Gun for Hire
Paul Gross takes a break from writing and directing to just act for a change, playing an American gunslinger in the Canadian Western Gunless
Paul Gross needed to get on his horse and ride.
After writing, directing, producing and starring in his dream project - 2008’s epic World War I film Passchendaele - the 50-year-old (he turns 51 later this month) wanted to work on something fun, something that would make him smile.
Along came Gunless, a Canadian comedy about an injured American gunslinger (Gross) who strays into a dusty Canadian town. We’ll let Gross fill you in on the film’s plot details - he does such a good job of it - and have him explain the nature of Canadian comedy while he’s at it.
Gross is entering an interesting period in his career. The most iconic of Canadian performers is spreading his wings due south. He’s spending a lot of his time in Hollywood writing a script for Universal Films, this after his ABC TV show Eastwick - based on the film The Witches of Eastwick, and in which Gross was cast as the devil - was cancelled. He was in Los Angeles when we spoke by phone.
Did you feel you needed a break after the years it took to make Passchendaele?
“I did need a break, that’s why I decided I’d finally take one of these pilots [Eastwick] that I get offered every year. And I thought I also needed to just get outside the Canadian business for a little bit. And it’s been perfect because I’ve reconnected with people down here in Hollywood, which I needed to do because the nature of the business is changing so rapidly.”
Eastwick didn’t last too long, only 13 episodes.
“You mean it met its end? Yes. But I really enjoyed the people I worked with and I enjoyed going to work, but I can’t say that I am terribly sad to see it go only because I didn’t feel like the show was allowed to be what it wanted to be.”
So when the Canadian film Gunless came your way did you think, hey, this looks like fun?
“Yeah, I just thought it’s a terrific idea. Just a very funny notion that this guy, the Montana Kid, who I play, shows up in a Canadian town and is insulted and challenges someone to a duel. But they can’t have it right away because no one’s got a gun, so they find a gun, but it’s broken, and they need to get a part. But they have to order it, and it’s gonna take a couple of weeks, and so it goes [laughs].”
It sounds like a gentle satire poking fun at non-violent Canadians and aggressive Americans.
“It’s in that vein of comedy in Canada where we make fun of ourselves and everybody else at the same time. Full-serve comedy. It’s like the Canadian default position is not to default to weaponry, but at the same time there is something about our relentless politeness that is terribly effective as a weapon [laughs]. It’s a peculiar little film, it’s got a wonderful quality to it, it reminds me of those gentle comedies, like Local Hero.”
You have a light comedic touch. Do you agree with the notion that good comedy is harder to play than good drama?
“Ummm, I think everything is hard to play [laughs]. But comedy is sort of double-jointed in a way because you do play it as drama, and yet there’s a kind of technical vibe to it that comes with timing. So you have to have a split-brain, I find.”
Are you a fan of Westerns?
“Yeah, I love them.”
Are you more of an Unforgiven kind of guy, or more of a Young Guns kind of guy?
“More of an Unforgiven kind of guy. I like the Old Testament quality of Westerns. I think they are the modern descendents of very old medieval mystery cycles, with their object lessons about avenging forces.”
It’s interesting that although Canada has its very own West, we don’t have a tradition of making Westerns in Canada.
“It’s kind of curious. Partly, it’s that our cinematic traditions are based around auteur filmmaking and not genre filmmaking. Most of the people who make movies are urban people and prefer these interior, domestic stories. And we haven’t done it because we are not mythologizers, as Canadians, and Americans are. We don’t carry the burden of being the bright, shining light to the world, and they do, and in order to bolster that conviction they invented this fantastically rich mythology.”
I imagine acting in a Western is a lot of fun.
“I loved going to work every day. I didn’t have to produce the movie, I just showed up, put on my clothes, got on a horse, rode to the set and had a gun. A horse, a gun and the amazing desert, what’s not to love.”
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