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Bruce Greenwood had a featured interview on CBS' early morning news show to promote his film Thirteen Days. The taped segment was aired the same day as the film's wide release, but had probably been made just the day prior during Bruce's promotional tour. Anchorwoman Jane Clayson described Bruce as "possible Oscar contender Bruce Greenwood" as she introduced correspondent Laurie Hibberd, who conducted the filmed interview with Bruce. Hibberd, a fellow Canadian, met and talked with Greenwood in 1996 when he guested on Breakfast Time on fx, though it wasn't mentioned here. Because the interview was taped, it was more articulate that many others, though his answers were never directed at any offered questions and Hibberd seemed to be commenting over them (in a typical style for this show). The interview was done in an extreme close-up and interspersed with many, many clips from the film. In addition to the usual Thirteen Days questions, Bruce also commented on his gradual climb upward in the Hollywood movie world.A webcast of the interview is available for viewing but not downloading on the CBS website at:
http://www.cbsnews.com/earlyshow/entertainment/boxoffice/20010112marquee.shtml
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Introduction JC: The new movie Thirteen Days spotlights an incredibly tense two week period in 1962 when the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Laurie Hibberd sat down with one of the stars in the movie for our weekend marquee. LH: Bruce Greenwood had the daunting task of playing one of our most famous and beloved presidents - John F. Kennedy. The crisis captured the world's attention but very few people really know what happened behind closed doors. The Interview BG: People aren't aware really what happened in between the missiles are there and the missiles are leaving and when you find out how many times they came right to the edge, it's pretty sobering. LH: Greenwood read dozens of accounts of those sobering days while trying to get inside Kennedy's skin. What he discovered was that his preconceived notions of the man barely scratched the surface. BG: I had that cliché vision of him being the Prince of Camelot who presided over his kingdom with grace and wit and ease and virility. I discovered he was a voracious intellectual and a famous reader but what struck me more than anything was his proclivity for reaching for the quotes of obscure poets and bringing them [in]... and recontextulizing a diplomatic situation. Clip from movie BG: I studied so hard throughout the movie from before we started shooting right to the last day that I was completely submerged in all the archival stuff. Clip from movie BG: I just gave into instinct in a lot of instances. I didn't really want to second guess myself in terms of halfway through the movie going, "Oh God what am I..." - you know. THAT kind of fear was kind of reserved for the first two-three weeks before we started shooting when I'd study all day and then be too tired to read and lie in bed and listen to tape and finally unplug the tape and throw it on the bedside table and just stare at the ceiling going "Oh man....... I can't do this".
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LH: He eventually mastered the role but knew better then to bring the presidental act home to his wife. BG: I tried not taking our the garbage and being Presidental in that way. It didn't get very far. I'd come home from a hard day at work after saving the world and you know the garbage would be there. Clip from Double Jeopardy LH: Greenwood is best known for playing Ashley Judd's deceptive husband in Double Jeopardy. The 1999 blockbuster made him a familiar face to American audiences and Hollywood Studios. BG: The studios have lists and a lot of times it is very difficult to get on the studios' lists whether you are a good actor or not and it put me on the studios' lists because then I was associated with a movie that made money. LH: He may be on the studio lists but if you think that means his phone rings more often - guess again. BG: What's funny, it actually rings less because there are fewer things out there. It's not like I... the movies of the week and that kind of thing was what the phone was ringing about before and that's not what I'm after now. So there are fewer things from which to choose. LH: And Greenwood hopes audiences choose Thirteen Days. He has one thing to say to anyone who feels they don't need to see another film about this time in our history. BG: Well I can assure them they ain't seen this one and you know a lot of people know the beginning and the end of the story but they don't know the story and the other accounts? They're there but this is - you'll get more and you will be surprised. Closing Commentary LH: A Canadian playing JFK. What will happen next.? JC: You liked Thirteen Days? LH: I did like it a lot. It was intense you know but it is one of those movies you know what happens, you know the story but your heart still beats wondering what's going to happen. JC: EW this week handicaps the Oscar races and they pick Greenwood for Best Supporting Actor. LH: I know but you can't talk to him about it. I asked him about it and he was like - he started scratching his leg and was like and I just said how do you feel about the Oscar talk. Well the body language said everything. JC: Nobody wants to jinx anything.... LH: Superstition, yeah.
 Thirteen Days Television Interviews |