Due South: Paul Gross interview
Heaven knows why I spent this evening typing this up - one of those foolish things you start and can't stop. But it's a long interview with Paul Gross done by CTV at the end of January: there is an article accompanying it on their webpage here, with some of the quotes, but this is a more complete transcript from the streaming video.
'Cause, you know, video goes; and I have utterly failed so far to install something that will rip streaming video. So anyone who would care to aid me in this area, feel free.
The Leading Man: A candid chat with Paul Gross
Sandy Renaldo interviews for CTV:
Sandy Renaldo voiceover in italics
Sandy Renaldo questions in bold
[clip info/interview details in square brackets]
* *
[long introduction covering Passchendaele, due South, and Eastwick, with clips of Paul Gross driving into the Hollywood lot to film Eastwick]
Gross has been in Hollywood before, but he still has a sense of wonder from being in the centre of a dream factory.
I feel like a five year old, and I love showing my card, and I drive into my parking spot that's right next to where *my* stage is - one of those huge sound stages, and inside that they made Giant and Splendour in the Grass and All the President's Men and bits of Grapes of Wrath, and all of that happened in here.
In Eastwick Gross plays Darryl van Horne, a mysterious charmer who gets directly to the point.
[clip from Eastwick, where Darryl introduces himself to Roxie by the pool]
Gross has played charmers before, most memorably in the iconic Canadian series due South.
[Clip from due South pilot when Fraser enters the bar, and calls for attention]
No taser for Constable Benton Fraser, just some Dudly-do-Right lines, and the comic possibilities of placing a Mountie in the seamier side of Chicago. Due South wasn't just a hit in over 200 countries. Legions of loyal fans raised it to cult status.
[followup on that clip with the knife throwing]
I guess that would have to have been the tv show that really put you on the map. Is that a fair enough statement to make?
Yeah, yeah. Well, it was hugely successful, so anything that does that, you penetrate a lot more deeply than you do in stuff that isn't successful, so [laughs]. And it's one of those weird shows - I mean, honestly, I don't really understand - I think it's the dog.
[clip from due South pilot of Ray Vecchio first meeting Dief]
And the red outfit is very - it's a big deal.
Hey, women loved the show, come on. The red outfit, the man in uniform...
But it also represents something about a kind of - a nation with a certain level of untouched wilderness and purity that is not found in too many places, I guess.
But in terms of demographics, you have to admit, it puts you on the map in terms of being the dream idol - a Canadian love interest that women could fantasise about.
Yeah.. super-capable guy who's also polite - that's kinda nice.
Really - it is kind of nice. [laughs] And are you like him at all?
No, not really. No, I'm incapable of most things. Lightbulbs, yes, but anything beyond that in the household, I'm hopeless.. No, I don't think I could - playing that part some days was like going to a really cruel therapist, and being made aware of how lacking you are in so many qualities: gentility and all of that. [laughs] The thing that was really fun about that show was that it was a fable.
[due South pilot clip with Benton carrying the elk over his shoulder]
Much of the fun, of course, came from Benton Fraser's innocence - his complete unawareness of his good looks. As a Mountie, he always got his man - but he didn't get the effect he had on women.
[due South pilot clip when Francesca first finds out over the dinner table that he doesn't have a girlfriend]
Blunt question here, you're a good-looking man.
Um-hmm?
Have your looks ever been a problem for you?
No-oh. I mean, they are what they are, so you get steered into... I'm a mainstream operation. I'm not going to be doing the parts that Dustin Hoffman gets to play - ah, you know, [...?Meyer Lanski??]. I end up playing what I play. So would I have liked to have been - to have tried parts like Ratso Rizzo - sure, but not realistically going to be given those roles. Ah, on the other hand I get to play all sorts of fantastic parts that those guys don't get to play.
Is it hard being a sex symbol?
I don't know [laughs bemusedly] - you know - I don't know what that means. I don't know what you're supposed to do with that - ah...
What, with the question, or with the whole idea -
Well, with the whole concept of it. It doesn't really have a lot to do with *me*.
It has to do with the image of you, with the perception of you.
And how we go about selling the things that I'm in. You know, it's - in a way it's a tool - it's, like: if you're making a comedy and you're Will Ferrell, you're going to sell that you're funny, 'cause - And if you're making a romance, and you got pretty people, you're going to say come and watch these pretty people fall in love. And it *is* - it's very basic why we go to see things, you know. We go to the movies to see kind of extraordinary people in extraordinary situations.
[photomontage of his parents and childhood shots]
Well, you wouldn't describe Paul Gross' childhood as extraordinary, but it was different. His father Bob Gross was an officer in the Canadian army, so Paul was an army brat. That made for a nomadic childhood: Canada, England and Germany, and some unusual weekend excursions.
My father was in the army. He was a tank commander with the [..??..] on his horse. And one of the odd memories that I have is of - you know most families do a Sunday drive in a car, well, we'd do a Sunday drive up in the gun range on a Centurion tank. And I do have some kind of memory of sitting up the turret and driving around over these rolling prairie fields.
And sometimes that army brat really was a brat: energetic, in your face and a handful at school.
Well, what did it say on your report card? He speaks too much in class?
Well I remember, when I went - because I kind of went to school in England. It was a private school, what they call public schools - Chiswick's Lodge - and I wore a nice wine uniform with grey shorts and a little cap. I think there's still some report card my mother has from somewhere - no, a note, and I was sent home: Paul was very rambunctious at play today, and pushed Roger into the bramble bushes - I was sent home for that. But they did finally beat me, and was very -
Wait, a minute, they beat you, as in physically -
Literally they beat us, yeah, yeah, wooden spoon beating.
Who - who, this is the teachers?
The British. Sure. It was all part of the great training, of being a member of the Empire. I'm not sure they do it now, but they did it quite enthusiastically back then. I always felt that I kind of deserved most of the beatings I got: I did actually throw Roger in the bramble bushes, and hurled kids into the pond, and stuff, so... Then I got - But finally they tamed me - I think they thought I was feral, and needed to be muzzled...
[lots of childhood photos montage]
Maybe so, but soon he moved on to new schools, new places and new people. Paul Gross had to reinvent himself every few years. He didn't know it at the time, but it all helped forge what would become Paul Gross, the actor.
I got essentially excluded from the pursuits of anything higher up in the sciences and ended up in the arts, and then I kinda backed into acting, I guess, the drama. And then I went to University of Alberta, which had a drama programme in the setting of the University, and I thought that would be great, do some academics and also do acting training.
Okay, wait a minute - backed into it? Right, this is a tough business -
Well, I wasn't going to end up at NASA having stopped math at long division and never taking chemisty. I couldn't imagine myself in the space programme and clearly was not going to be working on the Large Hadron Collider. So I kind of ended up in the field I'm in.
He may not have had a long-standing theatrical background, but Gross' family inspired what he counts as his major achievement so far: producer, director, writer and lead role in the $20 million epic First World War drama, Passchendaele.
[clip of PG directing Passchendaele scene, then montage from film]
The idea for the movie perculated in Gross' mind for years, after his grandfather, Michael Dunne, told him about his experience on the Western Front.
He was wounded three times, and as a kid it was just fascinating to me -
And he talked to you about that?
Reluctantly - I mean, I would pester him endlessly about it. And ever since that time I've had this kind of abiding interest in the War, and then gradually as I got older and started to write I thought, well, maybe I should try and do something with this.
[another Passchendaele clip]
Passchendaele won an armful of movie awards, but perhaps more satisfying for Gross was receiving from Governor General Michaelle Jean the 2009 Pierre Burton Award for History. It's an award typically given to historians and writers who popularise Canada's past.
[clip from the award ceremony]
There isn't a corner of this nation that didn't have a hole blown through it open from that war. Every small town, every - every part of it was damaged by it. We sent almost a tenth of our population over there: 630,000 - 640,000 men, and boys - and women, in the nursing staff - and we lost a lot of people. One in ten were - were killed. One in two were hurt. That's a big, big, big, *big* - I mean, if we put it into contemporary terms, we'd have, you know, 3 million soldiers in Afghanistan. [kisses teeth thoughtfully] Three hundred thousand of them would be killed.
The 1917 battlefield for Passchendaele was recreated on a native reserve outside Calgary. It may have been a movie, but using real soldiers as extras, many who had seen action in Afghanistan, added extra realism to a battle fought so long ago.
Everyone who came to work on that film took ownership of it as, as, as proudly and as fiercely as I did. They got there earlier or as early as I did. They left later than I did. They... We had members of the CF - the Canadian Forces - were involved in it. And some of them even built a camp out by the set - there was no running water - they lived out there. Ah, that's pretty hard to find anywhere else.
[break for ads]
You'd think Paul Gross would be content to keep developing his talents in Canada. But Hollywood beckoned and he just couldn't resist.
And every year for many, many years now, I've been sent pilots every pilot season from US networks, and I'd kind of read some of them. But I've always been busy, so it wasn't as though I had an opportunity to do it. And I thought this year, well, maybe I'd actually have a look at it. And it was the nature of the part that drew me. I mean, I like those parts that are - ah, sort of without boundary.
[clip from Eastwick, with Darryl talking to Joanna about her bun]
Eastwick seemed to fit the acting bill - sex, money and a whiff of evil. How could you go wrong? Eastwick had potential, but Gross spotted trouble early on with his character.
[clip from Eastwick, with Roxanne and Darryl discussing him being a demon between the sheets]
[and there was] quite a struggle as to whether or not we should refer to him as The Devil, or a devil, or as just devilish... I think ABC, those big parent networks, get really nervous of offending any segment of the already dwindling viewership population. So there was a tendency to try to rinse it of those elements, and get the population comfortable with it and bring them on in... for my money, I think that's a completely insane way to go, because a show like that has a brand - it comes to the screen with - people come to view it with certain expectations. And when you don't - when there isn't any devilry, and there's very little witchcraft, they think 'Well, that's not what I wanted' and they move on.
And move on they did - in droves. After scathing reviews and plummeting ratings, Eastwick was cancelled.
[clip from the trailer of Eastwick with the three women at dinner]
So, what's the skill set? What does it take to survive in this business, and come out reasonably nice on the other end, which is clearly what you are?
Well, you know, I think in order to survive you do need some initial success, so that you're not getting increasingly desperate and clawing. I think to be able to survive Hollywood, it helps not to be there all the time.
But Paul Gross isn't about to give up on Hollywood: he's got other schemes afoot. But he has no illusions about Tinseltown.
You know, Hollywood is a very strange place, and it is mostly about the business. And people I've known who went down there, their personalities, their core gets kind of distorted. And I've been lucky to be in Toronto; where most of the business is very small, and most of the city is not about the business. You can get untethered quickly in this job, particularly if you start to think that going to award shows, and going to, kind of, black tie events, is what you're doing. And it isn't. You know, most of this is just really hard work.
[clip from Paul Gross dubbing lines for Gunless in the studio]
At the age of fifty, there is no indication he's slowing down. Today he's in Toronto, polishing up some lines for Gunless, a satirical western that's due for release in the spring.
[Clip from Crash and Burn]
He's also the executive producer of a new television series, Crash and Burn.
Do you see yourself as a renaissance man - you're a writer, director, actor, producer...
No, I see myself as a ADD man - like, I actually just need to do that stuff or I'll go crazy.
No, really? Honestly?
Yeah, honestly, you know I don't really think of it - All of these things are all...I have been asked this question a number of times over the years, but that - you know, honestly, if someone put a gun to my head and said, 'Pick one thing', I would probably pick writing.
Let me read this quote, and this is from Canadian author Paul Quarrington, about you. 'He's just really, really smart, plus he's very honest. He's one of those guys who would say things that people are thinking, but wouldn't have the gumption to say out loud. He's a bit of cowboy, but an intellectual cowboy. It's not that he misbehaves in any standard way: he doesn't go out womanising, or doing heroin, or anything - ' [they both laugh] Okay. What do you say to Paul?
I really like that. No, I think that's pretty good.
So let's answer that - are you really, really, really smart?
[laughs awkwardly] What does anybody say to that -
Yes or no.
- 'no, I'm a bozo'. You know, I'm smart at some things, not smart at others. But - yeah, you know, it seems to work, whatever this toolkit is up here [gesturing to his head].
Is he very honest?
I think I can be pretty honest, yeah... I'm particularly good at honesty around the work, gradually getting better at honesty in my life in general.
So you say what you think - you have the gumption to say anything out loud.
Pretty much. And largely that just has to do with practicality: I think everyone tiptoes around something, it just takes a lot longer to repair things - or to get to whatever the source of the problem is so that you can untangle it.
A bit of a cowboy, but an intellectual cowboy?
...I'm from Alberta.
It's not that he misbehaves, in any standard way. What does that mean?
I don't know what he means by standard way. No, I don't do heroin. But it implies that I misbehave in other ways, and I'm not sure what those would be.
It says, he doesn't go out womanising.
No.
No gossip, no scandal. He shows up for high-profile events like the Toronto film festival, but most of Paul Gross' off-screen life is off the radar. He and actress Martha Burns have been married for twentyone years.
[clip from Toronto festival with Martha Burns]
So what's the secret to success there?
Well, I think it's largely because she's sort of - Martha's fantastically patient, and, ah - and has allowed me to grow up. I can't point to myself as being the reason why we've remained together for so long, but I think it's really her strength. And it's been a source of enormous strength for me, too.
And the children?
[photo zoom of the children]
Yeah, they're the most - They're also the wonderful thing that gives you perspective. Because of course they think of most of what I do as kind of appalling.
[laughs] Me too!
And that I'm not funny, and I'm not cool - and actually I'm not smart. I'm dumb.
You're just Dad?
I'm just Dad, and he's gonna embarrass me.
[clip from due South pilot, with Fraser asking the gangsters to watch Ray's car]
Gross might not be as naive as his most famous character, but traces of that rambuctious little boy still linger. Pushing new frontiers, trying new things - just for the hell of it.
You know, what I'd really like to be is a Formula One race-car driver. It's like most guys, I think I'd be very good at it...
So -
Well, I have to believe - as a matter of practicality I believe in reincarnation, because -
So what's to stop you?
What's to stop me?
Yeah, why not?
I don't have the reflexes of an eighteen year old.
So you drive a little slower, maybe -
[laughs] Finish a day later. Be unable to keep the car on the road after the first turn.
Well, yeah...
No, I think that - yeah, that would be really fun... I'd have liked to have done that. And I should have done that first, because then you still - you burn out pretty quick, and then you'd have tons of time to do all the other stuff. See, strategies. I'm gonna *get* one - before I die. I'm gonna have a game plan.
You'd think Paul Gross would have enough to keep himself busy. But he's also involved in a real-life role working with several charities for young people. In particular, as a spokesperson for the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
End.
'Cause, you know, video goes; and I have utterly failed so far to install something that will rip streaming video. So anyone who would care to aid me in this area, feel free.
The Leading Man: A candid chat with Paul Gross
Sandy Renaldo interviews for CTV:
Sandy Renaldo voiceover in italics
Sandy Renaldo questions in bold
[clip info/interview details in square brackets]
* *
[long introduction covering Passchendaele, due South, and Eastwick, with clips of Paul Gross driving into the Hollywood lot to film Eastwick]
Gross has been in Hollywood before, but he still has a sense of wonder from being in the centre of a dream factory.
I feel like a five year old, and I love showing my card, and I drive into my parking spot that's right next to where *my* stage is - one of those huge sound stages, and inside that they made Giant and Splendour in the Grass and All the President's Men and bits of Grapes of Wrath, and all of that happened in here.
In Eastwick Gross plays Darryl van Horne, a mysterious charmer who gets directly to the point.
[clip from Eastwick, where Darryl introduces himself to Roxie by the pool]
Gross has played charmers before, most memorably in the iconic Canadian series due South.
[Clip from due South pilot when Fraser enters the bar, and calls for attention]
No taser for Constable Benton Fraser, just some Dudly-do-Right lines, and the comic possibilities of placing a Mountie in the seamier side of Chicago. Due South wasn't just a hit in over 200 countries. Legions of loyal fans raised it to cult status.
[followup on that clip with the knife throwing]
I guess that would have to have been the tv show that really put you on the map. Is that a fair enough statement to make?
Yeah, yeah. Well, it was hugely successful, so anything that does that, you penetrate a lot more deeply than you do in stuff that isn't successful, so [laughs]. And it's one of those weird shows - I mean, honestly, I don't really understand - I think it's the dog.
[clip from due South pilot of Ray Vecchio first meeting Dief]
And the red outfit is very - it's a big deal.
Hey, women loved the show, come on. The red outfit, the man in uniform...
But it also represents something about a kind of - a nation with a certain level of untouched wilderness and purity that is not found in too many places, I guess.
But in terms of demographics, you have to admit, it puts you on the map in terms of being the dream idol - a Canadian love interest that women could fantasise about.
Yeah.. super-capable guy who's also polite - that's kinda nice.
Really - it is kind of nice. [laughs] And are you like him at all?
No, not really. No, I'm incapable of most things. Lightbulbs, yes, but anything beyond that in the household, I'm hopeless.. No, I don't think I could - playing that part some days was like going to a really cruel therapist, and being made aware of how lacking you are in so many qualities: gentility and all of that. [laughs] The thing that was really fun about that show was that it was a fable.
[due South pilot clip with Benton carrying the elk over his shoulder]
Much of the fun, of course, came from Benton Fraser's innocence - his complete unawareness of his good looks. As a Mountie, he always got his man - but he didn't get the effect he had on women.
[due South pilot clip when Francesca first finds out over the dinner table that he doesn't have a girlfriend]
Blunt question here, you're a good-looking man.
Um-hmm?
Have your looks ever been a problem for you?
No-oh. I mean, they are what they are, so you get steered into... I'm a mainstream operation. I'm not going to be doing the parts that Dustin Hoffman gets to play - ah, you know, [...?Meyer Lanski??]. I end up playing what I play. So would I have liked to have been - to have tried parts like Ratso Rizzo - sure, but not realistically going to be given those roles. Ah, on the other hand I get to play all sorts of fantastic parts that those guys don't get to play.
Is it hard being a sex symbol?
I don't know [laughs bemusedly] - you know - I don't know what that means. I don't know what you're supposed to do with that - ah...
What, with the question, or with the whole idea -
Well, with the whole concept of it. It doesn't really have a lot to do with *me*.
It has to do with the image of you, with the perception of you.
And how we go about selling the things that I'm in. You know, it's - in a way it's a tool - it's, like: if you're making a comedy and you're Will Ferrell, you're going to sell that you're funny, 'cause - And if you're making a romance, and you got pretty people, you're going to say come and watch these pretty people fall in love. And it *is* - it's very basic why we go to see things, you know. We go to the movies to see kind of extraordinary people in extraordinary situations.
[photomontage of his parents and childhood shots]
Well, you wouldn't describe Paul Gross' childhood as extraordinary, but it was different. His father Bob Gross was an officer in the Canadian army, so Paul was an army brat. That made for a nomadic childhood: Canada, England and Germany, and some unusual weekend excursions.
My father was in the army. He was a tank commander with the [..??..] on his horse. And one of the odd memories that I have is of - you know most families do a Sunday drive in a car, well, we'd do a Sunday drive up in the gun range on a Centurion tank. And I do have some kind of memory of sitting up the turret and driving around over these rolling prairie fields.
And sometimes that army brat really was a brat: energetic, in your face and a handful at school.
Well, what did it say on your report card? He speaks too much in class?
Well I remember, when I went - because I kind of went to school in England. It was a private school, what they call public schools - Chiswick's Lodge - and I wore a nice wine uniform with grey shorts and a little cap. I think there's still some report card my mother has from somewhere - no, a note, and I was sent home: Paul was very rambunctious at play today, and pushed Roger into the bramble bushes - I was sent home for that. But they did finally beat me, and was very -
Wait, a minute, they beat you, as in physically -
Literally they beat us, yeah, yeah, wooden spoon beating.
Who - who, this is the teachers?
The British. Sure. It was all part of the great training, of being a member of the Empire. I'm not sure they do it now, but they did it quite enthusiastically back then. I always felt that I kind of deserved most of the beatings I got: I did actually throw Roger in the bramble bushes, and hurled kids into the pond, and stuff, so... Then I got - But finally they tamed me - I think they thought I was feral, and needed to be muzzled...
[lots of childhood photos montage]
Maybe so, but soon he moved on to new schools, new places and new people. Paul Gross had to reinvent himself every few years. He didn't know it at the time, but it all helped forge what would become Paul Gross, the actor.
I got essentially excluded from the pursuits of anything higher up in the sciences and ended up in the arts, and then I kinda backed into acting, I guess, the drama. And then I went to University of Alberta, which had a drama programme in the setting of the University, and I thought that would be great, do some academics and also do acting training.
Okay, wait a minute - backed into it? Right, this is a tough business -
Well, I wasn't going to end up at NASA having stopped math at long division and never taking chemisty. I couldn't imagine myself in the space programme and clearly was not going to be working on the Large Hadron Collider. So I kind of ended up in the field I'm in.
He may not have had a long-standing theatrical background, but Gross' family inspired what he counts as his major achievement so far: producer, director, writer and lead role in the $20 million epic First World War drama, Passchendaele.
[clip of PG directing Passchendaele scene, then montage from film]
The idea for the movie perculated in Gross' mind for years, after his grandfather, Michael Dunne, told him about his experience on the Western Front.
He was wounded three times, and as a kid it was just fascinating to me -
And he talked to you about that?
Reluctantly - I mean, I would pester him endlessly about it. And ever since that time I've had this kind of abiding interest in the War, and then gradually as I got older and started to write I thought, well, maybe I should try and do something with this.
[another Passchendaele clip]
Passchendaele won an armful of movie awards, but perhaps more satisfying for Gross was receiving from Governor General Michaelle Jean the 2009 Pierre Burton Award for History. It's an award typically given to historians and writers who popularise Canada's past.
[clip from the award ceremony]
There isn't a corner of this nation that didn't have a hole blown through it open from that war. Every small town, every - every part of it was damaged by it. We sent almost a tenth of our population over there: 630,000 - 640,000 men, and boys - and women, in the nursing staff - and we lost a lot of people. One in ten were - were killed. One in two were hurt. That's a big, big, big, *big* - I mean, if we put it into contemporary terms, we'd have, you know, 3 million soldiers in Afghanistan. [kisses teeth thoughtfully] Three hundred thousand of them would be killed.
The 1917 battlefield for Passchendaele was recreated on a native reserve outside Calgary. It may have been a movie, but using real soldiers as extras, many who had seen action in Afghanistan, added extra realism to a battle fought so long ago.
Everyone who came to work on that film took ownership of it as, as, as proudly and as fiercely as I did. They got there earlier or as early as I did. They left later than I did. They... We had members of the CF - the Canadian Forces - were involved in it. And some of them even built a camp out by the set - there was no running water - they lived out there. Ah, that's pretty hard to find anywhere else.
[break for ads]
You'd think Paul Gross would be content to keep developing his talents in Canada. But Hollywood beckoned and he just couldn't resist.
And every year for many, many years now, I've been sent pilots every pilot season from US networks, and I'd kind of read some of them. But I've always been busy, so it wasn't as though I had an opportunity to do it. And I thought this year, well, maybe I'd actually have a look at it. And it was the nature of the part that drew me. I mean, I like those parts that are - ah, sort of without boundary.
[clip from Eastwick, with Darryl talking to Joanna about her bun]
Eastwick seemed to fit the acting bill - sex, money and a whiff of evil. How could you go wrong? Eastwick had potential, but Gross spotted trouble early on with his character.
[clip from Eastwick, with Roxanne and Darryl discussing him being a demon between the sheets]
[and there was] quite a struggle as to whether or not we should refer to him as The Devil, or a devil, or as just devilish... I think ABC, those big parent networks, get really nervous of offending any segment of the already dwindling viewership population. So there was a tendency to try to rinse it of those elements, and get the population comfortable with it and bring them on in... for my money, I think that's a completely insane way to go, because a show like that has a brand - it comes to the screen with - people come to view it with certain expectations. And when you don't - when there isn't any devilry, and there's very little witchcraft, they think 'Well, that's not what I wanted' and they move on.
And move on they did - in droves. After scathing reviews and plummeting ratings, Eastwick was cancelled.
[clip from the trailer of Eastwick with the three women at dinner]
So, what's the skill set? What does it take to survive in this business, and come out reasonably nice on the other end, which is clearly what you are?
Well, you know, I think in order to survive you do need some initial success, so that you're not getting increasingly desperate and clawing. I think to be able to survive Hollywood, it helps not to be there all the time.
But Paul Gross isn't about to give up on Hollywood: he's got other schemes afoot. But he has no illusions about Tinseltown.
You know, Hollywood is a very strange place, and it is mostly about the business. And people I've known who went down there, their personalities, their core gets kind of distorted. And I've been lucky to be in Toronto; where most of the business is very small, and most of the city is not about the business. You can get untethered quickly in this job, particularly if you start to think that going to award shows, and going to, kind of, black tie events, is what you're doing. And it isn't. You know, most of this is just really hard work.
[clip from Paul Gross dubbing lines for Gunless in the studio]
At the age of fifty, there is no indication he's slowing down. Today he's in Toronto, polishing up some lines for Gunless, a satirical western that's due for release in the spring.
[Clip from Crash and Burn]
He's also the executive producer of a new television series, Crash and Burn.
Do you see yourself as a renaissance man - you're a writer, director, actor, producer...
No, I see myself as a ADD man - like, I actually just need to do that stuff or I'll go crazy.
No, really? Honestly?
Yeah, honestly, you know I don't really think of it - All of these things are all...I have been asked this question a number of times over the years, but that - you know, honestly, if someone put a gun to my head and said, 'Pick one thing', I would probably pick writing.
Let me read this quote, and this is from Canadian author Paul Quarrington, about you. 'He's just really, really smart, plus he's very honest. He's one of those guys who would say things that people are thinking, but wouldn't have the gumption to say out loud. He's a bit of cowboy, but an intellectual cowboy. It's not that he misbehaves in any standard way: he doesn't go out womanising, or doing heroin, or anything - ' [they both laugh] Okay. What do you say to Paul?
I really like that. No, I think that's pretty good.
So let's answer that - are you really, really, really smart?
[laughs awkwardly] What does anybody say to that -
Yes or no.
- 'no, I'm a bozo'. You know, I'm smart at some things, not smart at others. But - yeah, you know, it seems to work, whatever this toolkit is up here [gesturing to his head].
Is he very honest?
I think I can be pretty honest, yeah... I'm particularly good at honesty around the work, gradually getting better at honesty in my life in general.
So you say what you think - you have the gumption to say anything out loud.
Pretty much. And largely that just has to do with practicality: I think everyone tiptoes around something, it just takes a lot longer to repair things - or to get to whatever the source of the problem is so that you can untangle it.
A bit of a cowboy, but an intellectual cowboy?
...I'm from Alberta.
It's not that he misbehaves, in any standard way. What does that mean?
I don't know what he means by standard way. No, I don't do heroin. But it implies that I misbehave in other ways, and I'm not sure what those would be.
It says, he doesn't go out womanising.
No.
No gossip, no scandal. He shows up for high-profile events like the Toronto film festival, but most of Paul Gross' off-screen life is off the radar. He and actress Martha Burns have been married for twentyone years.
[clip from Toronto festival with Martha Burns]
So what's the secret to success there?
Well, I think it's largely because she's sort of - Martha's fantastically patient, and, ah - and has allowed me to grow up. I can't point to myself as being the reason why we've remained together for so long, but I think it's really her strength. And it's been a source of enormous strength for me, too.
And the children?
[photo zoom of the children]
Yeah, they're the most - They're also the wonderful thing that gives you perspective. Because of course they think of most of what I do as kind of appalling.
[laughs] Me too!
And that I'm not funny, and I'm not cool - and actually I'm not smart. I'm dumb.
You're just Dad?
I'm just Dad, and he's gonna embarrass me.
[clip from due South pilot, with Fraser asking the gangsters to watch Ray's car]
Gross might not be as naive as his most famous character, but traces of that rambuctious little boy still linger. Pushing new frontiers, trying new things - just for the hell of it.
You know, what I'd really like to be is a Formula One race-car driver. It's like most guys, I think I'd be very good at it...
So -
Well, I have to believe - as a matter of practicality I believe in reincarnation, because -
So what's to stop you?
What's to stop me?
Yeah, why not?
I don't have the reflexes of an eighteen year old.
So you drive a little slower, maybe -
[laughs] Finish a day later. Be unable to keep the car on the road after the first turn.
Well, yeah...
No, I think that - yeah, that would be really fun... I'd have liked to have done that. And I should have done that first, because then you still - you burn out pretty quick, and then you'd have tons of time to do all the other stuff. See, strategies. I'm gonna *get* one - before I die. I'm gonna have a game plan.
You'd think Paul Gross would have enough to keep himself busy. But he's also involved in a real-life role working with several charities for young people. In particular, as a spokesperson for the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
End.