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	Television Interviews The Vicki Gabereau Show January 13, 2005

A clip from Racing Stripes was shown on The Vicki Gabereau Show to introduce her interview

Bruce Greenwood made a third appearance on this popular Vancouver-based talk show to promote his family film, Racing Stripes. A transcript of his comfortable interview follows.

Intro

Film clip

BG: Good, eh?

VG: Really good, good acting. Well, the zeebra, or zebra, what happens is that creature grows up and wants to be a race horse, is that it?

BG: (brings out soft plush zebra toy)

VG: Oh, you brought me one?

BG: (Nodding yes with zebra) That's correct, yes.

VG: Oh, you are so mature, Brucie.

BG: (speaking for zebra) Oh, Vicki, nice to be here.

VG: That's really sick, give me that (grabs zebra's nose).

BG: (inhales in mock surprise/distress, tucks zebra under his arm protectively)

VG: I'm sorry, (laughing) give me that thing!

BG: (speaking for zebra) Come on!

VG: Now you, you're the human in this, one of the humans.

BG: Yes I'm one - (pauses at sound of sirens outside)

VG: I know, they've come for him (referring to the zebra).

BG: Yeah.

VG: I've often wondered why, well, there was a movement really to try and get zebras, zeebras, running here. I have trouble with the word zeebra, but I'll say it from now on. Because we grew up saying zebra

BG: We did, yeah, but everywhere else in the world if you say zebra, they go, what?

VG: Except England.

BG: (with British accent) Is that right, yeah.

VG: I think they say it there.

BG: (British) Really, yeah.

VG: They really do. Anyway, there was a sort of move to it, but you can't do it, can you.

BG: Well, no, first of all they can't be trained. And they're very (sound effect) quick off the mark. But otherwise... After fifty yards, they're either being eaten or they've lost interest, you know.

VG: So their sprinting is good.

BG: Sprinting is good, yeah.

VG: You shot this in South Africa.

BG: Yeah. So we had twelve zebras. We had eight, eight fully grown zebras. Each one had been trained to do a specific thing - to turn and stand or to work with a goat or to work with a pony or to wear a saddle and let Hayden ride it for a little bit.

VG: Who's your co-star.

BG: Yeah.

VG: She plays your -

BG: (British or S.A. accent) My daughter, yeah.

VG: Your little kid, yeah. And, so she actually rode one of these things.

BG: Oh, she rode like a fiend. She was there two months before I was, training and training and training. And uh, she did ride them, yeah.

VG: So the thing, the story is, is that it's kind of like National Velvet with stripes. And the animals talk.

BG: It is, it's kind of like a cross, I've heard it sort of compared to a cross between Babe and Rocky.

VG: Babe and Rocky (both laugh).

BG: Because it's about a little zebra who, you saw, I bring home and sort of drop in the barn after I've found him in the middle of the road - he's been, he's fallen off a circus truck - and he looks around and as he grows up - we adopt him - as he grows up he looks at all these thoroughbreds that are around the barn, and he goes, "I'm a, I'm a race horse."

VG: (quick laugh)

BG: And he decides that he's a race horse, and the other animals go, "No pal, you're nothin'. No you're not." So the whole, the thrust of that story is him learning that, you know, he can do whatever he wants to do in spite of what people think of him, what they, what they say he is.

VG: I think can, I think can.

BG: I think I can, I think I can.

VG: And, the other actors that play the animals - of course, you would have had no interaction with them.

BG: No, because we shot all the animals and all the human stuff in South Africa, and then they put the voices on later. But when you're working with a zebra, you know, you'll do your think and then the zebra will go (snore). Or you'll say something very toughing, you know, and it's supposed to move its head and you know (imitates zebra looking away, disinterested).

VG: Where's my carrot?

BG: Or you'll look down on your shoe, and it's, oh...

VG: They've done something on your shoe.

BG: You know, that's wasn't necessary.

VG: Well, it's better, I guess, than the actors passing out in front of you. You know, but it would have been fun in the time with Dustin Hoffman - have you ever worked with Dustin Hoffman before?

BG: No.

VG: No. See, now you have, you star in -

BG: I've got a photo of the two of us together, but he looks like a, like a pony.

VG: Right. So they did that after the fact?

BG: Yeah.

VG: In a studio in...

BG: In a studio in Los Angeles.

VG: How was it working in South Africa?

BG: It's such a, it's a beautiful, beautiful country. And the longer you're there, the more you want to stay and contribute in ways besides just contributing money.

VG: Yeah. How long where you there?

BG: Four months, from August to Christmas.

VG: It takes a long time to make a movie, doesn't it.

BG: Well, especially with animals. I mean, the actors get one take and the goat gets forty. You know, because it takes a long time for the goat to do what's in the script.

VG: Have you ever worked with animals? You know, then, what they say, "No kids, no animals."

BG: No kids, no animals, yeah. The pelican was *unbelievable*.

VG: The pelican!

BG: The pelican - I mean, it's got a brain the size of a pea, and it probably doesn't use all of it, right?

VG: Yes.

BG: So they put a mark on the ground, then they'd start camera, and we'd have a scene, we'd start talking, and the pelican is supposed to arrive in the midst of the scene. They'd hurl it into the air, it would fly away, and then at an appropriate moment, the trainer would wave a rake, like a garden rake. And the pelican would go (actions and sound effects)

VG: There's my rake!

BG: And land on the fence post.

BG: And if you can ignore the trainer behind the person you're speaking to, waving a herring.

VG: Oh, that's what it's really coming for.

BG: Of course! No, it's not coming to be in the movies.

VG: How many pelicans did you have?

BG: We had two. We had two, the first pelican we had was terribly, terribly bright and realized - this is true - realized - it's very bright - realized that if it wasn't getting what it wanted, it would fake a limp.

VG: You're not serious.

BG: It would limp, and then they'd come in and the trainers would give it various things until the limp went away. At one point, the limp remained until they brought in dirt from its hometown.

VG: Which was...

BG: Which was Capetown, where it was raised. They brought in Capetown dirt, it perked right up. And a week later -

VG: It's just like actors!

BG: It's worse than actors! I never ask for dirt from Vancouver, ever!

VG: Just red Smarties.

BG: Just red Smarties. And the next time - this happened half a dozen times - and the next time it came up with a limp, it kept limping until they brought a woman pelican.

VG: And then?

BG: And then the limp went away!

VG: (laughs) How funny. It must have been a just a riot.

BG: It was a scream.

VG: Was there a tremendous pressure on this movie? I mean, I can't imagine, it looks so light-hearted.

BG: Oh, I wish you'd seen it. It's really funny,

VG: But I can't see it yet. They didn't have a copy to see.

BG: Well, I know, but usually they have, like, promotional deals.

VG: Usually; they didn't, not this time.

BG: They didn't do those things, yeah.

BG: Anyway, yeah. It's really funny. I mean, Kids from 5 to 15 really dig it. It's funny for parent, too, because it's quite irreverent.

VG: Well, it's always fun to go to a movie with your child and have the child convulse with laughter.

BG: It was so cool at the premiere in L.A., it was 50/50 kids and children. And when the kids are going, wah wah wah wah wah, they're laughing, the adults are going, oh, gawd. And when the adults are laughing, the kids are going, they're watching something else. Everybody was involved, and there were very few [sound effects] walks up the aisle, there was none of that. Everybody was into it.

VG: Is this the goofiest movie you've ever made, do you think?

BG: Oh yeah, yeah, without a doubt.

VG: And you didn't think about it twice, you just could hardly wait.

BG: I loved the script. I loved the script from the very first day.

VG: Are you sort of a grumpy guy that has -

BG: I'm a guy that's afraid to let his daughter grow up. Because his wife and her mum was killed in a tragic racing accident. So he doesn't want her to ride, he doesn't train horses anymore, and he's afraid to let his daughter spread her wings.

VG: Right. So he's a bit stern, is he?

BG: He's a bit stern, and he's resistant and as she grows up and as the zebra grows up beside her thinking it's a racehorse, and she grows up wanting to be a jockey, those things are going to come together, and I want to stop them from coming together because I want to protect her.

VG: And you want her to be little forever.

BG: Of course!

VG: Of course, it's always like that. Now, (looking at stuffed zebra) are you going to walk away with that?

BG: But life don't work that way.

VG: No, life don't work that way. Now, are you going to keep that?

BG: Feel it, feel it.

VG: It's so cute, it's adorable.

BG: You know, once you touch it, it's very hard not to keep it. (gives her zebra)

VG: That's right. Thank you very much, Mr. Greenwood, wonderful to see you.

BG: You're welcome.