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Graham Greene

There are two tried-and-true ways of getting started in the acting racket. One way, you aspire to lofty thespian heights, study tirelessly with a bevy of voice, method, makeup, movement and theory experts, and plug away at auditions until finally tiny scraps of employment are tossed your way. The other, you simply mind your own business until someone grabs your arm, hollers, ‘Here, put this on!’ and shoves you in front of a camera.

Dora and Gemini Award-winning, Oscar-nominated actor Graham Greene’s career got started the second way. Working as a sound technician in an Ancaster, Ont. recording studio back in the ’70s, Greene was being pestered by rock musician Kelly Jay to take part in a play. Finally, Greene said, ‘Look, I’m not interested. We’ll cut cards. If I win, leave me alone. If you win, I’ll do the damn thing.’ Greene pulled the two of clubs.

The play was a disaster, but Greene attracted the interest of casting director Anne Tait, who found him a small part in the cbc series, The Great Detective. Greene later watched the show, dismissed his work as ‘Éawful,’ and decided that if people were going to keep insisting on giving him work in this business he’d better learn how to act.

Rather than sign up for acting classes, Greene simply rented movies to see how it was done. ‘Mostly old moviesÉyou know, classic stuffÉThe Three StoogesÉ.’ He analyzed styles, reactions, what the camera was doing. Surveying the work of many of the ‘old, good’ actors, Greene adopted Steve McQueen as his ‘mentor.’ He also learned, of course, from doing. ‘I kept my eyes open and my mouth shut. Now, though, it’s the opposite.’

He plugged away (scoring a bit part in what has been called ‘Al Pacino’s catastrophic epic,’ Revolution), augmenting his income working as a landscape technician, audio engineer, carpenter. ‘I even did a little welding.’ As parts dribbled in, he never felt the need to restrict himself to native roles. ‘Once I played the ghost of a black transvestite. I had to end up jumping out the window in underwear and high heels at the end of the show. It was very exciting.’

Perhaps as a result of his self-taught method, Greene occasionally resorted to unorthodox techniques to ‘find his character.’

‘I once had to play a 56-year-old man who had no teeth, was loud as sin, and had bad posture. I put a slice of bologna in each shoe. I needed something slimy in my shoes to make it work.’ Mostly though, ‘I just try to act. And I tell people that all acting is, really, is putting on funny clothes, standing under lights, and telling lies.’

He insists that no one role is the one that hooked him, the one that convinced him he was making the right choice to be an actor. ‘Some were a challenge, some were fun, some made me ask myself why am I here? I’d end up staring out the window at 2 a.m., questioning my life.’

Gaining prominence (and a Dora Mavor Moore Award in 1989 for best actor) with the role of affable drunk Pierre St. Pierre in the Thomson Highway play Dry Lips Oughta Move To Kapuskasing, Greene soon began showing up more often on Canadian tv screens, playing regulars on the cbc series Spirit Bay and 9B. He portrayed Meewasin in Atlantis Films’ Lost In The Barrens, directed by The Big Snit producer Michael Scott, and was in Bruce Pittman’s Where the Spirit Lives, winner of the 1990 Genie Best Film Award.

Burgeoning professional success wasn’t without its frustrations, of course. George Harrison’s HandMade films ‘Éhad me read for 10 different roles for the movie PowWow Highway. I finally said, `Look. If I’m that damn good, use me!’ Well, they were shooting out in the middle of nowhere, there were snowstorms all across North America, I must have taken 15 different airlines to get thereÉI was thrown on the set, did my scene, and went home.’

His biggest breakthrough, and the role that led to the Toronto Star calling him ‘Hollywood’s favorite Canadian actor,’ was the part of magisterial Lakota chief, Kicking Bird, in Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves.

Although he grew up in Hagersville, Ont., just outside of the Six Nations Reserve, and he identifies himself as a Six Nations Iroquois, because he grew up outside of the reserve he learned no native language, making his role as a Lakota extremely difficult. ‘I couldn’t figure out how they ordered their language. Its structure is totally foreign to English or French.’

Greene struggled to learn the language phonetically, sitting in his hotel room for eight hours a day. He had tapes, and a dialogue coach who was with him and on his case every second. It took him two weeks to learn all the dialogue, ‘Éthen I’d work in my hotel room until two in the morning, going through the speeches. Next morning I couldn’t remember any of it! I was nearly in tears!’ He’d go back to the beginning, and slowly, finally it came.

He played the part of the chief with great authority and beguiling humanity, and was nominated for a 1991 best supporting Oscar. He didn’t have a particularly comfortable time at the ceremony, however. ‘I was scared to death. I thought, I don’t belong here! I’m just a poor, dumb country boy.’ He was especially intimidated by the folks sitting all around him. ‘I’m in awe of good actorsÉ.’

His new fans were somewhat startled when the next major role they saw him in was Arthur, the dangerous, unpredictable, violent native lashing out at the white men lumbering his homeland in Richard Bugajski’s Clearcut. That’s not surprising for Greene, though. ‘When casting agents try to send me out for the same old roles I’ll say, that’s enough of that! Let’s try a comedy, or a thriller, or whatever. I like to try different genres.’

His most ‘different’ role so far might be his semi-regular portrayal of Mr. Crabby Tree on Breakthrough Films’ taped, multi-camera children’s environmental show, Dudley The Dragon. Stuffed inside a huge foam body suit reminiscent of the apple trees in The Wizard of Oz, Greene plays a rooted curmudgeon with a heart of gold. When asked how he ended up accepting the part, Greene laughs, ‘Well.Énever answer the phone before 9 a.m.’ then, ‘I was lounging around the house doing nothing, I told my agent I need some work. I got offered Mr. Crabby Tree, said sure.’

He also appeared as Martin the geologist on Cambium Film’s preteen sitcom Eric’s World. ‘I spent a year paying penance doing kids’ shows.’

His delightful Mr. Crabby Tree garnered him a Gemini Award and ‘Éthe recognition of four- and five-year-olds.’

Recently, he’s appeared on both the tv series Northern Exposure and Alliance’s North of 60, and he’s even got two episodes of Murder, She Wrote under his belt. He played Hunt Weller in Deepa Mehta’s recent Camilla, and this summer appears in two major Hollywood releases, Maverick and Rob Reiner’s North. This fall he’ll be seen on the CTV Television Network in Telegenic Programs’ Lonesome Dove: The Series. When asked which of his many roles is his favorite, he replies, ‘The latest one is always the best one.’

He’s reluctant to compare working on American films with Canadian films. ‘All sets are the same, total confusion.’

He’s even more reluctant to compare directing styles. When it’s noted that several of the American directors he’s worked with are former actors, while most of the Canadians are producer/directors from birth, he allows, ‘The non-actors are more concerned with where to put the camera.’ Directors like Costner, Reiner and Stuart Margolin, ‘I call them actors gone bad. They’re more intense in what they want in a performance. But there’s only really three notes I ever want from a director: better, faster, or funnier.’

He admits to absolutely no interest in directing some day. ‘It’s more fun to act.’

Greene has the solidly professional attitude of a veteran Canadian actor. Up here, it’s difficult to gain a reputation for difficulty (who’s going to take a star turn seriously when you’re dressed like a tree?), and Greene is very mindful of what he is being paid to do.

‘My whole thing is that they are paying me this amount of money to do a job. My responsibility is to be there and do the job I was hired to do. Not to gripe about why there’s no banana on the craft service cart.’

Unlike a lot of Canadian actors, however, Greene has no interest in moving to l.a. ‘There’s no reason to live there. A working actor can live anywhere as long as you have a phone, a fax, and know where the airport is.’

As for parts he’d really like to play, he says the things he looks for are, ‘a well-written script, a good story to tell, something that punches all my buttonsÉgood entertainment,’ and then ruefully admits he will occasionally take a role just for the money. ‘I’ve got a house to pay for.’

Unimpressed with the sports-car, cell-phone and personal trainer gavotte of l.a., Greene prefers to putter around his garden with his wife, waiting to find out where he’s needed next. Sometimes he pulls out his guitar, writing ‘Éthree-chord music, stuff I can bark and holler to. My lyrics aren’t very deep.’

When asked if he has any other talents that have been overlooked by casting agents, he considers, says no, and then suddenly laughs, ‘I can drive a John Deere lawn mower.’