Altima reality, Mustang dreams
Martha Burns has won two Gemini Awards for her role in the TV drama Slings and Arrows , but now she's returning to her first love - the theatre.
The actress, a founding member of Soulpepper Theatre Company and the Toronto Arts for Youth Association, is starring in the Toronto production of A Boy Called Newfoundland , which is running from March 26 to April 11 at the Tarragon Theatre.
Burns, who is married to fellow actor and director Paul Gross, isn't just passionate about her work - she's also an environmentalist at heart. That's why her family of four owns only one car - a 2009 Nissan Altima hybrid sedan.
“We're trying to be ecologically conscious. Paul used to have a big Ford truck. And we all lobbied for him to get rid of the truck so I think he's still pretty mad that he doesn't have a big truck. But he's quite fond of the hybrid,” says Burns, who was born in Winnipeg and now lives in Toronto with Gross and their two kids, Hannah and Jack.
“I have a 20-year-old and a 16-year-old and they put a lot of pressure on us to be more ecologically aware. To live downtown and use public transit more - having a hybrid seems like a more natural progression.
“We decided to have one car instead of two because we live downtown. Driving in Toronto is not really driving - it's stopping.
“The hybrid is so good for that kind of driving condition. It's so peaceful and quiet in the car when you're stopped in traffic and you don't hear the sound of the engine - the silence is wonderful. It's so good on gas in those conditions.
“If you were driving to Mississauga and back everyday, it wouldn't make much sense to have one. If you live downtown and you do most of your driving in downtown Toronto it's a great car to have.
“It's practical and nice-looking. It doesn't call too much attention to itself.
“It's pretty nuts and bolts. Our model doesn't have any bells and whistles. But it's a very comfortable sedan. Our 14-year-old golden retriever can get into it without having to jump up. There's room for four people very comfortably and a golden retriever occasionally,” says Burns.
But she admits that “it's not really a cool car. We didn't order the hub caps for the winter tires to make it look a little more bad ass,” she laughs.
It's not a speed demon, either. “It certainly makes us more law-abiding because you want to stay within the speed limits and keep on the battery. It amuses me greatly to see my husband actually driving under the speed limit.”
Burns learned the ins and outs of her hybrid the hard way. “I stopped traffic for 20 minutes while we figured out how to drive our hybrid.
“I forgot you had to brake before you do the push-button start. I got into the car, pushed it and thought it was on. I put it into reverse and it actually did reverse down our driveway because it's on an incline. Meanwhile, the car wasn't on and it was actually stopped in the middle of the road.
“My son was in the car. He was more embarrassed in me than I was in myself. We were madly looking at the book trying to figure out why this damn car wouldn't move! And the cars were lining up down the street,” she laughs in retrospect.
While Burns bought this car, in the past she has often traded vehicles with extended family members and friends. “A lot of people have clothes exchanges - we have car exchanges.”
Her first car was a Honda Prelude, a hand-me-down from her brother. “That was a fun, sporty car to drive. That's when I was young and single; I loved to drive fast down the country roads.
“I was working at Shaw and Stratford - there was a lot of highway driving and escaping from the festivals. Paul and I had some great road trips in that car. I remember playing Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA .”
There were other memories, too. “We brought both kids home from the hospital in that Prelude. The car becomes completely different from the moment you have your little baby in it for the first time,” says Burns, who ended up giving the Prelude to Gross' brother when they switched to a bigger car.
“We had a Subaru Forester - a really family car. It was great. A friend of mine has that car now and it's still in wonderful shape.”
These days, the family is committed to one car. “We started having one car and I had to be more aware of the other people that were sharing it.
“Before my car was always my office, a deli, an eating place so I'm trying not to take bags of food. Finally my car doesn't smell like McDonald's or really good coffee any more,” says Burns, who won two Dora Mavor Moore Awards for The Miracle Worker in 1986 and Trafford Tanzi in 1984.
But she does still do business behind the wheel. “I usually have good meetings in cars.
“I just worked on a project - we were producing 10 short films and there were a large number of people involved. I found the easiest way to get things done was to volunteer to give someone a ride home or pick them up so you'd have a car meeting,” says Burns, who directed and produced the HBO Canada anthology called Little Films about Big Moments .
At the moment, she wouldn't dream of dumping her hybrid. But she does have a long list of cars on her wish list.
“I'm enchanted by a red Mustang.
“I remember I was about 10 and my dad got a cool car - a Mustang. I remember those drives to the Dairy Queen where we all thought we were pretty cool.
“If I owned the keys to anything, I would want something very fun or eccentric like a New York City yellow cab, a silver Mini or an older roadster - something very romantic.”
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