A movie interview of Bruce Greenwood is available on the AOL site, probably recorded around the time of the Thirteen Days wide release in January, 2001. The AOL questions have been paraphrased but Bruce Greenwood's comments are presented in their entirety.
| AOL entertainment: | Since they took so long to decide in Florida and because you did such a great job in this part, I think you should just assume the job of the President |
| Bruce Greenwood: | Well, when they discover I have a green card there may be some problems, but.... |
| AOL entertainment: | When you first walked onto the set, what was it that MOST made you feel like the character? Was it the hair cut or the suit or something on the set? |
| Bruce Greenwood: | The Oval Office. It took kind of an hour to do the whole outward look. The clothes and the hair and everything. But then you walk into the Oval Office and it's perfect -- all the archival footage that we've all seen and suddenly it's in color and three dimensional and bam! |
| AOL entertainment: | Did you get a chance to visit the place before you went on the set? Had you ever gone to the White House? |
| Bruce Greenwood: | No, they built a White House. Here. And you step onto the set and it's hallowed ground. |
| AOL entertainment: | Were you pretty surprized at how young these guys were? |
| Bruce Greenwood: | They got wise very quickly. They reached way inside and found wisdom where people that age generally don't. I don't know. It's just they reached really deep and found...inspiration. |
| AOL entertainment: | If John hadn't had his brother there, would that have made a difference? How much do you think Bobby Kennedy figured in the final outcome? How big was his part? |
| Bruce Greenwood: | Huge. Huge. Who knows what would have happened? But Bobby was responsible for pulling these guys together and getting them to speak honestly when Kennedy, when JFK wasn't in the room. So he could get to a larger perspective and different ideas and what the solution might be. Yeah. His contribution was incalculable. |
| AOL entertainment: | I am told that you did a tremendous amount of research for the part. How much time did you spend on it? |
| Bruce Greenwood: | I listened to it full time. When I was too tired to watch I'd listen. I'd be in bed and listen. |
| AOL entertainment: | Really. Did you ever catch someone off guard while you were listening - like the valet parking your car? |
| Bruce Greenwood: | You know, I was probably so into it I didn't notice. But I don't valet much. |
| AOL entertainment: | Did you listen very much to the speech that's in the film? How many times did you listen to that? |
| Bruce Greenwood: | The address to the nation? I can't even count the times. |
| AOL entertainment: | Really? Was that one of the scenes you wanted to make perfect? |
| Bruce Greenwood: | Yean, yeah. And we shot a lot of that on the first day. So, yeah I listened to it a lot ...and I listened to it after we shot it. |
| AOL entertainment: | I understand you got to look at Kennedy tapes that we've never been allowed to see. Were you shocked at how candid JFK was in these interviews? |
| Bruce Greenwood: | Yeah. Well, there's a lot of footage of him doing the post mortem on the crisis. And his easy grasp of the essential elements of this conflict....it was remarkable to see him essentially explain it to somebody in a minute and a half...It had taken me 15 mins to wend my way toward that...kind of articulate..laying out of the landscape. |
| AOL entertainment: | Every word is so important in negotiations. Has it given you more respect for your agent? |
| Bruce Greenwood: | My agent? [sarcastically] No! [big laugh] You know, I never think of Kennedy and my agent in the same breath. |
| AOL entertainment: | I can only imagine some of the negotiations they've had.... |
| Bruce Greenwood | Maybe I should. But, yeah, well, what's hanging in the balance? Nothing! And this! This was young men at the peak of their intellectual powers being faced with an insurmountable problem in this harrowing fortnight. And you get to ride along and watch the whole thing [makes the sound of crashing twice] appear to fall apart from one moment to the next, and suddenly they're at the abyss. And it's only because they had the courage not to fight that we're sitting here today. |
