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	Printed Articles & Interviews National Post February 12, 2004

CREDIT: Glenn Lowson, National Post

An everyman in full bloom: After years of playing tough, Bruce Greenwood reveals his romantic side in The Republic of Love Vanessa Farquharson National Post

"I wanted to be a guy without an agenda for a change," says Bruce Greenwood of his easygoing character in The Republic of Love, which opens tomorrow.

"I'm happy, completely happy from head to foot," Bruce Greenwood's character, Tom Avery, declares to his lover in the new film The Republic of Love. "Even my toenails are happy."

And on this dreary winter afternoon, after nine hours of interviews and photo shoots, the actor's pedal extremities still look quite content, housed as they are in bright red sneakers.

Greenwood, 52, is revealing his romantic side after years of playing the bad guy in such films as Hollywood Homicide, Double Jeopardy and The Rules of Engagement. Now, the chip is off the shoulder and the heart is on the sleeve. It's a metaphysical wardrobe shift he could get used to.

"I wanted to be a guy without an agenda for a change," says Greenwood of his easygoing character, a late-night radio talk-show host thrice divorced. "He's been around the block, but he's still naive."

Greenwood, affable and energetic, shuffles about the room posing for the camera and rapidly chewing a piece of gum. He says the role in the Deepa Mehta film gave him a chance to relax, and he hopes to try out similar cinematic fare in the future.

The actor's credits include roles in a variety of television series, from St. Elsewhere to Road to Avonlea, as well as more serious festival favourites like Atom Egoyan's Ararat and The Sweet Hereafter. The director has called Greenwood an "accessible Everyman with searing intelligence," but the actor plays modest when it comes to such effusive compliments.

"Some days I think I'm pretty versatile, other days I think I'm a one-trick pony," he says. Today, Greenwood says he's looking forward to some easier tricks.

"I like doing lighter stuff," he says. Although there was heavy pressure to get The Republic of Love filmed in 24 days, Greenwood says the tone of the production was less than serious. "There's still plenty of get-it-done tension on the set, but the overriding vibe is more frivolous."

With its subject matter, the film has a frothiness about it, but the release tomorrow across Canada will still be bittersweet. It's based on the Carol Shields novel of the same name, and the beloved author passed away during the editing stage. She did, however, collaborate with director Mehta in the film's initial stages and provided input on the script. Her novel's dogged optimism carries through in the film, Greenwood says.

"It's difficult because you basically have to boil a novel down to a short story when adapting it to film," says Greenwood. "[Mehta] had to take Winnipeg and adapt it to her vision of the cold subterranean channels of Toronto. But the essential sentiment of the book and the film is that even though we're in this antiseptic, cold environment, love can still bloom."

Greenwood himself was born in the mostly frigid environment of Noranda, Que., but soon developed a nomadic lifestyle, never settling in one place for more than four years. Despite his geographic wanderings, Greenwood's heart remains with his wife, whom he met at 15.

Although the actor is a firm believer in romance, he doesn't think it fair to call his film a romantic comedy; he says it's more like a beautifully absurd fable with idiosyncratic characters. Which explains his favourite scene in the film, in which love and humour collide in the bedroom.

Tom meets a Monica Lewinsky look-alike at the Newly Singles Club and, after a session where each member must envisage the wildest sex they've ever had, she lends him her pencil and he eventually takes her back to his place. As they start to round the bases, she reveals a foot fetish and the romping falls apart in a humorous, toe-jam-infused sort of way.

"It's funny because it's one of those times when you're both a little nervous and you start to get it on, but then it goes totally wrong," says Greenwood. "That scene is just one of my character's missteps in his journey toward the girl he ends up with. He thinks she's a stepping stone, but she's a lily pad and they both go down together."

vfarquharson@nationalpost.com
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