on Tom Avery:
What I loved about Tom is he's so open to the possibility of something great. Just because he's had three failed relationships behind him, it doesn't stop his desire for something huge and wonderful.
Toronto Star 2/13/04
Tom's an innocent, optimistic guy. He's been around the block and yet he's naïve in terms of love, as he believes in the fable of love. I usually get to play guys with something up their sleeves, but here's a guy who wears his heart on his!
Press Kit
Tom is one of the most decent men I've ever played....It's fun, you know. You're not standing around looking grim all the time.
Ottawa Citizen 2/3/04
Tom is a genuine guy, open to everything. And even though he's been married a few times, that hasn't affected his belief that good things are possible. He's a romantic at heart and a believer in love.
Globe & Mail 2/10/04
He's been around the block, but he's still naive.
National Post 2/12/04
Yeah, this guy has had, you know, a handful of marriages and they haven’t gone perfectly. But he’s still a romantic, still believes that something can happen. So, um, the message of the film is basically that love can bloom out of the sidewalk, and you know, we should just be open to it.
Mike Bullard Show 2/2/04
There's this guy who I play who just wears his heart on his sleeve, you know. He's just without guile, without an agenda, and.....without a girl.....You know, he's trying, he's out there.... And he's a decent guy and there's a bunch of swings and misses and then finally [makes a noise like an explosion].
Star TV 2/15/04
He's one of those guys who isn't giving up. He, he's always hoping.
Movie-Television 2/7/04
We both wear our hearts on our sleeves and, when you really get down to it, we're pretty sappy guys.
Calgary Sun 2/16/04
It's trickier (playing good guys) in some ways. The decisions Tom makes are impulsive, and he has no agenda, so you have to be relaxed in a different way when you are playing someone with one.
Press Kit
on why he wanted the role:
That's one of the reasons I did this movie..........I got a chance to play somebody who's light-hearted and happy to get up in the morning. The point for me was to do something that was different from what I normally do, as well as something that had a really uplifting sentiment........
Toronto Star 2/13/04
I read the script first, got turned on to the character and the story, then read the novel," he explains. "A novel does give you more from which to choose and you can really evoke a sense of character.
Globe & Mail 2/10/04
I wanted to be a guy without an agenda for a change....I like doing lighter stuff. There's still plenty of get-it-done tension on the set, but the overriding vibe is more frivolous.
National Post 2/13/04
I wanted to make it because I love the sentiment it evokes and I love what it talks about. I believe in that stuff and I've spent so much time playing bad guys and it's not really who I am..... I felt I was getting a little, not typecast, but perceived as that being what I do, and it's not particularly. It just happened to kind of work out that way. So, I wanted to do something that was a little more frivolous.
Star TV 2/15/04
I did it because I play so many bad guys and I and I'm, I don't wanna do that all the time. I want to have
fun, you know. I mean, I wanna just have a nice little love story and that's what this is.
Movie-Television 2/7/04
I play so many bad guys and I don't want to do that all the time, plus it was a chance to do something in Canada, which was attractive... A reason I also wanted to do this was that it's a fable, a very beautiful fable.
Press Kit
I'm a romantic and a bit of a sap, so that certainly resonates.
Ottawa Citizen 2/3/04
You know, he is one of those guys that wears his heart on his sleeve and that's why it kind of appealed to me in the first place.
Cause I'm, you know, I'm a bit of a romantic and so sort of identified with playing nefarious characters with hidden agendas.
So I wanted to do something that was just a little, you know, a guy that wakes up in the morning kinda OK and gets happy
cause the coffee is hot, you know. Almost anything can make him feel good but the one thing he hasn't got is someone to
share it with.
Ottawa Citizen 2/3/04
I finally thought, I've got to do something a little cheerier, not like some of those negative nutcases I've played. And with this character I got to wear my heart on my sleeve and share a little joy. It's like using a whole set of muscles you haven't used in a while - and it feels good.
Globe & Mail 2/10/04
I'm not a baddie, morose, scheming, power-hungry or despondent this time, so let's keep things light...It is so different for me to be playing a character who doesn't have some hidden agenda and isn't scowling or scheming. I got to be so cheery.
Calgary Sun 2/16/04
Having played so many people with hidden agendas, I just wanted to play a guy who wore his heart on his sleeve. It's nice to go to work and smile instead of hiding behind a door plotting. I usually play guys who, if they laugh, it's cynical. And this character is not a cynic. I'm not a cynic either, personally.
(Toronto) Eye 2/13/04
I did it because I play so many bad guys. And I don't want to do that all the time. I want to have fun. I want to have a nice little love story and that's what this is. And it's a chance to come home and do something in Canada.
Star TV 9/5/03
It's long overdue. I was really looking forward to playing a guy who didn't have a hidden agenda, and this guy has his heart on his sleeve. And he had a sense of humour. And so often I play guys whose sense of humour is pretty much concealed....
Ottawa Citizen 2/3/04
Well, ...most of the time, at home, I'm not really that bad a guy, you know, and I was kinda looking forward to doing something where I'm human.... I somehow got into that niche where people recognize me for playing characters with lots of hidden agendas, you know, and I just wanted to play somebody who really wore his heart on his sleeve.
Canada A.M. 2/2/04
I wanted to play in something where I could come to work and laugh, you know.
Like usually I come to work happy and I have to kind of cheer down, you know.
I've got to get serious and I got to go to work this time and not really be that
serious, just be, just hang out and have fun and um, that just really appealed to me.
Reel to Reel 2/9/04
[I usually play] bad guys with 15 agendas. Of course I thought I could play a romance.
Globe & Mail, 8/30/03
Playing bad guys is not a mistake I made, but now I've got to sort of snap out of it.
Canadian Press 2/12/04
I'm sort of a romantic, I'm not as nasty as many of the characters I play. That's one of the reasons it appealed. Not just that it's closer to me, it's just that I don't get an opportunity to do that stuff that's a little more light-hearted, frivolous and animated. The guys with the agendas are often played close to the vest and this guy has his heart on his sleeve....The older I get, the more easily moved I am by gestures of kindness, so in that sense I'm a romantic. I don't do the flowers as often as I should, probably. I guess romantic is a roundabout way of saying I'm a softie. Like a flower growing out of a crack in the sidewalk, love can bloom anywhere, because we all want it. We're all craving that moment when you look at somebody and go 'I didn't understand anything until I met you.' If to the uninitiated, to the unloved, it seems a bit Pollyanna-ish, well, it ain't, really. Once you're in it, everything means something -- the number of cars at an intersection, the way clouds are flowing.
Vancouver Province 2/11/04
I'm so identified with being, you know, one of those guys who's pretty serious (pretends
to fall asleep and snores) and always with a, you know, a hidden agenda. I'm going to
steal you wife or your money or both and um, I just wanted to play a guy who's happy.
Inside Entertainment 2/7/04
Q: Are you working on anything else now?
A: .... I’m leaving to do a little romantic comedy called Republic of Love.
Q: It’ll be nice seeing you in a comedy.
A: Yea, something a little bit lighter. Where I get the girl for a change.
Dark Hoizons 10/10/02
It’s a little romantic comedy about a couple of people finding love a little later in life. It’ll be nice to be working back in Canada again.
Tribute Magazine 10/02
on the movie itself:
For me, the metaphor for this movie is a flower blooming in a sidewalk. Love can happen anywhere at anytime to anybody, no matter how old you are or how young you are. Don't stop letting it happen, don't stop letting it in. Don't stop being open to it. I think anybody would be able to relate to the movie if they're honest with themselves, whether you're single or married.
Toronto Star 2/13/04
Its about two people finding love in the late innings, and um, being a little leery of taking that plunge and
then finally taking it and floating, you know.
Movie-Television 2/7/04
Its a good idea that its coming out at Valentine's Day, too 'cause its a, you know, a
sweet story about people who, you know, (puts on pleading voice) its time already,
let me be in love.
Inside Entertainment 2/7/04
Well, I don't think you often see love stories about people my age, although I'm very young, you know,
comparatively speaking perhaps to some older people. Its just nice to have a love story about guys who weren't born yesterday, 'cause everybody wants to be in love and I don't think people of our age, can I say? (asking the interviewer) are any exception.
eTalk Daily 2/12/04
Whether you're single or whether you're not single, all of us remember those times when we were single and when we're going - okay, maybe, maybe this'll work........Don't expect to find love here [points in front]. Don't expect to find it there [points behind]. Just know that it's out there [sweeping motion with arms], and let it come from wherever.
Star TV 2/15/04
on making the movie:
I was committed to making it for a couple of years and whenever anyone would call and say, "Are you really involved in this?" I would say, "Yes, and when it happens I'll be even more involved."
Winnipeg Free Press 2/15/04
It was a very difficult shoot. We had a lot of worries and had to shoot very quickly. I lost 10 pounds without even trying, and those abs just appeared. It wasn't like I obsessed over the fact I'd be running around without a shirt and spent every waking hour working out in a gym.
Calgary Sun 2/16/04
It was insanely cold, bananas cold. We did the scene where [Fox and I] are walking along the park with a little kid after a birthday party and I ask her if I can hold her and suddenly, there we are, me in this little tuxedo and Emilia in an evening gown. I can't tell you how unbelievably cold it was.
Globe & Mail 2/10/04
Its allusive, you know, its not...you could say, I want him to be this way and I want him to be that way
and that way and then when the scene comes up you kind of go, well yeah, I want him to be that way
but its just not happening right now. So, how do we enlist those adjectives and enlist those sensibilities
that we talked about in this moment when we're shooting, you know.
Movie-Television 2/7/04
Even though it was always a low-budget film, Republic of Love lost its funding twice and when it finally got the green light, Mehta had only enough money to shoot for 25 days instead of the planned 35....You make do. You work harder. You band together. It's what you do when you love a project as much as we all did.
Calgary Sun 2/16/04
This film has a bunch of passionate people in it, you know...[altogether it] has a massive appetite for highs and lows...We had a fantastic dinner at Deepa's house, where she cooked and she's a spectacular chef, right? And it was at that moment when I thought, 'Wow, what if the whole trip is as aromatic as this? It would be great.' Then some of the stuff got a little too spicy, to stretch the metaphor a little far. It was really passionate....We're all very strong people and some days it worked great, because we were really on the same page, and other days it was a struggle. But, I think at the end, we came out feeling like we had made something good. I think it's full of little moments that make it absolutely worthwhile.
Toronto Sun 2/19/04
on changing the locale of the movie:
Carol Shields' family saw it and apparently said in regard to that they thought Carol's tone was captured in the film and not to sweat the change of locale......When you adapt a book, a lot of things are going to fall away, and unfortunately the character represented by Winnipeg did fall by the boards. But a lot of stuff for which Winnipeggers, particularly in Carol Shields novels, are famous -- for example, everybody intersects with everyone else, somehow everybody knows everybody -- I think that was firmly established in the movie too. So as much as we wish it could have been in Winnipeg, it couldn't have been.
Ottawa Citizen 2/3/04
It's difficult because you basically have to boil a novel down to a short story when adapting it to film. [Mehta] had to take Winnipeg and adapt it to her vision of the cold subterranean channels of Toronto. But the essential sentiment of the book and the film is that even though we're in this antiseptic, cold environment, love can still bloom.
National Post 2/12/04
What it boils down to is: Do we not make the movie because we can't afford to make it in Winnipeg because the timing is such that we'd be forced to shoot it in the winter there? Or do we make the movie and keep as much of Carol's sensibilities alive as we possibly can while having it in another setting? It's such a balancing act; there's so many plates spinning and you have to get them all spinning at the same time to get a movie to trigger. And if you decide we can't shoot unless it's in Winnipeg, those plates all fall to the ground and it takes years to get them all spinning again. Which is the better choice? The better choice is to make the movie.
Winnipeg Free Press 2/15/04
on his favorite scene:
It's funny because it's one of those times when you're both a little nervous and you start to get it on, but then it goes totally wrong. That scene is just one of my character's missteps in his journey toward the girl he ends up with. He thinks she's a stepping stone, but she's a lily pad and they both go down together.
National Post 2/12/04
Some of those, what happens to singles when you meet somebody and you take them
home and and you think, Ewooo no, I won't be doing that again, you know, that was a
lot of fun.
Inside Entertainment 2/7/04
on Deepa Mehta:
She's as mad as a hatter!
The Toronto Sun 10/20/02
on helping to get funding for the film:
But I did very little. I made a couple of phone calls when it was necessary and had some conversations that helped them see it another way.
Globe & Mail 8/30/03
I didn’t have to find the money. The real proper producers found the money and then I came in a little bit later and helped them keep it afloat....It’s more of a thank you for doing a couple of helpful things.
Vicki Gabereau Show 1/26/04
I sort of weighed in and helped persuade various people and agencies that it was worth going ahead with.
Winnipeg Free Press 2/15/04
