Thirteen Days
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Bruce Greenwood gave hundreds of interviews in connection with Thirteen Days. Consequently many of his comments were similar but re-paraphrased from interview to interview. Rather than choose which ones to use, they've been sorted out and grouped within subject areas on these pages - with all similar observations together.
ON HIS CASTING AND THE AUDITION PROCESS:
Are you kidding? JFK? Forget it. I want to be a target like that? What if I got it? What a nightmare!
*BoxOffice Online 11/00I was a little afraid of taking the part. There have been so many bad imitations of JFK, and I didn't want to add to the misery.
*Chicago Sun Times 11/14/00I heard that I might have to audition when I was on a trip to NY. So before I jumped on the plane, I jumped on the internet, and pulled up a couple of sound files from the Kennedy Library and I dumped it onto a cassette and listened to it on the plane and I thought, you know what, this isn't good enough. That's not enough. I won't do the audition! So I got to New York and did our week thing in NY, and then the last day I was there they said, "Listen, you have to go in today or you can't go in." I go, "But I'm not ready!" They said, "Well OK then, you're not going in." And I thought, "Oh, all right. If I'm not going to get it, I have nothing to lose. I'll go in." I listened to the tape and walked down there. In fact, during the first audition, I started talking, then stopped, grabbed the headset and put it back on, and went "oh"...... So, I was utterly unprepared. But then we started to work.....
*Hollywood One on One 12/13/00[in response to Peter Almond's quote about his always being their choice for JFK:]
Well they never told me that!
*Saturday Night 12/16/00I jumped at it without thinking..... Then when it began to appear that I might get it, I thought, "Now what do I do?"
*Canadian Press 12/21/00
*Edmonton Sun 12/26/00It was one of those typical things where, at the 11th hour they want you to come in and audition for something. I happened to be going to New York with my wife around that time anyway. So, I asked, 'What's the part?' and they said, 'JFK.' And I said, 'You got to be kidding.' I scrambled, and I pulled some sound files off the net so I could do the Kennedy voice and I did an audition that was really pretty broad, a kind of finger-painting version of the character. Apparently it was close enough to the stadium that they let me come back and try it a couple more times.
*Globe & Mail 12/22/00They told me, you might have to audition in NY. And I was thinking --- are you crazy? Me, playing this guy? It's ludicrous! But they said, well, just go in anyway. So I pulled some sound files off the net - of his voice - and put them into a little cassette, you know, one of those portable cassette players, and listened to that on the flight out there.
*Star TV 12/24/00[it's a] pretty stock story....[ in terms of his agents giving him the script.]: I went in and started the auditioning process and did half a dozen of them until they finally succumbed or realized time was running late and they'd better pick somebody.
*L.A. Times 12/28/00I thought this is one of those things where they will audition 25 guys and give it to a big star, and once again with all the other actors I know I will be in the fallback position.
*L.A. Times 12/28/00It was a gift. This was the kind of thing you daren't hope for, really. When it came my way, I was thrilled and terrified.
*Halifax Daily News 12/29/00The day I left [for the audition in New York City] I downloaded audio files from the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum on the Internet: a letter he dictated to his dad - [using the accent] "Dea-uh Daad," and a phone conversation he'd had with Eisenhower, and I listened to those on the plane. I went racing [into the audition] with my headphones on. I didn't have any body language whatsoever. I thought I'd use a bit of trickery with the hair. I thought, well, rather than try and do that singular thatch he had - my woods aren't nearly that thick - instead of trying to comb my hair that way, I'd just leave it messy and let them think, "Well, fine, we can deal with the hair." I went in and just made a wild swing at it.
*Boston Globe 1/7/01But then you realize that it's John F. Kennedy, and you think, `O.K., I guess they're hoping to get me in, but it's not likely I'll get it.' I read the script, and they called me in a couple of weeks later for an audition, and Roger Donaldson, the director, said: `That's not bad. Would you like to come back and try it again?' I went back about half a dozen times, and each time, there were more people in the room. Eventually you realize, `I stand a chance of getting this,' and then of course the pressure really ramps up.
*NY Times 1/12/01I desperately wanted it but thought they'd made a mistake when I got the call.
*Parade 4/1/01ON PLAYING JFK:
general observations:
It has great appeal because you get to play somebody who's one of the great characters of the 20th century......You know people are calling me Mr. President. At first, I was laughing. Now I'm not.
*On the Set 12/14/00I've played real people a couple of times before, ...but never somebody who was so....covered with research and film and books and reminiscences of people! It's tremendous to have that to work with. It's just something different.
*Star TV 12/24/00Q: You'll next be seen in the television remake of ''The Magnificent Ambersons,'' based on Orson Welles' original script.
BG: Yeah. It was a tough year in terms of filling shoes. From presidential icon to cinematic icon, from JFK to Welles. I just thought I would really set myself up for the end of my career.
*Austin American Statesman 1/4/01It was the farthest thing from my mind. Admittedly, it has been the finest role that I have ever had. It was a real gift to take a shot at it, and I am hoping to save the world a couple more times before my career comes to a close.
*Daily Southtown 1/7/01Q: Kevin Costner said on The Early Show today that you didn't play JFK, you were JFK. Did it feel like that during filming?
BG: I didn't feel like myself. In submerging yourself in the day-to-day challenge of telling a story, you do forget yourself.
*USA Chat 1/11/01Q: Are there any special burdens actors face when playing in historical films?
BG: Yes, of course. The expectations game is someone else's game, and you have to be free to invest yourself 100% in the character. What kept me awake was a sense of responsibility to the man himself, although it's presumptuous to presume that you can get the whole person.
*USA Chat 1/11/01Q: Did you know you looked like JFK before they called you? Or before you auditioned for it?
BG: No, no.....you know. It's not something that really ever occurs, you know?...
*E! News Daily 1/12/01It was a tough year in terms of big shoes to fill, you know? President Kennedy's size 400 loafers sitting there on your desktop, and then Joseph Cotten's right beside them.
*NY Times 1/12/01I had notes all over my dresser and all over my house about what my responsibility was, that the weight of the world was on his shoulders. As much as an actor can assume that, I tried to. Of course, an actor assuming the weight of the world, it's ludicrous. But the more I read, the more I felt he certainly deserved that level of respect from the likes of me.
*Baltimore Sun 1/13/01Well, everybody I know and probably everybody in the audience knows somebody who does a John F. Kennedy. Everybody probably has an idea who and how he was. In terms of the caricatures, I was just steeped in so much information that eventually I kind of gave over to instinct and whether or not - I didn't really think about caricature
*Dean Richards Show 1/14/01I generally don't play people about whom there's so much archived and documented, so that was a luxury. Usually, you just read the script and kind of close your eyes and imagine.
*Yahoo Online Movie 1/15/01The gift of that character was such a luxury for me. I had the opportunity to do a month of intensive study, and then another four months as we shot the movie. I was completely taken by Costner's generosity. He really gave me the floor and let me do the best I could do. You're a barn-door of opportunity for critical pot-shotting -- I just wanted to do something that I felt people might not expect.
*Vancouver Province 2/12/04On his acting approach to the role:
I tried to think of him as more of a man and less of an icon. He becomes larger in our memory, and I thought that was likely to crush me.
*Entertainment Weekly 8/18/00I thought of how heavily this would weigh on a man. Not a great man, as he was. Just a man.
*Saturday Night 12/16/00The one thing that I kept coming back to was one film clip of Kennedy just listening. Not even talking. Not even moving. Just listening. I'd often do that, just before doing a scene. It spoke to me, and it would be silly for me to try to articulate how, but it gave me a feeling that brought me to him.
*Globe & Mail 12/22/00There was no particular effort made to represent it in that iconic way. It was more trying to get past those almost indelible images of them, to....more to the men.
*Movie TV 12/26/00The problem with stepping into [JFK’s] shoes is that they come up to your chin. I did a lot of research. I read accounts that were probably three feet high, and 15 different points of view of the same event, watched a lot of file footage, viewed a lot of tape and then let it percolate. I didn’t actively try and do things differently than what I’ve seen other people do. That would’ve been the road to madness, you know?
*Entertainment Today 12/31/00There were clear challenges in portraying a modern legend and it would be presumptuous of me to say that I ever sensed what made him tick. My sense of him is coloured by what little I knew before I did the research -- that he was this magic king of Camelot who ruled with grace and ease. So really, for the film, I was looking more at the challenges this man faced during this period.
*Ottawa Citizen 1/4/01Q: [How did] you manage to capture JFK without any special make-up or cosmetics?
BG: There was one trick. A tiny little wiglet, about the size of a chipmunk's tail, that they glued to my forehead to lower my hairline. But I took the role really seriously. There's the odd account about this period that comments on how Kennedy was able to conceal from the outside world and from many of his friends just how much pressure he was under. But all of the books indicate very clearly that the weight on him was visible. So I tried to think of him not as a hero or an icon but as a man who was saddled with this impossible task.
*Austin American Statesman 1/4/01The Oval Office isn't peopled by magicians who can stand there with their feet apart and make decisions correctly every time. These are intellectual guys who are informed and have their country's best interests at heart -- but they're still people. We tried to focus on that human aspect.
*Ottawa Citizen 1/4/01[I used this] basic acting thing. I had a half-dozen other responses [in mind]. Before uttering what I was bound to utter in the script, I would decide which of those half-dozen others not to mention. So I was occupied with alternatives.
*Boston Globe 1/7/01[I wanted] to sense what any man would go through under that kind of pressure."
*Dallas Morning News 1/7/01Then it became trying to serve him the best I could. An actor can only do so much. The more I read about him, the more I respected him. And the more I respected him, the more it kept me up nights.
*Daily Southtown 1/7/01He really listened,. I remember one piece of footage of one meeting where for 10 minutes he does not speak. When he does, he is clearly a step ahead. I found great value in watching him listen. There's famous footage from the Oval Office [when Kennedy is] trying to decide how to approach the steps of the schoolhouse with [George] Wallace, and he is just listening and Bobby [Kennedy] and Ted Sorenson are talking. He just listens and the wheels - oh, man!
*Boston Globe 1/7/01You try to avoid the cliche. I watched hours and hours of film, but at some point I gave in to my instincts. Some mannerisms, however, just had to be there. [He tapped his teeth with his fingernails.] So I did that a lot, but it didn't make it into the movie.
*Washington Post 1/7/01Well, it’s not like, you know, sticking a tab of attitude here [points to his side] and it’s not, I don’t really think of it as a transformation. It’s just....I submerged myself in all the archival material and I just kind of gave it up to instinct really.
*The View 1/12/01It was a couple of conscious choices, and the rest was instinct. But the instinct would have been different if I hadn't done the research.
*NY Times 1/12/01What I tried to do for myself was any time a question was asked of (Kennedy), even though in the script there was one answer, I would have half a dozen different answers and think about those and their implications carefully before choosing the ones in the script.
*Fort Worth Star Telegram 1/12/01It was just something you dig into and work at and hope you haven't got a shoe in your mouth when they roll the camera. Things were key to me like his back pain and, of course, the cadence of his speech. As far as the look is concerned, there's not....well, I look how I look.
*Extreme Close-up 1/12/01You try to hold in your head all the possible responses Kennedy might have had to a given question. Then, when a question is asked, you sort through these answers to arrive at the scripted one.
*popmatters.com 1/14/01JFK was florid and slightly swollen because of the medicine he was taking, so I gained a little weight. But I couldn't change my face too much. Finally I just stopped trying to look like him, and instead imagined a man in that position.
*NY Daily News 1/15/01I thought of how a situation like this would weigh on a man. Not a great man -- a man. It would be ludicrous to imagine that he cruised through this with the offhand aplomb of the prince of Camelot.
*Variety Oscar Issue 1/15/01And when I became so completely saturated with all this archival information that I thought I could hardly absorb one more bit, I figured it was time to just turn it all over to instinct."
*Raleigh News & Observer 1/17/01[I] approach different roles in different ways: sometimes from the outside in, sometimes from the inside out. This role started outside, with videotape and with many, many hours of reading. And then, it inadvertently became inside out.
*Detroit News 1/18/01You do the work, but at some point, you rely on instinct.
*Detroit News 1/18/01Q: Seeing you now, I wouldn't expect that you are playing Kennedy, because your looks have absolutely changed and it seems to me also that in the movie you had such a lot of...
BG: Weight?
Q: Weight in your face. How did you worked with this weight and the face?
BG: Well, I ate a little, I ate quite a lot and tried to make my face a little bigger, just like Steven tried to make his face a little smaller, you know. He lost weight and worked out and I gained weight and ate like a pig and -- but I don´t know, I think a lot of it comes from inside too, you know, that sense of weight.
*Nagy Transcript 2/13/01Q: Was it difficult to play a character the American people probably think they know so well?
BG: Yes. (long pause.) Yeah, of course, I was nervous about it. Because people have such high expectations, and everyone thinks they know Kennedy so well. And then I discovered pretty quickly after lying awake in bed at night that worrying about it wasn't gonna get me anywhere. And I had the job whether I liked it or not. So I dropped that part of the study. I decided to ignore other people's expectations and chose not to watch any other films or other representations of Kennedy. I watched a lot of file footage, of course, and tried to keep it a personal journey for myself.
*Berline Festival 2/13/01On his anxieties and fears:
A lose-sleep role. I sleep a few hours, get up and think about it, sleep a few more, think about it, etc. Challenging, to say the least.
*Hollywood Reporter 9/24/99You kidding me, man? Yeah! That kind of thing kept me awake at night. A little bit, yeah.
*Open Mike 12/8/00Daunting, yeah. With a capital D.
*Extra 12/21/00Q: Was it daunting to play John Kennedy?
BG: Sure. Yeah. I mean....it keeps you awake at night. But eventually you realize you've got it, you're stuck with it. Just get with the study -- the reading and the watching film and the listening to tape and the musing - and - start swimming!
*Movie TV 12/26/00Q: What was it like to play an icon like JFK?
BG: It's mostly about losing sleep.
*Entertainment Tonight 12/29/00I 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".
*The Early Show 1/12/01It just puts a load on you that keeps you awake at night. And, eventually, I just said, 'I'm doing all the research my body can stand and I'm doing the best I can and if I lie awake any longer, I'll be no good at all.'
*Arizona Republic 1/12/01You try to forget how high people's expectations are going to be.
*Boston Herald 1/12/01I'd lie there in my bed and wonder if I was going to get it right. That after all this research, I'd have have to give it all over to instinct and that was intimidating when you think of how Kennedy is revered by the American public. Will the performance live up to their expectations?
*Vancouver Sun 1/12/01They're so visible in the media, even now, that everybody has an idea of who they were and how they were . . . that was something I wrestled with. And also getting over the feeling that you might be serving the man....You don't want to do his memory a disservice.
*Arizona Republic 1/12/01Yeah, it freaked me out a bunch. I don't even want to talk about it. Occasionally, it just really hits you. The responsibility that that implies - it's too much to comprehend really, too much to invite.
*Arizona Republic 1/12/01We got about halfway through it, and I just pressed myself into the back of the car, and looked at the whole thing sideways. The first day of shooting, we were doing a parade sequence. ... I was sitting in that car, on top of the trunk, waving at hundreds of people, extras that had been lined up onto the street. I just could not believe it. It was really disquieting. I just felt like a huge target. I felt like my head was about 4 feet across.
*Fort Worth Star Telegram 1/12/01That's absurd. How dare I?
*Baltimore Sun 1/13/01Yeah -- Are you kidding me? Yeah, I mean, I literally lay awake night after night. You don't want to do him a disservice. And you don't want to set yourself up for the broadsides that will inevitably come your way. Yeah. So it kept me awake.
*Access Hollywood 1/13/01I spent a week or so lying in bed thinking, 'Oh, God, this is way too big a mountain.' And then I started to study.
*Time Magazine 1/15/01I lay awake at night worrying I was not serving his memory. It's a big vessel. You can't fill it..... As an actor . . . how can an actor do that?
*Maclean's 1/15/01It kept me awake at night...worrying that you're gonna....When I stepped into his shoes, they came up to here, you know?
*CNN Show Biz Today 1/17/01I'd lie awake and hope that I'd be forgiven for what I missed, not serving his memory in some way. I didn't break it down thinking, `I hope I get his voice right or his hair right.' I wanted to serve him in a broader way.
*Flare 2/01Q: How did you react when you got the offer to play...?
BG: I thought, uh, they made a terrible mistake, you know. Somebody should call them. I should call to tell them they made a big mistake. Oh no forget it. And then I lay awake in bed, "Oh God, what am I gonna do? This is, I can´t do this," and I thought, "Well, I can´t." Then [I realized] if I spent any more time worrying I'd lose time that I should be studying, so I started studying and then...
*Nagy Transcript 2/13/01On the JFK voice and accent:
[Joking about a Canadian playing the famous President:] Gee, I really hope the American people don't mind. I promise to get the hair right. I'm working on that Boston accent right now, eh?
*Toronto Sun 9/28/99I'm still working on getting the accent right.
*Maclean's 10/11/99I watched a lot of film...and listened to a lot of tape...and read an insane amount...a bunch of different accounts of this event and these days, and eventually it all sort of swirled through my system..and that's who I came up with.
*Hollywood One on One 12/13/00I found recordings of Kennedy on the Internet and listened to them on my Walkman.
*Saturday Night 12/16/00Q:Were you conscious of the difficulties in capturing the Kennedy inflection?
BG: Yeah. All too conscious. Hopefully, I didn't add too much. You know what I mean? Hopefully I just pulled from what was really there. The trick is not to add.
*Fred TV / 13 Days Premiere 12/19/00I also listened to a lot of tape, and realized he had a higher oratory voice. So the famous voice of his speeches -- that wasn't his real voice. I was left with a lower voice, a voice for quiet conversation.....I don't know, maybe it was too low. When I saw it, I thought maybe I was too quiet.
*Washington Post 1/7/01I had his speeches dubbed on cassette and listened to them all the time. I even started an audio file on him, and broke it down. I tried to find where I was comfortable.
*Washington Post 1/7/01I pulled some tapes off the Internet from the J. F. K. Library, and I realized pretty early on that his conversational voice - pitch, tone and cadence - was decidedly different from his oratory voice. Since the movie is mostly conversation, I thought I should stick with this much lower, slightly less Brahminesque conversational pitch. That was something the producers hadn't seen, and something that was interesting for me.
*NY Times 1/12/01Q: You worked on the accent?
BG: Oh yeah, yeah.
Q: How did you do that?
BG: Listening to tape, watching file footage.
*The View 1/12/01Not many people are aware of how low his indoor voice was. They just remember that reedy pitch he'd deliver in his speeches. It was a conscious choice of mine to focus exclusively on that closed-door, offstage voice,. There was a point, early on, when I wondered whether I should spin it up higher to let people know who they think we're talking about. In other words, should you go with something you discovered rather than something we all knew before? It was an easy choice. You go with the discovery. Otherwise, why bother?
*Newsday 1/14/01I didn't really shy away from the accent, but when he was doing his 'oratory,' his voice was much higher. But most of this movie has him behind closed doors in intense, but not really animated, conversation. The flip side is I didn't get to do the oratory.
*SF Chronicle 1/15/01I made some pretty distinct vocal choices. I discovered his speaking voice behind closed doors and one on one was significantly lower than his public speaking voice. I dropped it down to that register, which not a lot of people are as familiar with.
*Variety Oscar Issue 1/15/01But when I discovered that John F Kennedy's conversational voice was an octave and a half lower than his oratory voice, that was....that was a biggie. I think if I were a really good impersonator, I might have gone that way because it would have been fun. But I'm just not that good a mimic.
*Detroit News 1/18/01Q: You had JFK's voice aced. Did it take a lot of practice?
BG: Yeah, I was a little afraid of sounding like Mayor Quimby, but I did spend a lot of time on it.
*Yahoo Online Chat 1/25/01Some accents are easy for me and this one wasn't particularly; it was a bit elusive. And it's not really up to me to say whether I succeeded or not. Everybody will have a different opinion of that, I'm sure. But I worked at it a lot. Steven Culp and I spent a lot of time together in the early days before we started shooting, speaking at one another in our own accents to try to avoid having them drift into the same territory. So we could each be....different.
*Yahoo Movies Chats with BG 2/1/01Q: Tell me about the keeping his voice on a level which isn't so known? You even got an oscilloscope to get it right?
BG: I put quite a bit of effort in that. I discovered when I was watching all this file footage - the archive films - that in a small room, with just a couple of people, [his voice was] always very low (his voice goes down), lower than actually I could make mine go. And so I dropped it way down there, and in what people didn't now realize -- that his oratory voice, when he is speaking to a lot of people, went very high, and that's what they remember. And his accent got much broader when he was speaking loud and high to a lot of people, and it was much less pronounced - the accent - when his voice was quiet. So you know (full of life, with drive), I have a computer also and I put up his voice next to mine and tried to match it.
*Nagy Transcript 2/13/01Q: Mr. Greenwood, I adored your voice. How did you get it so deep? Because I'm a radio man and I'd like to know that.
BG: As far as the voice is concerned. I listened to a lot of file footage and discovered that Kennedy, behind closed doors in quiet conversation, his voice was much lower. Actually lower that I can ever make mine go. I couldn't even get as low as he was when he was talking quietly.....When he was orating in front of a large crowd, his voice was almost two octaves higher. In the address to the nation, which we see part of in the movie, in the original address to the nation he begins out low and by tape 2 he's way up there. There's something about the way he spoke, that the more animated he became, the higher his voice got and the more androgynous.
*Berline Festival 2/13/01To get JFK's accent and physical tics, I listened to audiotapes and watched film clips every day.
*Parade Magazine 4/1/01On the back pain:
He was in such chronic pain. If you watch the way he sits, he's always tilted over on one side to take the weight off his back. Once I figured out how I was going to deal with his back pain and that particular kind of stiffness...hair was where we spent the most time.
*BoxOffice Online 11/00[on wearing a back brace:] The problem was that it cut me in half. I was really looking forward to it, so I could say, 'And for that role, I had to wear a back brace.' But it bothered my breathing, so I chucked it.
*Globe & Mail 12/22/00I wanted to concentrate on the constant discomfort that Kennedy was in, so I tried the back-brace, but it kind of cut me in half. I felt out of touch with myself and it felt unnatural. In the archival footage you can tell his back is stiff, but you can't really tell he is in pain. Once he gets behind closed doors, there is no point concealing that pain, so I will let this flower a little more.
*Daily Southtown 1/7/01I read that he spent every lunch hour in the pool taking the weight off his back. I think it must have hurt. ... In lots of the footage of him his gait suggests a rigidity. He often wore a back brace....I thought that maybe behind closed doors, when he's really busy, he doesn't bother to conceal that pain. He doesn't whine about it, but you can sense he's a guy who's not about to go bounding up the stairs.
*Kansas City Star 1/11/01I looked at that [back injury] and thought to myself that chances are in public, he's concealing this acute pain that's he in, more than he does behind closed doors. So I'll let that out a little more.
*Arizona Republic 1/12/01Q: What were the physical requirements of you? I found that very interesting I found both characters physically very interesting but yours in particular because there was a subtle discomfort maybe because of what was going on, maybe because in my own mind I knew that John Kennedy was almost always in pain.
BG: Yeah, he WAS in pain. And I think although people know that, you watch footage of him and his back looks stiff and he has this particular walk but you don't actually see him -- you never see him bite his tongue because he's in pain. And I thought, well, perhaps he's concealing that because he knows he's out in the public eye and behind closed doors he's too busy to bother concealing it. So he lets it come out a little more and nobody says anything about it because we all know he's in pain, and so what? There's more important things to do. But I thought I'd just let that wound open up a little more.
*Dean Richards Show 1/14/01I read that he spent every lunch hour in the pool taking the weight off his back. I think it must have hurt. ... In lots of the footage of him his gait suggests a rigidity. He often wore a back brace. I thought that maybe behind closed doors, when he's really busy, he doesn't bother to conceal that pain. He doesn't whine about it, but you can sense he's a guy who's not about to go bounding up the stairs.
*Raleigh News & Observer 1/17/01On false teeth, hair and make-up:
People generally think of [JFK with] just a tremendously virile thatch, I think, because so many of those photographs [of him show] this great, big tousled shag. [Film hairstylist] Tony Walker toyed around with all kinds of stuff, including letting it come down low. At one point I looked perilously close to Sam Donaldson, so we had to change it.
*BoxOffice Online 11/00[on wearing false teeth:] The entire crew almost bust a gut laughing. I looked like an idiot.
*Chicago Sun Times 11/14/00At one point I was going to wear fake teeth to look more like Kennedy. We tried them and the entire crew burst out laughing. I looked goofy.
*Cinescape Nov/Dec/00Q:You look just LIKE him, Bruce!
BG: Well, smoke and mirrors mostly, you know. A little hair piece....
*WGN 12/6/00BG:There was a board in the make-up trailer of ears and noses.
Q: Really?
BG: Yeah. Some of the guys -- like the guy who wanted to play Johnson, he'd come in in the morning and get his nose. [lots of laughter] And other guys would come in and plop the ears on. And I had a little sort of chipmunk's tail of hair that they'd glue onto my forehead. We all got our little pieces.
*Open Mike 12/8/00Q: [How did] you manage to capture JFK without any special make-up or cosmetics?
BG: There was one trick. A tiny little wiglet, about the size of a chipmunk's tail, that they glued to my forehead to lower my hairline.
*Austin American Statesman 1/4/01Then we struggled with things like hair. We thought about making the hair bigger and more tousled, to stand for his virility, his strength, his ease. But when you looked at the footage, that wasn't the way they were at all. We decided to work more specifically and avoid all that prince-of-Camelot stuff.
*Washington Post 1/7/01We all have this image of JFK - that tousled, wind-blown chunk of hair you could hide a football in. But my hair didn't quite work, so we added a little 'squirrel tail'. The hairdresser would bring it every morning, dangle it in front of me and then spend a half hour gluing it on, pouffing and fluffing it. Luckily we didn't spend any time doing a 'walking on the beach with my hair being blown' scene.
*People 1/22/01They experimented with some false teeth...When Steven put them in, people went, "Oh, that's interesting." When I put them in, people went "Oh....leave the room, man. This is terrible." I looked absurd with the teeth in. And we toyed around with the hair a lot. And we tried to get away with just using my own hair, but I haven't got the great clops of hair that he did. So they eventually brought in a little tail of hair that they glued to my forehead.
*Yahoo Movies Chats with BG 2/1/01On his research and preparation:
[.... research for the film has been] brutal. I've been reading books and documents every day, trying to examine accounts of the incidents from different perspectives. [I'm] determined to understand every aspect of the crisis.
*Calgary Herald 10/21/99It was a little overwhelming really. I started reading before the shoot and didn't stop until six months later. I watched every piece of video on JFK and listened to tapes, his speeches and conversations. I'd do that until I fell asleep. Then I'd wake up and start reading again. I realized pretty quickly you don't become a Kennedy scholar in six months.
*Boston Herald 4/2/00There's countless volumes written about that period and that incident specifically. What I found interesting after getting a stack of books up to my belt and reading them was comparing the different accounts. A lot of people were reporting on the same meetings in their books, but of course their perspectives are completely different sometimes. Their take on what the tenor of the room was is often different, so when you put all those together, you can get a pretty good idea of what it was really like.
*BoxOffice Online 11/00It was an overwhelming part, to say the least. I did a ridiculous amount of studying. And I had to cram. I got the job five weeks before shooting began and literally didn't stop moving and learning until we wrapped. In five months, you can't be a Kennedy scholar, but I think I found the keys to getting him. I found it terribly rewarding to play such a great man.
*Cinescape Nov/Dec/00We had all done a ton of research. [All of the actors in the movie] had read a handful of accounts, and some of us had read 20 or more. Although it was a grim subject, we were so full [of] new information every day that it was kind of exciting.
*TV Guide Online 12/6/00Q: Now, what did you do to research it as far as reading books and things like that - for what really happened?
BG: Well, I have a Kennedy library now - that focuses on this period - that's literally THAT high.
*WGN 12/6/00Q: How much research would be involved? Did they allow you access to the White House files?
BG: That's funny. The Official Secret's Act doesn't apply to actors. Yeah, yeah, so we had the full run.....No, I just read a stack of books, watched tape and listened to tape.
Q: But how did you nail it? How did you nail it?
BG: Just tons of research. And then lying in bed at night listening to the tapes and wake up in the morning and watch the film and just kind of let instinct take over, I guess.
*Open Mike 12/8/00I got piles and piles of biographies. Just hours upon hours upon hours upon hours of tape so my wife is quite tired of listening to them and watching them. "You watching that again?"
*On the Set 12/14/00When I got tired of reading about him, I watched film. When I got tired of watching film, I'd listen to recordings.
*Saturday Night 12/16/00Film, audio, driving in the car, sleeping at night...listening to it....
*Extra 12/21/00Given how Americans feel about Kennedy, you'd be at your peril not to know everything you could. I have a large library of books, just on that two-week period, all which I've read twice. I've watched all the archival footage of him to the point where I essentially know every frame. I kept researching, before and right through the shooting.
*Globe & Mail 12/22/00I read a stack of accounts up to my belt, and when I was too tired to read, I watched television and film footage. Then, when I was too tired to watch footage, I would lie in bed with the earphones on and listen to audiotape.
*Halifax Daily News 12/29/00Q: I am told that you did a tremendous amount of research for the part. How much time did you spend on it?
BG: I listened to it full time. When I was too tired to watch I'd listen. I'd be in bed and listen.
Q: Did you listen very much to the speech that's in the film? How many times did you listen to that?
BG: The address to the nation? I can't even count the times.
Q: Really? Was that one of the scenes you wanted to make perfect?
BG: 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.
Q: 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?
BG: 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 Online 1/01Q: How did you prepare for the role?
BG: Voluminous reading. I don't know whether you've seen the bibliography in the press kit, but mine became twice as long. And now I have an absurdly large Kennedy library at home.
*Austin-American Statesman 1/4/01What I discovered pretty quickly is that you don't become a Kennedy scholar in 6 weeks.
*Inside Entertainment 1/4/01I got the job three weeks before we started shooting, and I compiled a huge video and sound library, as well as a library of books that came up to my chest. I would read and read and when my eyes were crossing I would watch tape and then go to bed and (subconsciously) listen to tape. I continued to watch and read throughout the production. At some point you stop making specific behavioral choices and rely on instinct.
*Daily Southtown 1/7/01Q: You don't really look like JFK (but then who does...) but you have the FEEL of him. What did you do to prepare for the role?
BG: I've got a Kennedy library that comes up to my chest, mostly focusing on that 14 day period. I read every waking minute, watched file footage, listened to tape, etc. Then I thought about what it must have been like.
*USA Chat 1/11/01I 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.
*The Early Show 1/12/01[Studying was an] every waking hour sort of thing...I watched a ton of footage.
*Arizona Republic 1/12/01You don't become a Kennedy scholar in six weeks, or six months, so I spent a couple of weeks researching through the Internet and finding things about his background, then focused in on this (missile-crisis) period, just this distilled fortnight.
*Fort Worth Star Telegram 1/12/01It's one of those things where you really study your tail off. You read as much as you can get your hands on, watch a great deal of film, listen to tape and then give it over to instinct.
*Akron Beacon Journal 1/12/01Yeah. At first it was kind of overwhelming and then I thought, well, it's so overwhelming, I'd better get to work doing the research and then the research completely took over and I just forgot about those expectations. And because I was just working so hard, there wasn't time to worry about it.
*Dean Richards Show 1/14/01I ended up having a 'reference tape' about an hour and a half long interviews and candid footage of him, playing with his kids and talking to his wife. From this I had favorite moments, things I would go back to. A few months into the movie, I knew twice as much about him as I did going in. And there are things I would have done differently.
*Time Magazine 1/15/01What did it for me was voluminous reading. I mean, horse-choking stacks of literature. Watching untold hours of file footage. And when I was too tired to do that, I'd just lie in bed listening to tapes of JFK's speeches......And when I became so completely saturated with all this archival information that I thought I could hardly absorb one more bit, I figured it was time to just turn it all over to instinct.
*Kansas City Star 1/11/01
*Raleigh News & Observer 1/17/01I was so submerged in archival material -- written, audio, video -- that it was more a gradual steeping than finding illuminating anchors onto which I could affix mself.
*Detroit News 1/18/00Q: My question is did you do any research before you played in this movie about JFK and how did you prepare for this role?
BG: Probably could stack it up to my chest now. And familiarized myself with his childhood and his upbringing and more specifically with the period that the film addresses.
*Yahoo Chat 1/25/01I read voluminous amounts and when I tired of reading, I'd watch tape or film and then when I went to bed I'd listen to cassettes.......Once you start studying it's just patently obvious that man, you better read every second, because you can't even read it all -- even about this fortnight. No....[I] never stopped studying....
*Yahoo Movies Chats with BG 2/1/01Q: What did you do to prepare for this?
BG: That's a long question to answer. It's one of those things...you do a lot of research, and then a little more research, and then you go to bed and listen to tapes and wake up in the morning and watch film. And do a little more reading and then give it up to instinct. And hope for the best.
*Berline Festival 2/13/01On playing a President:
I tried not taking out 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.
*The Early Show 1/12/01Q: Not all actors get to play the President, what was that like?
BG: It was fascinating and the responsibility that some days I felt I was a long way from meeting.
*Yahoo Chat 1/25/01There ís a big club of actors who have played the President. There aren't five of us, there are 50 of us.
*The Times 3/1/01Implicit in this question is 'What does an actor bring that a real president doesn't?' and the only answer is a certain amount of inauthenticity. It's entirely different with a fictitious president whose characterisation is essentially a grab-bag of choices dreamed up by the actor and the director, along with the generally requisite characteristics of authority, charisma, political expertise and people-skills and, hmmm, fine tailoring. Strangely enough, there was some spillover from 'being' the president. Not very many get the opportunity so the role becomes an orchid. Because it's rare, people endow the role and anybody who's in it with a specialness. But my closest friends continue to give me no respect whatsoever!"
*This Is London 3/9/01On reflections, performance satisfaction, post mortems and other after thoughts:
I don't know if I got him. O'Donnell's son was generous. He came to the set and told me I sounded fine, but he's a kid. Certainly as an actor, it's been my biggest challenge. Whether it turns into a career break, who knows? It is a career high-water mark. I'll never forget it.
*Boston Herald 4/2/00In five months of shooting, I felt like I became him a bit, and it was terribly rewarding to play such a great man who literally saved the world.
*Chicago Sun Times 11/14/00.There were moments when if you looked on the monitor, it looked like old news footage of Kennedy. I was even amazing myself.
*Cinescape Nov/Dec/00Q: How tough was that? You're down to the cadence of his voice, the way he walks with his back injury... How tough was that to recreate JFK?
BG: I don't.....It's not really for me to say. 'Cause it depends how successful people think I was at it....
Q: Do you think you were successful at it?
BG: It's hard for me to watch because I can always think of things I could have done better. But I watched lots of film and listened to lots of tape, and...
*WGN 12/6/00No actor can 'get' someone like Kennedy. I grew to believe how great a figure he was through my research. He's a huge vessel, and you're just not going to fill it. I wish the movie was six hours long and we could have shot it in two years. If you stacked every actor who's ever played Kennedy side-by-side, you just wouldn't come close to 'getting' him.
*Globe & Mail 12/22/00On some level I'm expected to get heavily pot-shotted at. But on another level, who cares? So what? I did the best I could.
*Star TV 12/24/00It's certainly the best role I've had -- among the best roles I've had.
*Movie TV 12/26/00It's been so hard because, when I watch it, I see what I could have done. I think I am pretty objective. I look at it and see the tone of the piece and think: 'I could have pushed that a little harder, or I could have showed a little more restraint there.' It's only in tiny little moments that I go: 'Oh, that was a bead of truth!'
*Toronto Sun 1/7/01It's not for me to say if I was successful. I'm a barn door of opportunity in that regard; I'm sure I'll get lots of potshots.
*Boston Globe 1/7/01I never felt I nailed him. JFK's just too big, too difficult to be realized by any actor. At the end of shooting I didn't want it to be over: I felt like I'd just begun to explore him. I wish it could have been a six-hour movie, and we had two years to work on it.
*Kansas City Star 1/11/01Q: What was your favorite scene in the film? The one with which might feel most satisfied?
BG: I find it very difficult to watch myself uncritically, so I don't have a favorite. I have moments that disappoint me less than others. I see the seams in my performance and things I could have done differently. But it's a great movie!
*USA Chat 1/11/01I didn't want to leave the JFK role after it was done. I really wished the movie was 8 hours long and took 4 years to film.
*USA Chat 1/11/01The role is so big that I don't think any actor could completely fill it.
*Akron Beacon Journal 1/12/01There are all kinds of tiny little moments in this movie that I think I could have enriched better, a grace note every 10 seconds that is flat or that I completely missed, in terms of driving the drama forward by cranking up the emotion. From my perspective, my performance is full of misses like that.
*Baltimore Sun 1/13/01I don't know if Caroline [Kennedy] would want to see this film. If she does, all I can say is, 'Forgive me, I did my very best.'
*Baltimore Sun 1/13/01Well, I had a lot of fun doing Double Jeopardy and Rules of Engagement but I'd say the most interesting stuff I've had to do has been Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter, and this. This is the best role I've ever had. You know, I mean, come on. I should open a hardware store somewhere?
*Dean Richards Show 1/14/01I never felt I nailed him. JFK's just too big, too difficult to be realized by any actor. At the end of shooting I didn't want it to be over: I felt like I'd just begun to explore him. I wish it could have been a six-hour movie, and we had two years to work on it.
*Raleigh News & Observer 1/17/01If the script was great it would be hard not to think seriously about trying it again, because I didn't feel as though I got it all anyway. So...I wish this movie was 8 hours long and had taken 4 years to film.
*In the Lyon's Den 1/20/01Q: Was Thirteen Days your favorite movie to be in? If not what was?
BG: That and The Sweet Hereafter.
*Yahoo Online Chat 1/25/01Q: How do you feel about the critical acclaim you're getting for your portrayal of JFK?
BG: I'm thrilled, actually. I'm always surprised when people like what I do, actually.
*Yahoo Online Chat 1/25/01ON OSCAR SPECULATION:
You just ignore it. That's great to hear but how are you supposed to respond to that?
*Canadian Press 12/21/00You can't help but think about it, but you try not to. I don't even know at this point how to respond to that , and if it happens, I don't know either. I'm still working my way to the next job.
*Newsday 1/14/01Q: What do you feel about the Oscar buzz around the movie and more specifically, your name?
BG: From where I'm sitting, it's always hard to tell how much of the hype is coming from people who aren't coming from the film and just love it or from people who are connected with it and have a vested interest and feel good about it. So I try not to pay attention to it because there's not much I can do. Except to prepare for my next job and hope it's the right one.
*Yahoo Online Chat 1/25/01It's completely out of my hands, so it's silly to get worked up about it.
*USA Today 2/1/01ON 13 DAYS AS A ROAD TO FAME & STARDOM:
Q: Do you see those kind of scripts coming to you now? In Hollywood? Does that kind of stuff exist in Hollywood?
BG: It's there. Sure, it's there. But there are a lot of very capable actors out there. You know, we're all looking and there's not a lot of it.
*Movie TV 12/26/00I do this a role at a time. I don't really think of this as part of a professional trajectory because I'm not really as much in charge of that as some people seem to think. It might be if I was the kind of guy who would now sit back for a year and only take something that deeply moved me and was appropriate to the way I think, but I'm not like that. I love to work and I love to do all kinds of different things, so in terms of seeing it as a stepping stone in a particular direction, let's just say it's been a highlight.
*Ottawa Citizen 1/4/01What does that mean? What does that really mean? I hope it is not a career-defining role. It would be nice not to ever have a career-defining role.
*Toronto Sun 1/7/01People hope for that kind of thing. I don't know how to answer the question. You don't do it with that in mind. It's fun to think about, but then you move on to other things.
*Washington Post 1/7/01You know, it's just starting to cause a ripple on the pond. I'm just starting to think that, if I'm smart and I make some good choices now, hey, maybe I'll have more than a couple of good ones. Maybe I'll get a whole handful of good ones.
*Toronto Sun 1/7/01That's a question I'm pondering more and more these days. It appears as though [Thirteen Days] could do good things for my career and that would be a beautiful reward for the work. But fame, in and of itself, has never been a big motivation. My theory is that a bogus amount of celebrity is a very strange thing. I don't worry about it if it happens. ... Although, in the wake of Double Jeopardy, I remember feeling that my anonymity was rapidly dissolving. It was a little strange to be recognized, but inevitably, five minutes after someone has said they saw you in something, that's it. They don't care anymore.
*Vancouver Sun 1/12/01Well, the quiet dissolution of anonymity is something's that's, that's a little strange to observe, you know.
*On the Arts 1/12/01The 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....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.
*The Early Show 1/12/01This film was certainly more than I ever expected to try and consume. And when you're seen all over the place, you're more recognizable and the studios are more inclined to give you a job that might actually pay some money, or one of the few good parts that aren't only two or three scenes.
*Nitrate Online 1/12/01I don't really know how seriously I'm taken anyway, you know. You never know, I mean, I still gotta go on meetings and audition and all that.... .Oh yeah, yeah. It's competitive at that level, too, you know. I mean, there's a lot of guys who are very capable and want the jobs.
*On the Arts 1/12/01I'm not so hidden behind wigs and prosthetics that you don't know it's me.....I'm not sure if they're putting a face to a name yet.
*SF Chronicle 1/15/01If it happened that I suddenly became famous, I'm not gonna get tipped over.
*SF Chronicle 1/15/01I'm on some of the lists. If I turtle along long enough, maybe I'll be on all of them.
*NY Daily News 1/15/01I don't see myself as the industry sees me. So much of this business is smoke until it happens. It's not really real. I don't believe I have a job until I'm actually in the makeup chair.
*Detroit News 1/18/01It's hard in your life to say, "I wonder. Is this? I guess this is a high point." It's hard to commit to this being a high point....'cause you're always - everybody I know - is always reaching for something more. And we don't take the moment often to go, "You know what? This is a great period."
*In the Lyon's Den 1/20/01It doesn't open the door wide open, but it gets your foot in it. I'm reading for parts I might not have had a chance at last year.
*USA Today 2/1/01And in terms of having a little more control of what I do now, ja!, I do have a little more control. My choices are a little bit better.
*Nagy Transcript 2/13/01Ah, it´s a hard thing now ..... I am much more visible. My wife and I are both kind of going, (takes a deep breath) "Well, maybe we just should turn off the tap now, while we still can, if we can." You know, turn off that public tap of making me more visible and everything. That´s a little something we have to figure out; we don´t really know if we want to go ahead with...
*Nagy Transcript 2/13/01ON OTHER JFK INTERPRETATIONS:
I watched five minutes of ["The Missiles of October"] and then I didn't want to see any more. I didn't want - if I made any of the same choices as Devane - I didn't want my take to seem derivative in some way. I wanted to be free to interpret it in my own way.
*Boston Globe 1/7/01I went to the tape deck and pressed play and then pressed stop, primarily because I didn't want to watch a choice that Devane might have made and say to myself 'That was going to be my choice also, now I can't be do it because he already did it.' Whatever similarities there might be, if there are any, are inadvertant or happenstance.
*Daily Southtown 1/7/01A friend of mine sent me a tape of The Missiles of October and I popped it into the tape deck, and then I realized that I just didn't want to be influenced or altered in any way by someone else's performance. If I'd made the same choices as Bill Devane, I didn't want to know about it.
*Akron Beacon Journal 1/12/01I had enough on my mind. I didn't want to be thinking about avoiding things that other actors might have done. Because naturally I'm going to do it differently. Even if I'm doing the same thing, I'll do it differently.
*Arizona Republic 1/12/01Q: Did other people's performances of Kennedy influence you at all?
BG: No, I took pains not to have any of that in my consciousness. A friend of mine gave me a copy of The Missiles of October and I popped it in, and the minute I saw the brothers, I said, "No, no, no." If I make a choice that's the same [as someone else's], I don't want to change it because it might be considered derivative. In a role that's not a real person, stuff comes to you all the time: while you're washing the dishes, there's some arbitrary bit of behavior that you suddenly mark and you go, "I'm going to do that." Whatever goofy things you come up with, and whatever more profound inventions you come up with -- you can just pile them up arbitrarily and then peel away the ones that you can't tie in. But this is a whole different smoke. You can't pull that stuff out of the ether, you can't make it up.
*popmatters.com 1/14/01
*Nitrate Online 1/12/01ON THE FILMING PROCESS:
It was incredibly invigorating because it was hard work, like the hard work when you're working out. It feels great.....When the endorphins kick in, I gather, people feel good when they're in shape.
*BoxOffice Online 11/00And perhaps when I walked into the White House I was expecting to feel a certain way. I felt good when I walked in here. I walked down the halls and went fine "where's my office"..........You know people are calling me Mr. President. At first, I was laughing. Now I'm not.
*On the Set 12/14/00Q: 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?
BG: 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 Online 1/01Q: Did you get a chance to visit the place before you went on the set? Had you ever gone to the White House?
BG: No, they built a White House. Here. And you step onto the set and it's hallowed ground.
*AOL Online 1/01It's magical when it's happening well with all the other players. It's not as visual as a sport. You don't get a spike of adrenaline as you do with a sport. It's a subtler pleasure.
*Washington Post 1/7/01["Thirteen Days'' was shot] in a dusty warehouse in the middle of Glendale. You opened the big bay door to the set, and there's the White House, and the closer you get the more real it is. You walk into the Oval Office and it's in color and in three dimensions and everything is as it was [in 1962]. The last day we were shooting, the space was destined to be used for some other picture and they were taking it down and everybody was just really undone by it, to a man. There was tremendous respect for how we were trying to serve all these men. Historian Evan Thomas wrote, `Some myths are true.' This was the Kennedys' finest hour. It was clearly a coming of age for them and to try to describe that intellectual and emotional journey in the course of two and a half hours ... it was something to be attempted, anyway.
*Boston Globe 1/7/01This illustrious White House was concealed in a dusty warehouse in Glendale, California.
*Daily Southtown 1/7/01It was wonderful. On that first day, I wandered around the set and noticed that it was accurate down to the tiniest detail. Having studied so much and seen so much, I felt like I was being lowered gently into the past. It was heady, as if there was a little more oxygen. If it wasn't magical, it was pretty close to it.
*Washington Post 1/7/01The environment was electric. Everybody was very, very into it. They took it seriously.
*Toronto Sun 1/7/01It's funny, when I would walk onto (the Oval Office) set and people would say `good morning, Mr. President,' in a bizarre way, it didn't seem wrong. It seemed quite appropriate. It was amazing the responsibility you feel as an actor when the set evokes so much respect.
*Daily Southtown 1/7/01Q: Was it difficult or unusual for you that Thirteen Days was so focused on guys, to the point that there were few women in the film?
BG: You're right. It was a pretty "guy" set, but it was a guys' world, at that time, in the Oval Office. And there weren't any pissing contests, just a lot of guys on the set. Of course there were women working, and a couple of actresses, but for the most part, they were on the sidelines, as they were back then. Often when there's much "guy" around, there's a lot of testosterone flying, and a lot of people asserting themselves with solid stances and pushing each other's buttons, just because that's guys being guys, staging contests for fun as much as anything else. But [on Thirteen Days], the set itself inspired a really broad and deep respect in everybody. It was just in this big old dusty warehouse in the middle of Glendale, [California], the last place you'd expect to walk in and be moved, because you're driving past all these McDonalds cups blowing down the street. And then you open the bay doors on this warehouse, and the air is different. It was like we'd dropped through the ceiling into another time. It gave everybody a sense of responsibility and respect.
*Nitrate Online 1/12/01
*popmatters.com 1/14/01Well, they helped me a little bit. You know, I’d walk on the set and they’d address me as "Good morning, Mr. President."
*The View 1/12/01Usually I fool around a lot, to separate myself from the work, and to keep the energy up. It was a different kind of energy on Thirteen Days. Everybody studied and had a deep sense of responsibility. There wasn't so much cartwheeling around the set.
*Nitrate Online 1/12/01 *popmatters.com 1/14/01You can't help being a little self-conscious at first. In fact, it took me a while to work my way up to a comfortable groove. I wish I'd had five more months just to get it right.
*popmatters 1/14/01So whatever my expectations were going into this project, they were far exceeded by the experience itself.
*Raleigh News & Observer 1/17/01Q: Was doing the movie hard?
BG: Yeah, it was long hours, many months. It was grueling, but I was sorry when it was over.
*Yahoo Online Chat 1/25/01Q: What do you think you might remember from this film 20 years down the road when people might say, "Bruce, I remember when you were in that movie Thirteen Days?
BG: I'll be grateful if I can remember anything 20 years from now. That's a good question. I wonder. I made a couple of good friends. Maybe walking into the White House for the first time. Our fake White House.
*Yahoo Chat 1/25/01Q: Did you do the shadows at the end of Thirteen Days?
BG: Hand puppets. :)
*Yahoo Online Chat 1/25/01Q: How long did it take you to do the movie?
BG: Started early-ish in September and I finished in the middle of January. Principle actors were finished then.
*Yahoo Online Chat 1/25/01Q: Bruce, what kind of locations did you choose to make this movie?
BG: In Glendale, California. The exterior scenes that were supposed to be Cuba were in the Philippines. The high seas stuff was off the east coast.
*Yahoo Online Chat 1/25/01Q: Well, a lot of the tension in the movie comes from the interaction of the characters. How much time did you have and your collegues to rehearse together?
BG: We didn´t have much time to rehearse except when we were shooting. When they were lighting, you can stand around for hours, so we had lots of time to talk then. In terms of - we hadn´t any structured rehearsal.
*Nagy Transcript 2/13/01It was like jumping into a pool and not coming out for months -- cold at first, but then you don't ever want it to end.
*Empire 4/01On the Pulaski Day speech scene:
Q: What was the most difficult scene you had to play in the movie Thirteen Days?
BG: You know, from the day we walked on the set, the meters were kind of pegged. They were all equally tricky but for different reasons. There's some stuff that isn't in the movie that was difficult to shoot. We did the Pulaski Day speech and that was all shot with a very shallow backdrop and then blue screen to create the crowd. But that was a tricky scene to shoot because you had to pretend you were speaking to 5,000 people and get that kind of energy when instead you were staring at a blank wall. I don't have that frame of reference for that many people listening to me.
*Yahoo Online Chat 1/25/01Q: What was the most difficult scene?
BG: There's a scene that's not in the movie that I worked really hard on, where I give a speech, the Pulaski Day speech in Buffalo to 500,000 poeple. It doesn't make any sense now because, of course, it isn't in the movie, so you can't use it as a reference. But I worked very hard on it, just to get the energy to where I thought it should be. I watched an incredible amount of tape and cobbled together more of the speech than was originally in the script.....'cause I loved it so much. And then Roger let me do the whole thing. And then, when I watched it, it was rushed...it was rushed.... In a sense I'm kind of grateful it didn't get into the movie beause I worked so hard on it and it didn't quite....hit it....All the way throught the movie, of course, there's stuff as an actor ......[where I say] I could have done that different
*Yahoo Movies Chats with BG 2/1/01On his practical joke with the sign:
Well there is a scene - for those of you who haven’t seen the movie it’s been out in just a couple cities. But there’s a scene where Kevin’s walking to and fro in front of the White House and there’s a bunch of guys with placards saying, "Give the missiles back that are in Turkey." I’d finished early that day so I went and painted up a sign that said "Take the Gonzales kid back to Cuba"..........[demonstrates with hands and body movement marching with a placard] ....Marching back and forth......... The director’s like watching, [bends forward and puts hands to face like he's looking into a monitor] looking in the monitor, and he’s watching Kevin, and finally prints it. And you know, it’s a lot of people and it’s expensive and everything. And he finally says [using Roger Donaldson's broad Australian accent with loud authority] "Right! And moving on!"...... [very quietly, conspiratorily] and he hadn’t noticed it....And everyone, everybody else on the set is like....[makes nervous face, exaggeratedly crosses leg and covers mouth with hand in horror].... So somebody else comes up and goes, [he leans over and conspiratorily talks to Star] "Look, look, one more time at the monitor" and he watches - and he sees it - and just kinda lost it....[Using his Donaldson voice again, loud and angry] It costs a lot of money to make a movie. Christ, what are you doing
*The View 1/12/01On his parents' visit to set:
Q: So, your parents came down to visit you on this one?
BG: Yeah, they did.
Q: Did they come to the Oval Office?
BG: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and it was on a day when, one of the last days of shooting when they had a big ice sculpture, and the food layout was mad, you know, with the seafood and the steak and the lobster, you know, everything, and my mum was just, "Oh my goodness! This is, this is, this is, is this what, this is what you, this is, my, ooh," you know. It was great.
Q: "Bruce, this is better than I thought!"
BG: Yeah! And, um, [laughs] it's funny, actually, the, uh, one of the crew came up to me later. 'Cause my mum and dad were sitting by the monitor, watching the monitor, they had the headphones on, sitting by the director, and at one point, my mum got quite teary. And, um, one of the crew came up to me later and said, "I noticed your mom was really, really moved, you know. It was good, man. She was really moved." And, uh, later at lunch, she said, "You know, at one point, I got something in my throat, and I was trying not to cough. [Benmurgui starts laughing] And I got all, I got all teary and everything. I didn't want to spoil anything."
Q: She's choking!
BG: So she's choking, and everybody's going, oh wow, isn't that, isn't that sweet!.........Yeah, it's a good day; their son's the president.
*On the Arts 1/12/01ON WORKING WITH STEVEN CULP:
We sparred with our dialects, trying to maintain the one that was right for us, with varying degrees of success, I'm sure.
*Entertainment Weekly 8/18/00Agony. Can we not talk about it?.....no, [Steven] was great. We worked well right from the beginning. We didn't know each other at all, and ["13 Days"] is a big deal for both of us. We wanted to treat each other with respect, and out of that good things grew.
*BoxOffice Online 11/00We worked alone on our accents and then we would get together and talk and try to avoid leaking into one another. I tried to avoid having what he was doing seep into me, and he tried the same thing. [An] analogy would be that we each had a flask of our own Kennedy and we kept pouring it and hoping they wouldn't mix.....that's not even a good analogy.....I can find a better metaphor.
*BoxOffice Online 11/00Q: I understand that you and the gentleman who played Bobby Kennedy talked a lot on the phone whenever you learned new stuff about Kennedy.
BG: Well, we spent a lot of time together, actually, because we felt our accents might drift into one another. Because originally, we were searching for something that's individual and distinct from one another -- dueling!
*WGN 12/6/00We both read a great deal and spent a lot of time together trying to get that brotherly thing going. We both play guitar, so we did a little bit of that...
*WGN 12/6/00[Joking about their dueling Kennedys:] [using the JFK accent] Fortunately I'd constantly win. 'Cause he's not that good at it. He may tell you different, but...a...he'd be wrong.
*On the Set 12/14/00We spent a lot of time together. He's another guitar player. Our primary goal was to distinguish our accents. We tried not to bump into each other. And we worked on our body language a lot. He's bigger than I am, whereas Jack was bigger than Bobby. So we had to find ways to mute that.
*Washington Post 1/7/01Steven [Culp, who plays Bobby] and I spent a lot of time together; we are both guitar players, so we had a way to groove together early on, and spent time hanging out. Without sounding too actor-y, we worked on the tension - when [the brothers] gave each other space; when they are most comfortable; and when they completely ignore the space because they have to be cheek to cheek. All those photos of them, with their arms crossed, their heads tilted like doves towards one another as though really sharing a message from somewhere else. Steven is physically bigger than I am and with the Kennedys it was the reverse, so he carved himself down physically. He lost 10 to 15 pounds and worked hard in the gym to become wiry and reedy the way Bobby was. I, on the other hand, was required to deny myself nothing and eat as much as I could to try and pulp up.
*Boston Globe 1/7/01Well, there were a lot of guitars on the set and the Brothers Kennedy would play guitar when they weren’t saving the world, which was kind of fun.
*The View 1/12/01Q: The relationship that you and Steven Culp [as Bobby Kennedy] have on screen looks pretty intense. How did you work that out?
BG: We spent a lot of time together, in the month before we shot, initially because our accents tended to drift into one another's. So we wanted to find a way to hang onto our own thing and be distinct without drifting into each other's territory. We're both guitar players, so we noodled around on guitars. And we just talked at each other.
*Nitrate Online 1/12/01
*popmatters.com 1/14/01Q: Talk to me about Steven Culp, the actor who plays Robert F. Kennedy. The chemistry between you and he, it seems, needed to be perfect in this.
BG: Well, we spent a lot of time together. We auditioned. In fact, the first audition we did together, we walked out, neither of us had the job and he said to me, "So, you got the gig already?" and I go, "No, no, I thought you had the gig, man." And eventually we were cast and we spent a lot of time together throwing our accents at one another, because initially we were pretty broad and we were just trying to find a distinct place for each of us to work from where we could remain separate and still sound as though we came from the same family. And he's a guitar player and so am I so we hung around playing guitar for a while and it kind of broke the ice. And then the work was just so consuming that we spent a lot of hours together.
*The Dean Richards Show 1/14/01We had a tendency to drift into one another's cadences and pitch, so we spent time to find ways to separate ourselves vocally. We were harassing each other from the moment we met ... picking on each other, like brothers do.
*Variety Oscar Issue 1/15/01I'm sorry about this [apologizing for the tardiness of his on-screen bro]. He's always late. I always had to cover for him on the set. But don't tell him I said that.
*Empire 4/01But you should have seen him when he was first auditioning. He was 15 lb heavier and he had no cheekbones -- there must have been a guy chasing him with a whip.
*Empire 4/01ON WORKING WITH ROGER DONALDSON:
When I get great material I linger over it and roll it around in my mouth and chew it forever before I swallow it and hand it over to the next guy. Then Roger would step in and go, "Come on. Wake up. This is too important for you to spend any more time massaging [the dialogue]. Let go. Don't gild it."
*L.A. Times 12/28/00Q: What kind of direction did you get for playing JFK from Roger Donaldson?
BG: For the most part, he let us do our thing, And often, he would be concerned that we were getting too involved and that the actors were falling into that pit that the actor finds himself in where he's so chockfull of subtext that he takes 5 minutes to say one line. He kept us from being too self-involved. I tend to, at any rate.
*Yahoo Online Chat 1/25/01ON WORKING WITH KEVIN COSTNER:
He was tremendous. It's hard for whatever superlative I use [to express] how he supported us and how he was there at all times and [under] all kinds of circumstances. He was a gentleman and a force for solidarity. I have nothing but respect and admiration for the way he approached this whole project.
*BoxOffice Online 11/00[on Costner as a difficult co-star:] I can completely debunk it. I never saw an iota of difficulty with him, ever. When he came on the set, he made sure he was accessible. There was none of that bulls**t at all. Not even a whiff of it.
*TV Guide Online 12/6/00Q: Kevin Costner did not take on the role of JFK. Why's that?
BG: Oh, I think, because....already there's an icon there -- JFK -- and to have a big star in front of that -- You gotta go through one icon to get to another and it might be hard to forget that it's Kevin, you know. And there'd be a lot of people just focusing on, "Ah, does Kevin pull off JFK?" And we wanted to get into the story.
Q: As the producer, was he heavily involved in the day to day production?
BG: Yeah. There's all kinds -- I suppose there's all kinds of stories. But he was great! He was really collaborative, inclusive and he was there every day and kept it moving.
*Open Mike 12/8/00Q: What was it like working with Kevin Costner?
BG: It was great. Very inclusive. Really collaborative. Very cool guy. Knows what he wants. Comes in prepared. He's a pro.
*Fred TV / 13 Days Premiere 12/19/00Kevin Costner could have played any part in this movie he wanted, but it required a star of his clout to get the movie up and running.....There was a conscious decision not to cast highly visible people in the roles of John and Robert Kennedy, so you didn't have to get through yet another persona to get to the characters. It was very bold of Costner, and it bears out his love for America. That's his thing; he loves all things American.
*Globe & Mail 12/22/00I believe he didn't want to play JFK because it would mean you would have to get through one icon to get to another. I don't know what I expected, but when a guy like that walks into a room, there's a zone around him, an aura. It's what people project on him more than what he himself is doing. And that feeling can be more intense with actors because we've all imagined what it's like to get to that zone he occupies.
*Los Angeles Daily News 12/24/00Q: Kevin Costner, in terms of star wattage, overshadows the rest of the cast of ''Thirteen Days.'' Did you have any reservations about doing a movie with such a big star?
BG: No. I don't think of stars as stars when I meet them. I think of them as actors. They're stars because they're good actors for the most part. Kevin's such a megastar that when he walks in the room there's such a zone around him. But then you realize that it's not so much what he's projecting as what we're projecting on to him. And he knows it's there, so he made a great effort from the first couple of weeks to remove that barrier.
Q: He easily could have demanded to play JFK, I suppose.
BG: Sure. But then the audience would have had to get through two icons in a sense to get to the man.
*Austin American Statesman 1/4/01You needed a huge megastar with that kind of weight. He ain't the hero of the piece. It's to his credit that it was made at all. ... He loves this particular time, when young men rose to be better than they could ever have expected.
*Boston Globe 1/7/01He was really collaborative. It may sound like so much fluff and shilling, but he was really inclusive. He went to great pains in the early days to make himself accessible.....not to just me, but to everyone in the room. When a big star like that walks into the room, the volume of air changes. There is a little more oxygen in the room somehow. But he really worked hard to make it easy on everyone to come up to him. He was a real ensemble player. I have nothing but respect for him.
*Daily Southtown 1/7/01I'd heard all the [unflattering] stories and didn't know what to expect. But he was collaborative, forthcoming and even-handed. He went to a great deal of trouble to make himself accessible to everyone. Before meeting him, I had wondered how it would be. Here I am, playing the president of the United States, and here is this superstar, playing my assistant. But he made it seem natural and comfortable for me.
*Dallas Morning News 1/7/01Credit goes to Kevin for that. When he walks in, there's a zone around a big star like that. He knows it's there, and he made great efforts the first couple of weeks to dispel that. The result was a very happy set and a film with a true ensemble feel. Kevin loves ideas and doesn't care where they come from, so everyone was allowed to make suggestions....So whatever my expectations were going into this project, they were far exceeded by the experience itself.
*Kansas City Star 1/11/01Q: Even though Costner's in the film, which sort of makes it a Costner film in marketing terms, anyway, the other characters are well drawn, or at least sketched.
BG: And that credit goes to Kevin, for understanding that, to get this movie made, and not play the president, he'd have to share the hero spot. And he really loves what's best about America. It sounds like the most horrendous cliche....
Q: Yeah. It does.
BG: [Laughs] Forgive me. But it's the truth. And he really wanted to make this movie. And he believes in much of what it asks us to think about, issues of trust and leadership.
*Nitrate Online 1/12/01
*popmatters.com 1/14/01Yeah, and that's kind of what's remarkable about the whole movie even having been made, because it needed a star of Costner's power and persuasion to get this thing going. And he's such an American, he really is, and cares so deeply about telling these stories about when we rose to be almost the best that we could be. And he really wanted to tell the story and was willing to take a role that is really truly part of an ensemble piece.
*Dean Richards 1/14/01I kicked back a lot of my salary to (director) Roger Donaldson [to get billed with Costner]....The guy is completely open and inclusive. A big star walks into the room with a certain amount of baggage, and he knows that, and he made a really distinct effort in the first week or two to dissolve that.
SF Chronicle 1/15/01If you had a big star play Kennedy, you would have to get past one icon to get to the other, and that might be difficult."
*Maclean's 1/15/01Credit goes to Kevin for that. When he walks in, there's a zone around a big star like that. He knows it's there, and he made great efforts the first couple of weeks to dispel that. The result was a very happy set and a film with a true ensemble feel. Kevin loves ideas and doesn't care where they come from, so everyone was allowed to make suggestions.
*Raleigh News & Observer 1/17/01Q: Did Kevin Costner live up to his bad press? Did he let his director direct?
BG: The rumors are such a falsity. I never saw any of that kind of interference.
*Empire 4/01ON THE FILM ITSELF:
The movie starts out and you realize [snaps his fingers] right away that everything hangs in the balance. It's not fiction!
*Movie TV 12/5/00It moves so fast. It's big, it's a glossy Hollywood political thriller - in the context of the world hanging in the balance....and it could again.
*WGN 12/6/00A lot of people don't know that a U2 was shot down with its pilot. It's full of info like that......Most people know the beginning and the end, but they don't know the story. The tag line about "You'll never believe how close we came," well, you'll never believe how many times we came [sweeps hand and makes sound effect] right to the edge, you know?
*Open Mike 12/6/00When I watched the movie I didn't expect this much tension..... When you shoot it, you're thinking day to day, you're dealing with it scene by scene; it takes a long time to shoot.... But man, I felt like I had to have the shoulder straps on while I was watching the movie.. It's this big Hollywood production, but at the same time, it's addressing these more profound themes that we should all take care to discuss every now and then.
*Hollywood One on One 12/13/00At the same time, it's smart. And guess what, it really happened.
*Canadian Press 12/21/00A quarter of a way into the movie you're going -- did this happen? Are you kidding me? Yeah! Yeah, it did!
*Extra 12/21/00...that relatively rare combo of a big polished Hollywood movie that's also smart.
*Globe & Mail 12/22/00It's a very smart script. It's one of those nice combinations of the glossy Hollywood political thriller that also has a brain.
*L.A. Times 12/28/00This 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.
*AOL Online 1/01I think this is a good movie. I also think it's a fun movie to watch even for people who don't know anything about this period. I think they can fasten their shoulder straps, go on this ride for 2 1/2 hours and be excited purely on a film experience level while also being introduced to a historical moment unlike anything the world has ever seen.
*Ottawa Citizen 1/4/01It has this incredible pace that you associate with a well-made political thriller. At the same time, it is a profound reminder that we still live under the threat of nuclear flattening.
*Daily Southtown 1/7/01The script's approach was not to describe people's innermost thoughts but rather to show what they'd done and what they'd said. ... That gives you plenty of emotional information and enough heart-pounding, nail-biting story points to really hang a good film on.
*Kansas City Star 1/11/01Q: Why this movie now? What do the lessons does it teach us?
BG: I think certainly it asks us to understand the responsibilities shouldered by the people in the Oval Office, and the quality of intellect that needs to be summoned when we're faced with this kind of crisis.
*USA Chat 1/11/01Well, that's not the presiding theme of this; it's more about judgment and diplomacy and leadership. What you did see was Kennedy, both the Kennedys, trying to suss out what the heart of the man in the Kremlin, trying to figure out what he really wanted, trying to read between the lines, you know, all the war-like talk coming from the other side as well as the war-like talk from this side. Trying to divine the will, the real will, of the human being at the other end. But I think that's something that's not often done. Usually the opposition is kind of demonized to some degree, and I don't think they were in this case. It's amazing how many times within that fortnight they came right to the edge.
*On the Arts 1/12/01Well 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.
*The Early Show 1/12/01Q: What do you think the most important statement that this film makes is?
BG: It's a film about leadership and judgment. And how without a profound sense of both of those we're on very thin ice, still.
*Dean Richards Show 1/14/01It's a great ride, this movie. It's an exciting political thriller set within the context of this huge Hollywood movie, which we've all kind of come to expect. And it's big and fast-moving and a thriller. And then, at the end of the day, you're not gonna believe that this really happened. I think we think now that somehow, no matter what oaf is in office in the White House, they'll figure it out....But if that had happened now...or next year....
*Yahoo Online Movie 1/15/01This movie is about an aspect of Kennedy we haven't been invited to explore. It doesn't spend any time in Camelot.
*NY Daily News 1/15/01The script's approach was not to describe people's innermost thoughts but rather to show what they'd done and what they'd said. ... That gives you plenty of emotional information and enough heart-pounding, nail-biting story points to really hang a good film on.
*Raleigh News & Observer 1/17/01Their primary experience is going to be strapping in shoulder straps and everything and getting rocketed down this track towards the end of the world -- and it really happened!
*CNN Show Biz Today 1/17/01It was kind of evocative really. It pulled you back into the time a little bit, and I think that....when you step out of that decision-making environment with the guys in suits deciding whether or not to hoist a missile and light the fuse. And then bang! You're flying over the fields of Cuba or watching a missile rise in the foreground. It reminds you that - as dry as you might think those decision are behind closed doors - they have real world consequences that are felt immediately.
*In the Lyon's Den 1/20/01Q: Bruce, how do you see the movie JFK as different from other movies about the life of this president and what attracted you most to play this role?
BG: First of all, they look at 2 different times. One is about his death and conspiracy surrounding it and this is about a fortnight and the lives of these brothers when the world hung in the balance. And what attracted me to it was how complicated the interpersonal relationships were and how unlikely it was, on the face of it, that they would have found a way through this crisis without shedding the blood of hundreds and thousands. It's a very clean script. And very serious. And not given to stomping down that well-worn path, that become the stock and trade of immortalizing Kennedy.
*Yahoo Online Chat 1/25/01What's great about this film is that it reminds us that it was a magical combination of factors and people that came together to save us from the world being ripped in half. This generation should take the journey that this movie straps them into. They'll realize that not only can this happen but that these missiles are still there and we need people of intellect, foresight, restraint and statesmanship to walk us out from under the shadow. The Bay of Pigs made it clear to Kennedy that not all is what it appears to be with the military sometimes, that even they can't control the outcome. It makes a military solution not really a solution. It's just a response. It makes a military response terrifying.
*Flare 2/01On the film's accuracy:
You can't tell a history on film or in a book without it being subjective to some degree. Because everybody has a point of view. I found that out when I was doing the research. I've got a stack of books like that on this period alone - just this fortnight. And many of them tell a story of particular meetings, the same meeting, and the sense of tone - is different - depending on who's remembering it. So this doesn't pretend to be the definitive version of what happened although the broad strokes are all there.
*Movie TV 12/26/00[O'Donnell's role in the crisis is] up for conjectures. You can't get it right. It's `Rashomon.' It is incredible how many perspectives there are on this fortnight alone. Any historical drama by nature - it's false architecture to say it's a true story. At the end of the day, this is another perspective on these events.
*Boston Globe 1/7/01Q: For someone who knows very little about the Cuban Missile Crisis, is this film a good indication of actual events?
BG: Yes it is. It's a very fair representation of the broad strokes. Any historical drama is Rashomon, to some degree. A true history is somewhat of a false architecture. Whoever relates history will have a unique perspective. This movie doesn't claim to be a definitive account, but it does help give a broader view. There's yet more to be discovered after seeing this movie.
*USA Chat 1/11/01Yeah, you know, you see something like -- and this is just by way of a euphemism, I guess -- something like Armageddon (where I don't know anything about that movie particularly), but often we see movies where "THE WORLD IS ENDANGERED" and somehow, it doesn't seem that big a deal because we're kinda used to seeing the whole world endangered. We've seen so many images of the world blowing up like a balloon.
*Dean Richards 1/14/01Q: 13 Days is a historical piece- is there a lot of pressure to make sure that all the details are right?
BG: There's a great deal of pressure to make sure the big deals of the story were accurate. Because any telling of history has an element of Rashomon to it. At the end of the day, your perspective on this man is going to be distinct from others, as will any telling of history. Like a true historical story is kind-of a false architecture. I'm not sure if that answers your question, but for the most part, the large elements of the story are told the way they happen, taken with amalgamating characters, combing and eliminating characters. To drive the story forward.
*Yahoo Online Chat 1/25/01On selling the film:
We're hoping that people are looking for it somewhere. I think certainly kids, who might have been less interested in this at another time, now have seen beyond that flimsy curtain that the soul of politics is hiding behind. Maybe now we should spend some time looking at where we've been and how far we've come, or haven't.
*Nitrate Online 1/12/01
*popmatters.com 1/14/01Q: Will you be promoting the film "Thirteen Days" by appearing on any Talk Shows?
BG: I have done a few already. Was on The View but unfortunately we were pre-empted here by a very important smoke alarm. No fire. Much alarm.
*Yahoo Online Chat 1/25/01Q: Might you be involved in commentaries on the Thirteen Days DVD?
BG: Yeah, I think they did some EPKs [Electronic Press Kits] while we were shooting and they may pull some comments from those interviews and attach them to the DVD. I'm not sure.
*Yahoo Online Chat 1/25/01ON JFK:
What surprised me more than anything was how little I knew about him. You sort of think because you're always reading something about him you know a little bit, but I didn't know anything. This is a story where he is involved in 13 days of heroism, so there are none of the peccadilloes or anything that people can make hay from. What I realized more than anything else was that you can't become a Kennedy scholar in six months. I was researching the subject for 24 hours a day in an effort to find some way in. In fact, I was still doing reseach when we were shooting.
*Georgia Strait 4/6/00They don't spend any time with all the froth and frivolity and peccadillos and what not. That's such an easy mark. And the more research I did, the more I discovered it was a hundredth part of who he was and a thousandth part of what he did. You know?
*WGN 12/6/00I had thought of him as this prince of Camelot and with the wave of his arm he could inspire people and dismiss them. And that he ruled over Camelot with ease and grace and sexuality and easy power. It couldn't have been further from the truth.....[Kennedy was] intellectually driven, a voracious reader, often quoting poetry that would contextualize the conversation he was having.
*L.A. Times 12/28/00I think we have this glossy Camelot parentheses that we put [Kennedy] in. He was extremely well educated, very bright and almost impossibly articulate, even in private. He could pull poetry from the air, loved poets of all kinds, was constantly making literary references. And [he] cared deeply about where the country was going. And where I think maybe our inclination is to see him a little more frivolously, because we’re so used to seeing him walking on the beach with the tousled hair, that great thatch blowing in the wind when they’re sailing -- it was a whole lot more than that.
*Entertainment Today 12/31/00Q: Did you sleep with the ghost of Marilyn Monroe to prepare for the part?
BG: No, that's . . . well, that's such a well-worn path, you know. That path is deep and wide with people dragging their own baggage along it. So the fact that this script concentrated on a period on which every waking moment was spent in agonizing deliberation about how best to avoid the end of the world -- it wasn't, you know, ''Bobby, I'll get back to you. I've got Marilyn on line 3.''
*Austin-American Statesman 1/4/01My shallow acquaintance with Kennedy was based on media and the prince who presided over Camelot with grace and wit and alacrity. The more studying I did, the more I realized intellectually he was driven; he was a voracious reader and, at heart, a serious man. Fortunately, the script doesn't take us to Camelot. It takes us to the serious side of diplomacy in the hands of very capable, albeit young, men. I wanted to serve that.
*Boston Globe 1/7/01That path is so beaten down. Who needs to go there? That was a 50th part of who he was, if that and the more research I did, the more I realized it would be just absurd to focus on that if you wanted to get a larger sense of him. And this script doesn't go there. It goes to a much more serious place to show him as a driven intellectual at the height of his intuitive powers. This was Kennedy's coming of age.
*Toronto Sun 1/7/01Well, we're talking about this 14-day fortnight. If you look at it carefully, our best guess is that he was busy. It would not have been possible. It would be so easy to do that. It was a back door we just didn't want to bother with.
*Washington Post 1/7/01I really came to admire him, which is inevitable, but I mean that I admired him tremendously. I had not been aware of the tremendous amount of anti-Catholicism he had to overcome just to be elected. And I felt that he was very intellectually driven, somewhat in contrast to the popular image of him as young, smiling and carefree. He could freely quote poetry and classical literature.
*Dallas Morning News 1/7/01[on visiting the Kennedy Memorial in Dallas:]
I definitely got a chill at the triple underpass. The whole experience of making the film was a revelation to me. Prior to it, my own vision of JFK might be called soft-focus. I knew about the Camelot mystique and had visions of him playing ball with his brothers and running along the beach, tousled-haired. I knew, of course, about Jackie, and somewhere in my mind was the image of Marilyn Monroe singing 'Happy Birthday' to him......It's nice that I didn't have to play him in that mythical manner. [Director] Roger [Donaldson] and I both wanted a more realistic perspective.
*Dallas Morning News 1/7/01We have this glossy kind of Camelot parenthesis that we put him in. When I was looking at rare file footage of quiet conversations, I noticed that his voice was very low, and it seemed to me that for public oration his voice jumped an octave or two. So I chose to go for that lower pitch. I also thought he concealed the pain of his back, so I felt that behind closed doors he probably didn't bother to conceal it. He was very well educated, very bright, and almost impossibly articulate. He could quote poetry out of the air and loved poets of all kinds. He was constantly making literary references and cared deeply about where the country was going. But we are used to seeing those pictures of him playing touch football or walking on the beach with tousled hair or sailing, and he was a whole lot more than that.
*Georgia Straight 1/11/01I realized just what a voracious reader [Kennedy] was. He quoted obscure poetry all the time and was driven in a way that few of us could ever hope to understand. I think part of that came from the relationship he had with his father, but there was no end to his complexities. That's what I loved most about the part: there was room for interpretation.
Vancouver Sun 1/12/01I had no idea what a voracious intellect he had. He read incessantly, and he loved poets. And on occasion he would pull a quote from an obscure poet into a meeting discussing some kind of, some political situation. Whatever. But he would pull in this obscure quote that would.....recontextualize what they were talking about, so mixing art and...........
*The View 1/12/01I 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.
*The Early Show 1/12/01It was a gift [to not address those issues]. That is a well-trod path and I think one of the strengths of the script is that it treated these men with the respect that they're due given the circumstances they were confronting here. It didn't wander down that dusty old trail of peccadilloes and backroom chicanery. It treated a very serious subject with solemnity.
*Akron Beacon Journal 1/12/01I had a very shallow knowledge of him -- other than he was this gorgeous man who presided over Camelot, and that it all seemed to come naturally and effortlessly to him.
*Baltimore Sun 1/13/01[I had] a really shallow impression [of John Kennedy], mostly because I was 7 when he died. But also because I was influenced by film footage that sanctified Camelot, portraying him as a prince who presided over a kingdom with grace, charm, casual, but never cruel, wit. And he never seemed to work at it. It all seemed to come easier to him.....[that] represented one-fiftieth of the man. That he did have the kind of avid mind that could contextualize everything he dealt with, like in foreign policy. Remember when he brings up that book 'The Guns of August' to compare what was happening around him to that moment? He did those things often.
*Newsday 1/14/01Q: How would you not like being JFK? Did you get all the babes to go with the JFK role?
BG: Yeah, that was an understanding, yeah.
Q: It was? Part of the contract? Where's the Marilyn Monroe look-alike?
BG: Is that so wrong? I mean, just because it wasn't in the movie doesn't mean it had to be researched. No, that was one of the things that attracted me to the movie is, they don't spend any time making those [snap, snap] easy marks. You know, these guys were busy and they were busy doing stuff that precluded any of those dalliances.
*Dean Richards Show 1/14/01What really attracted me to (the movie) is that it didn't go down that well-worn path. It wasn't like, 'Hey Bobby, hold on, I got Marilyn on line 3.' . . . It was a brutally serious time.
*SF Chronicle 1/15/01We see him where we haven't seen him before -- behind closed doors. He's not performing. The script doesn't rely on Camelot and tousled hair and wooden sailing boats. And the more I read, the more I realized Camelot was a 50th of who he was. He was a voracious reader. He could quote poets and writers forever in profoundly appropriate ways."
*Maclean's 1/15/01I was also struck by what a voracious intellect he had and his ability to draw upon the musings of obscure poets to obtain a frame of reference for a political situation. The more I read, the more I found how serious he was.
*Variety Oscar Issue 1/15/01There was this stretch of tape from about a month before the events recalled in Thirteen Days. Bobby Kennedy, Ted Sorensen and the president are talking about getting pas (Gov. George) Wallace. It's mostly Bobby describing what they're gonna do. But JFK is such an active listener, so engaged, that you can just see the whells turn. And his intellect is so evident as he listens....
*Detroit News 1/18/01Q: Did you learn anything about what kind of person JFK was during this movie? Just as much as the last one you were in?
BG: The last "real person" I played was Dennis Wilson. You know, you can only learn so much from books and there's all kinds of different perspectives on the man. I knew very little about him when I began. I'm not presumptuous to say that I understand him. I'm not willing to go that far. I probably understand him a little better than I did ... but do I really know him? Certainly not.
*Yahoo Online Chat 1/25/01Q: You have described JFK as "driven intellectually and a voracious reader", cannot those words be used to describe yourself?
BG: Oh, no. I'm going to have to pick much smaller words. A one-syllable word. I read a bit but this guy was legendary. He could digest in 20 minutes what it would take me an afternoon to assimilate. If ever.
*Yahoo Online Chat 1/25/01Q: Do you believe there was a Camelot for JFK?
BG: That's a great question. Wouldn't surprise me if on some level he felt like he was charmed and chosen, but we'll never know. That's a great question, but nobody can answer it.
Yahoo Online Chat 1/25/01Q: Has your opinion of JFK changed?
BG: Yeah. Before, I thought of him as this gorgeous man with tousled hair who ran along the beach, sailed and effortlessly ran Camelot with grace and wit. That was a tiny wedge of the pie, but the rest of it was very serious. He was a man who cared deeply about leading his country.
*Flare 2/01Q: What did you learn?
BG: Well, I had only the most cursory understanding and appreciation of who he was -- that he was a Prince...who presided over Camelot with alacrity and grace and ease....And I realized later after beginning to read that he was really driven intellectually...A voracious reader himself and [he] felt very deeply about many issues. And he wasn't just a great looking entertainer and chief.
*Yahoo Movies Chats with BG 2/1/01Q Do you think Americans, sepecially American people know this side of John F Kennedy and has your view on this man changed?
BG My view certainly changed, ´cause my appreciation had been very shallow and really resulted from the media, you know -- that he had been a Prince of Camelot, that he presided over Camelot with grace and wit (snaps his fingers) and then I discovered that he was a pretty serious intellectual and a voracious reader and really driven.
*Nagy Transcript 2/13/01Q: That the American people, I think, don't really know this side of John F Kennedy.
BG: Yeah, I think they may not as much, because it's much easier for the media to dwell on the stuff that is saucy and spicy and, you know, the women and the parties and the top hats and everything. But he was also a pretty serious - a very serious - statesman and particularly in this period, so I think it's an opportunity to show him in a different way that he deserves
*Nagy Transcript 2/13/01On JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis:
[The public will] be simply astounded that it was only through the efforts of a few good men that Armageddon was side-stepped. The pressure that was on [John] Kennedy to respond militarily and politically was incalculable. And that strength of character and courage to avoid making a decision that would have changed the world forever is something people maybe don't quite realize.
*Cigar Aficianado 12/00I think that's one of the brilliant things about the way Kennedy - both the Kennedys - handled this crisis. They brought together a really disparate group of men that you wouldn't ordinarily tap for their opinions, because they didn't do it based on rank at all. They did it based on their assessment of how profound these individuals - of how profoundly they might understand the situation. But ultimately, of course, it was the President's decision, and that's what weighed so heavily.
*WGN 12/6/00Once I started to do the research, I was astounded at the force of will it must have required to avoid pulling the trigger early. I respected him before and now my respect for him is profound. It wasn't all parties and top hats.
*TV Guide Online 12/6/00His father had some trouble in Munich. And......I think that's what's incredible about these men in this period that they exercised the strength not to fight. There's lots of movies in Hollywood about men fighting, but there's not a lot of movies made about men trying NOT to fight......you know, the courage not to fight. As cliché as that may sound -- really -- the courage not to fight is -- you know?
&Open Mike 12/8/00This is where these man came of age, you know. They came out leaders. The way they kept the almost-inevitable at arms' length long enough to find a peaceful solution. If they were put on Earth for no other reason than to preside over this fortnight.
*Canadian Press 12/21/00Q: What surprized you most in your research about JFK?
BG: His ability to hold at arms length all the incredible pressure he was receiving to pull the trigger.
*Entertainment Tonight 12/29/00I was amazed at [Kennedy’s] ability to withstand this profound pressure from the military to engage. I mean, the arguments to engage were compelling, and the alternative was unthinkable. He had recommendations for everything from pulling the trigger to rolling over, and neither of those choices was appropriate. But the pressure to be pull the trigger was.....It was beyond my ability to comprehend, really.
*Entertainment Today 12/31/00There'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 Online 1/01I had no idea it came so close [to nuclear war] so many times during this harrowing fortnight. I was particularly struck by Kennedy's backbone. The pressure he was getting from the U.S. military to respond violently was profound and compelling. By being able to sidestep those arguments for as long as he did, while hoping to divine a peaceful way out of the situation, was remarkable.
*Daily Southtown 1/7/01I really admire the guy, and his refusal to give in when, during the missile crisis, the generals said we had to invade Cuba. Within that 13-day period it almost defies belief how many times we came to the edge of the abyss. If this particular group of young men had not presided over this period of history, my precious crayons would have been vaporized.
*Kansas City Star 1/11/01
*Raleigh News &Observer 1/17/01The arguments to engage were compelling, and the alternative was unthinkable. He had recommendations from pulling the trigger to rolling over, and while neither of those choices was appropriate, the pressure that was behind them was beyond my ability to comprehend.
*Georgia Straight 1/11/01I was astounded at the force of will it must have required for him to avoid pulling the trigger early. The courage that it took not to fight is astounding to me.....He had these compelling arguments from the military to move, and they're smart guys. There were a couple of them who were admittedly browbeating him with pretty simplistic arguments, but there were others who were making profound, detailed arguments as to why, if we didn't pull the trigger now, it was 'game over'.
*Arizona Republic 1/12/01Q: Do you think this sense of respect had to do as well with our current historical moment?
BG: I do think there was some of that. The more we realized what men and women in the Oval Office are going to be called on to deal with, the more we thought, "Oh my God, what we've got going on now is just thoroughly unacceptable." Admittedly the Kennedy brothers were lucky during this event, but at the end of the day, if it had been anybody else, we might not be having this conversation. And it's beyond politics. One of the [Kennedys'] brilliant strokes was that they enlisted as many different points of view as they could respect, put them in a room together, and allowed everyone to have their say. My own respect for what's required to be a great leader and exercise real judgment was altered. You put yourself in the shoes of an icon like Kennedy, and at some point you see him as a man, and you think, "Who among us is really qualified for this?" Not many. Maybe some who don't appear to be qualified will rise to those occasions, but for the most part, we need superb people. The office of course, is not attainable for people who make mistakes, who've had sea changes in the way they view the world. That's not acceptable because it looks like a lack of focus or a lightness.
*Nitrate Online 1/12/01Q: How difficult was it to tackle this mythic character?
BG: Well, the fortunate thing about the script is that it doesn't go to Camelot. Instead, you see a man alone. The deeper I got into the research, the more I realized how driven intellectually he was, and how his sense of moral obligation, to do what he felt was right, evolved profoundly from the Bay of Pigs to this time [the Missile Crisis].
*Nitrate Online 1/12/01
*popmatters.com 1/14/01He was a very serious guy, who, when confronted with the most serious of problems, could rise to it. I think during this period, he really came of age; this was a turning point in his ability to lead. To try and describe that arc somehow, within the context of this movie, is something I gave a lot of thought to.
*Baltimore Sun 1/13/01There's a really eloquent passage in 'Thirteen Days,' Robert Kennedy's book about the crisis, where he describes the situation room just before Kennedy said bring the sub up [by firing on it], before it became apparent that the ships were turning around and he rescinded the order. It talks about how Kennedy's face turned a visible gray and he seemed to age infinitely, on the spot. It's only about half a page, but it helped to describe for me the sort of abject helplessness of that moment, how appallingly helpless he was, faced with those unthinkable consequences.
*Baltimore Sun 1/13/01My own respect for what's required to be a great leader and exercise real judgment was altered. You put yourself in the shoes of an icon like Kennedy, and at some point you see him as a man, and you think, "Who among us is really qualified for this?" Not many.
*popmatters.com 1/14/01It was astonishing to imagine that one or two people could be under this kind of pressure and have everything hang in the balance.
*13 Days Premiere / hollywood.com 1/19/01On the Kennedy mystique:
Q. What do you think why Kennedy, even nowadays, he is such a mysterical man? He was a hero
BG: Why he is such an icon? Well, I think he was the first president in a long time to make the country feel young. He was a very young man when he was president and gave the country a sense of youth and strength and hope and when that hope was snuffed out, with him and his brother, they became mythic and that Shakespearian tragedy was complete. So, they were Shakespearian, I mean that's why, it's easy to see how they became icons, because you look at their lives and how they ended and that's Shakespearian, so how could they help but become icons?
*Nagy Transcript 2/13/01On the assassination:
It's difficult not to be affected by that.
*Akron Beacon Journal 1/12/01Q Were you already on earth when he died?
BG: Oh yeah. I was seven years old during this crisis, or six years.
Q: And do you remember the day?
BG: Oh, I remember the furneral. I don´t remember the day he died; I remember the furneral
Q: And did you get the reaction, the reaction of the people in America? Everyone was so down?
BG: Yeah, oh of course; it was so pervasive.
*Nagy Transcript 2/13/01On Bobby and Jack:
Q: 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?
BG: 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 Online 1/01Q:Were you pretty surprized at how young these guys were?
BG: 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 Online 1/01They battled and baited one another but I think at heart there was love and respect that surpasses many relationships of any description.
*Boston Globe 1/7/01As inside as O'Donnell's been during the course of this harrowing fortnight, he looks out there and those are the guys. No one will ever separate or come between them or sway them from this inspired growth curve.
*Boston Globe 1/7/01Q: Well, Bobby Kennedy went through some dramatic changes during his career.
BG: Yes. At first he may have seen Civil Rights initially as a political necessity and then once he investigated it, it became a moral crusade for him.
*Nitrate Online 1/12/01
*popmatters.com 1/14/01Q: Do you think this sense of respect had to do as well with our current historical moment?
BG: I do think there was some of that. The more we realized what men and women in the Oval Office are going to be called on to deal with, the more we thought, "Oh my God, what we've got going on now is just thoroughly unacceptable." Admittedly the Kennedy brothers were lucky during this event, but at the end of the day, if it had been anybody else, we might not be having this conversation. And it's beyond politics. One of the [Kennedys'] brilliant strokes was that they enlisted as many different points of view as they could respect, put them in a room together, and allowed everyone to have their say.
*popmatters.com 1/14/01Q: What was it like developing the characterizations because, as you say, although they were Kennedys and they were very much alike, they were also very different. How was your characterization different than his?
BG: They were just different men. You study their individual histories and the stuff that moves them and motivates them, and watch tape. And physically they're vastly different and they had very different energies; and their body languages were distinctly separate from one another so it was really only the voices where we found we crossed paths initially and then eventually we prized ourselves apart.
*Dean Richards Show 1/14/01On reactions from the Kennedy family:
Q: Have you heard from any of the Kennedys about the film and more specifically about your interpretation of JFK?
BG: I've heard some second hand reports that have been encouraging. I gather Chris Lawford (who's in the movie) says it was well received by the family.
USA Chat 1/11/01Q: Did you contact the Kennedy family?
BG: No. It'll be interesting what they say.
*Flare 2/01On Kenny O'Donnell:
The point of view is every man, a regular guy at the seat of power watching this stuff unfold.
*On the Set 12/14/00Q: Explain who Kenny O'Donnell was. There really was a Kenny O'Donnell.
BG: Oh, yeah.
Q: And the book it was based on - the book that he wrote.
BG: He came back a war hero, went to Harvard, met Bobby Kennedy at Harvard, was a quarterback there, and Bobby Kennedy was the guy who received the passes from Kenny O'Donnell. This is a time in the world when you come back a hero and you go to Harvard - you're golden. Then they entered politics and Kenny helped and Bobby persuaded Kenny to help him (Jack) campaign early on. So he became an insider. And very tight friend of the Kennedys for 15 years before they got to the White House. And part of the conjecture in this movie suggests that their friendship was profound enough and Kenny O'Donnell admittedly has had a reputation for SPEAKING HIS [snaps fingers] MIND. And their relationship as tight enough that O'Donnell could say whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted And that makes for some pretty interesting backroom conversations in this movie that drive the story forward.
*Dean Richards 1/14/01Q: What was his relationship with Kenneth O'Donnell?
BG: Very honest, I think. They'd been friends for 15 years. And O'Donnell was known to be an opinionated guy, who was willing to share his opinions regardless of what anybody thought, so I think JFK had a great deal of respect for him in that regard. Because when a presiden