Bruce and Dagmar, and a photo of a 13Days still that he autographed: "Hey Flare!! Thanks for the support eh? Bruce Greenwood")

Thirteen Days