Racing Stripes
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The extensive press kit for Racing Stripes includes biographies and quotes from all the cast and crew as well as notes on the production, the animation and the story line. Only those portions pertaining to Bruce Greenwood will be included here:
Casting the Humans
"We couldn't be happier with our human cast, and it is a very difficult movie for them in some respects," says director Frederik Du Chau. "Hayden, Bruce, Wendie and Emmet are all unbelievable actors in their own rights, and we've put them in a situation where they have to weave their story through scenes where animals talk, which is tough."
Bruce Greenwood plays Nolan Walsh, a former champion thoroughbred trainer who gave it all up after losing his wife in a tragic racing accident. In the following years, he's settled down as a farmer and concentrated on raising his daughter, Channing. They've always been close, but like most adolescents, as she grows older, Channing is beginning to assert her independence, which in her case means chasing a dream against Nolan's wishes -- her ambition is to be a jockey like her mother, but her protective father absolutely forbids it.
"It's about triumph of the spirit," says Greenwood, whose film career has included a critically acclaimed performance as President Kennedy iin Thirteen Days and last summer's hit I, Robot. "It's also a story about a little girl falling in love with an animal and nurturing him until he reaches his full potential, and finding the same in herself. So, it's a perfect family movie, and I've never really been in a movie so uplifting, humorous and enthusiastic."
"To have an actor of his caliber in this movie is a true blessing," says Du Chau, "because if the audience doesn't believe in our human story, then our talking animals don't seem real either."
Greenwood went on location early to get accustomed to working with the animals. "The first thing you have to do is get them comfortable around you. Food always helps." And no, he's never worked with four-legged creatures before. "I can tell you they are definitely the stars of the show, though never in any acting class did I imagine I'd be co-starring opposite a pelican."The Cast
BRUCE GREENWOOD (Nolan Walsh) earned rave reviews for his dazzling portrayal of John F. Kennedy in the Cuban missile crisis drama Thirteen Days. Prior to that performance, his most noted film roles were star turns in Atom Egoyan's acclaimed independent films Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter, both shot in Greenwood's native Canada.
Greenwood established himself as a leading man with his first major television series, the much-honored St. Elsewhere, in which he played "Dr. Seth Griffin" for three seasons. In the years that followed, he worked constantly, starring in television movies and series including the short-lived but deeply revered Nowhere Man in the 1995-96 season.
Since then, he has focused on feature films, including Double Jeopardy with Tommy Lee Jones and Ashley Judd; Rules of Engagement, also with Tommy Lee Jones; his work with Egoyan, adding a third project, Ararat, and last summer's hit, I, Robot with Will Smith. Most recently he co-starred opposite Annette Bening in the award-bound Being Julia.
