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	Television Interviews The Vicki Gabereau Show January 26, 2004

Bruce Greenwood appeared on The Vicki Gabereau Show, a highly successful Vancouver-based talk show, during the winter of 2004 to promote his independent movie The Republic of Love. Scenes from the movie were interspersed with an edgy interview in which Bruce proved a bit of a challenge for the perceptive Ms Gabereau. The transcript follows:

V.G.:	My guest now is Bruce Greenwood and he is one of the most successful of actors working in Hollywood, happens to be a Canadian. He has co-starred in movies such as, Double Jeopardy [that was a scary one], Hollywood Homicide, oh, J.F.K. Anyway, his new movie is called The Republic of Love, in it he plays a man unlucky in love, so unlike him. Watch this!
Clip from The Republic of Love
V.G.:	Please welcome Bruce Greenwood.
B.G.:	Wasn’t that exciting? Weird clip...(makes snoring sounds)
V.G.:	Wasn’t that exciting, yeah, well, but it’s not a (snore sound) kind of movie.
B.G.:	No, it isn’t, no, no.
V.G.:	There’s a lot of thrashing around in this movie, I must say.
B.G.:	You’ve seen it? Oh, oh, well.
V.G.:	Yeah, it’s in my office right now. Why? Have you seen it?
B.G.:	No, I haven’t. No, well, I saw several versions but I haven’t seen its final sort of buffed shiny version.
V.G.:	Really? Well, I think that’s very odd considering you’re the executive producer.
B.G.:	Well, yeah.
V.G.:	What did you have to do as the executive producer? Find the money?
B.G.:	Well, no. I didn’t have to find the money. The real proper producers found the money and then I came in a little bit later and helped them keep it afloat.
V.G.:	Right, with a cape or something.
B.G.:	It’s more of a thank you for doing a couple of helpful things, it’s not a real, it doesn’t really mean anything.
V.G.:	(sarcastically) Oh, that’s nice, doesn’t really mean anything. Well, we all know that executive producer doesn’t really mean anything, does it? No.
V.G.:	This is a film based on the story by Carol Shields brilliant book of, The Republic of Love. Had you read the book before you even knew the movie was shaking?
B.G.:	No, I read the script first and was interested in the script, so then I read the book.
V.G.:	Were you ever able to meet Carol Shields?
B.G.:	No. (expresses regret) No.
V.G.:	Oh, she was just wonderful and such a wonderful writer as I’m sure you know. Is this the first time you played a kind of romantic guy?
B.G.:	In recent memory, yeah. A long time ago I did but this is -
V.G.:	Always a bad guy?
B.G.:	Not always a bad guy, lot’s of institutional cats with multiple agendas but this a - (audience laughs interrupt him) - this is kind of -
V.G.:	Why are they laughing?
B.G.:	I don’t know. (smiling) I’m not sure. I don’t know. (puts his hand to his face)
V.G.:	They must know something that I don’t know. I’ll tell you what I thought was quite funny is that at every opportunity you took your shirt off.
B.G.:	Now that’s just not fair, you know. It says in the script, he takes off his shirt, repeatedly.
V.G.:	Right, and again and again and you didn’t say, I can not do this. I cannot work without my clothes on.
B.G.:	I didn’t take it off that much. You don’t know how many times I refused to take it off in the movie. It was originally all nude, the whole thing was nude.
V.G.:	Really, The whole thing? It was the all naked Republic of Love. But you seem to have these washboard abdominal muscles. Are they still there?
B.G.:	No, no.
V.G.:	Let me see. Oh, come on.
B.G.:	Just for the movie. You don’t want to see it now pal, trust me.
V.G.:	Why? How could it have changed in a year? You’ve got nothing going on there in the rib thing.
B.G.:	No, I’m just very skinny. It wasn’t that I was in shape.
V.G.:	Oh, no, no, no, there were big bumps, there. (demonstrates with her hands)
B.G.:	That’s actually, liver, kidneys, you know. (also demonstrates with his hands)
V.G.:	You were so skinny those things were sticking out. Um, had you ever taken your clothes off, so to speak, in a movie before? What?
B.G.:	Sure, Double Jeopardy, lots of movies. It’s part of the gig.
V.G.:	Is it really? I guess that’s why I’m not in the movie business but really and truly, doesn’t it make you anxious?
B.G.:	Yeah, it does a little bit now because sometimes in the lab a technician can pull a frame that won’t end up in the movie but a frame, that is a frame that you’d rather not have on the internet, so -
V.G.:	Oh, my God.
B.G.:	So, that’s a little weird, yeah. Like, I never used to worry about it. Now, I kind of go, I wonder if in the lab somebody’s going to pull a digital shot of some frame of this, but the film will remain untouched.
V.G.:	So much to worry about.
B.G.:	Isn’t it?
V.G.:	It is a really spectacular cast.
B.G.:	It is a good cast, yeah?
V.G.:	Would you like to talk about some of them?
B.G.:	Yeah, I could talk about them all.
V.G.:	Go ahead.
B.G.:	There’s the father/daughter team of Edward Fox and Emilia Fox that were great together and a lot of fun to work -
V.G.:	Had they ever worked together?
B.G.:	No, they’d never worked together and they got their start playing father and daughter, which was great. And Claire Bloom who was a joy and Jackie Burroughs which is one of my favorites.
V.G.:	Jackie Burroughs plays your mother?
B.G.:	Hum, hum.
V.G.:	And for a guy who is married and divorced a lot by the time he’s forty, I love it when she…(Bruce takes offense) Well, I think that’s a lot considering there might be a fourth, don’t you think that’s a lot? Three times married? How many times have you been married?
B.G.:	Once.
V.G.:	All right, since you were fifteen or something.
B.G.:	You know, is that important?
V.G.:	Well, it might be.
B.G.:	Think about the people who have four or five marriages. Do you want to devalue those marriages? Come on. (sarcastically)
V.G.:	Do you really know anybody that’s been married four or five times that isn’t some sort of exceedingly -
B.G.:	Serial marrier?
V.G.:	Yeah, do you?
B.G.:	Um, well OK, I’ll think about it over the break, OK?
V.G.:	My friend Fanny Kiefer, you know Fanny Kiefer don’t you? She lives at -
B.G.:	No.
V.G.:	Well, you should know her. Anyway, she’s got a sister that’s been married seven times.
B.G.:	Really?
V.G.:	Seven times, yeah, twice to the same guy, I think.
B.G.:	That happens.
V.G.:	The re-marrying. Not everybody is Zsa Zsa Gabor, no.
B.G.:	That happens. Yeah sure, is that so wrong?
V.G.:	(mock crying) Alright, you’re so judgmental. I was just asking you a normal question. OK, so three times married. What was the question? I have no idea. Oh yeah, the mother character, she says there’s a lid for every jar or something. Whatever her line is to you.
B.G.:	Yeah, there’s a pot for every, there’s a pot for every lid. (pretends to smoke marijuana and pass it to Vicki)
V.G.:	I’ve never heard that expression before. (shakes head) You’re still doing that at your advanced age?
B.G.:	No, no, it’s just a gesture. Just a universal gesture.
V.G.:	No, no. It’s not illegal here anymore. (shakes head)
B.G.:	I know, yeah, you can walk down in Gastown and to the little smoke shops and you’ll see these glassed off places and it’s full of smoke.
V.G.:	It is? People are in there?
B.G.:	Oh yeah, it’s bizarre. Meanwhile, the Police station is like, right around the corner, it’s crazy.
V.G.:	I think nobody cares and nobody should care really. I wish I’d never said that.
B.G.:	Well yeah, unless they get behind - I mean, I care unless they get, if they get behind a wheel of a car, then no.
V.G.:	I figure they can take a bus. Smoke a joint, take a bus.
B.G.:	The light’s green, you know, yeah. They’re sitting at a stoplight and it turns green and they sit there for another five minutes. Who needs that, you know? (acting spaced) I’m gonna go in a minute, man.
V.G.:	Time, yeah. You’ve been here an hour and a half now. Just seems like an hour and a half.
B.G.:	(spaced) What?
V.G.:	Well, it’s no different than the way this started, OK. Do you like to work here? You don’t work here that -
B.G.:	In Vancouver?
V.G.:	Yeah, in Canada.
B.G.:	Yes, I do. (doesn’t understand her meaning)
V.G.:	I’m asking.
B.G.:	(he gets it and belly laughs)
V.G.:	(makes fun) What an odd boy you’ve become since you’ve gone away.
B.G.:	Um, I love to work here.
V.G.:	Yeah. Do you take it at every opportunity? Do you?
B.G.:	No.
V.G.:	No. OK.
B.G.:	No, I just work here on the stuff here I want to work on.
V.G.:	Were you in Africa?
B.G.:	Yeah, Wow! Nice segway.
V.G.:	Well, that’s like, you know, that’s far away from where you live.
B.G.:	(laughs) I’m sorry.
V.G.:	(pretends to strangle him) OK, I’m just going to shake your head a little. I’ll be right back with darling Bruce.
Commercial Break
(they finish chatting)
V.G.:	Bruce Greenwood, the guy who wouldn’t stop talking. He’s the star of a new movie called The Republic of Love, wherein he plays a man looking for love, ah. Watch this -
Clip from The Republic of Love
V.G.:	Cute, eh? You were the cutest baby, cause you start off being a baby. Is that a real picture of you as a baby or is that some generic poor little baby.
B.G.:	Some generic poor little baby. No, because I had all my old - da, never mind -
V.G.:	Oh, I mind.
B.G.:	I had all my old photos used in a movie and a lot of them disappeared. So, a lot of times when I get asked for pictures, you know, when they want to do a montage and stuff like that.
V.G.:	Aw! What movie was that, that they all got lost?
B.G.:	Ancient, ancient movie. One of the first ones I did in L.A.
V.G.:	Yes, called?
B.G.:	Thanks for inviting me.
V.G.:	Why are you so closed? Open yourself. (pleading)
B.G.:	I don’t know. I don’t know.... (puts on a funny Carol Channing-like accent) I’ve changed since I went to Hollywood.
V.G.:	Yeah, have you?
B.G.:	No.
V.G.:	Where do you live in Hollywood? I don’t want your address or anything.
B.G.:	(being evasive) Um, yeah, out there near Hollywood, in L.A. proper.
V.G.:	Right, do you live on the beach?
B.G.:	Yeah, close to the beach.
V.G.:	Close to the beach. I could track you down like a dog, you know? (she jokes)
B.G.:	Oh, you could, it’s not hard.
V.G.:	Ah, you were just in Africa?
B.G.:	Yeah, for four months, South Africa.
V.G.:	Where? Four months?
B.G.:	Yeah, got there at the beginning of September and just got back before Christmas.
V.G.:	And what were you doing?
B.G.:	I was doing a movie for Warner Brothers called Racing Stripes. About a baby Zebra that grows up to be a big Zebra and thinks he’s a race horse because he’s surrounded with racehorses.
V.G.:	Oh, I love that.
B.G.:	Yeah, and they talk, the animals all talk. The humans don’t know they talk. So, it’s a little like, Babe. And so we spent four months shooting the animals standing there going (pretends to stare off into space) and then they’ll spend a year having the animals go (stares off into space with his lips moving) but they’ll be good, it’s funny, the script is funny, it’s really cute.
V.G.:	But the animals didn’t really get into it?
B.G.:	Well, they were really amazing. We had a pelican that could walk up to a mark, then be told to fly away, then fly away, fly like 100 yards (demonstrates with his hand) land on the mark. We had a rooster that could a -
V.G.:	Better than most actors!
B.G.:	Oh yeah, very agreeable. Just feed them fish.
V.G.:	Very agreeable, yeah, don’t need a trailer.
B.G.:	No, hit their mark, give them fish. If it was an actor it would be a piece of cake. Yeah, and we had a rooster that could turn on a light bulb and -
V.G.:	Honest to God? It really sounds fun.
B.G.:	Yeah, yeah, it was a gas, it was really fun.
V.G.:	Do you know that, uh, speaking of Zebra as race horses, there was a man here once who owned the race track who thought it would be a really swell idea to race Zebras.
B.G.:	They’re intractable.
V.G.:	They are, they are stubborn as Zebras.
B.G.:	Arrogant little buggers, yeah, yeah, they’ll bite you as soon as -
V.G.:	Really?
B.G.:	Oh yeah, bite you and kick you.
V.G.:	And they’re like mules, they're stubborn.
B.G.:	Yeah, we trained one to, I, they, they, no I didn’t, they, trained one to pull a plow, to be ridden, that was pretty -
V.G.:	Must have started when it was awfully young. They will eat you if you don’t do this.
B.G.:	Yeah, they took about six months. Yeah, they took about six months to really train them to do the stuff.
V.G.:	Well, you know it’s against their grain, isn’t it?
B.G.:	(puts on a South African accent) It’s against their nature. All they want to do is eat. They walk about ‘n eat.
V.G.:	It’s not their nature. (she imitates him) Where did you live?
B.G.:	I lived in an old farmhouse, a turn of the century farmhouse in Kuazulu, Natal. Which is just west of Durbin. If you think of the country like a triangle (demonstrates with his hands) if you are looking at it this way, we were sort of in the right hand corner of the triangle.
V.G.:	Oh, gosh. Right, what’s the next country up from you?
B.G.:	Well, there’s several. There’s Zimbabwe and Botswana and Namibia.
V.G.:	And Milawi, is Milawi there? I’ve always wanted to go there.
B.G.:	It’s a tad higher and off to the west I think but I’m not sure. I don’t know.
V.G.:	Who is the Director of this?
B.G.:	A guy named, Frederik Du Chau. A Belgian and a lovely guy who’s done a lot of animated movies before and quite funny.
V.G.:	So, it must be quite different, or maybe not, working with, talking to animals. Do you talk to them?
B.G.:	No, see we don’t know that they can understand us or that they can talk. So we just, you know, goo goo then and tell them we’ll bring your food in a minute and then they’ll go - (imitates animal voice) Well, what an idiot.
V.G.:	So, do you do your lines to the Zebra?
B.G.:	Yeah.
V.G.:	OK, let’s pretend I’m the Zebra.
B.G.	(he rubs under her chin)
V.G.	That’s it?
B.G.:	They like being stroked over their face and have their eyes closed and that kind of calms them down.
V.G.:	Ah, and do you do that a lot as the character? What is your part?
B.G.:	Yeah, well the cool thing is, in order to really work with the animal effectively especially if your playing the trainer as I was, you get to do the stuff that calms them down. So you know, you speak in mellow tones and move slowly and predictably and constantly and try and sort of be mesmeric, you know, which is fun.
V.G.:	Right, and as a horse trainer, you were a horse trainer, I guess, that was brought in to train the Zebra or something?
B.G.:	I was a horse trainer who’s a race horse trainer, whose wife has died tragically in a racing accident. So, I didn’t want to let my daughter ride and my daughter brings up this Zebra and wants to ride the Zebra, and I’m, you can’t, never mind the Zebra, you can’t ride anything. He’s afraid to let her grow up and of course she grows up and the closer she gets to wanting to break free and the more he holds on and then finally he has to let her go.
V.G.:	Oh, it sounds so cool.
B.G.:	Yeah, it’s beautiful, it’s really beautiful.
V.G.:	And you loved being there, I bet?
B.G.:	I loved being there and my co-star, Hayden Panettiere was fantastic and Emmet Walsh was a lot of fun. We had a really good time and I think it’s going to be a good movie.
V.G.:	And you had a beautiful place to live?
B.G.:	Had a great place to live, went surfing on the weekends.
V.G.:	Really? Oh, life is hell. Did you learn any Zulu? Can you click?
B.G.:	I learned a little bit of Zulu, yeah. Oh, no it’s so difficult. (mimics Zulu) Guinabongagaku Za buana.
V.G.:	But how’s that?
B.G.:	Za buana ga ku, Za buana is, how are you? Zanui buana is, how are all of you?
V.G.:	How do you say Good-bye?
B.G.:	(covers his face with his hands) Oh, I can do it in Hungarian.
V.G.:	OK, I’ll take anything.
B.G.:	See ya.
V.G.:	See ya, well, that’s how I feel about you. OK, thank you for coming, darling. OK, Bruce Greenwood. The Republic of Love, opens across Canada on the thirteen of February. The book, by the way, is published by Random House, who has given away a copy to every person in our audience today and for that we thank you.