Gross aims to please
Actor Paul Gross was not only armed on the set of Gunless, he was downright dangerous.
Between takes, he would routinely point his Colt 45 at unsuspecting cast-mates, spin the gun in dizzying circles, practise his quick draw, and just generally make a nuisance of himself.
"Usually there's a code of etiquette on a set where you have guns, and I think I violated every rule there was," Gross said with a mischievous grin. "I don't know why people put up with me, but they did."
In truth, fun was had by all involved in the month-long shoot of Gunless, a western spoof that opens in theatres across Canada today. Audiences appear to be having a good time, too: At a red-carpet premiere, there was spontaneous applause after the film, and again after the outtakes that accompanied the credits.
On a cross-country tour last week to promote the film, Gross said sitting in the darkened theatres was a gratifying, if nerve-racking, experience.
"It's always wonderful if it's working, but it can very, very devastating if it's not," said Gross during a stop in Edmonton. "Usually a lot of time has passed since you've done the work (the movie was shot last summer), and you kind of forget until you see it again. Then you think: 'I wonder if that's going to work. Is that bit funny? It seemed funny at the time.'
"But the response has been really good so far. It's always fantastic to be in the midst of a bunch of people who are really enjoying themselves."
The project was a complete departure from his previous film, Passchendaele, based on the bloody First World War battle on the fields of Ypres, Belgium, involving 50,000 Canadian soldiers. It was the highest-grossing Canadian film of 2008 and won five Genie Awards, including best picture. Gross, a multi-award winner for his work on the television series Due South, was nominated for best actor. He wrote the screenplay, directed it and played the starring role, a character that was based on his maternal grandfather, Michael Dunne.
In Gunless, an Alliance film, Gross was called upon to wear only one hat, both figuratively and literally (it was black, as befits his role as the bad guy), which he was happy to do.
"I like doing comedy if for no other reason than the day is just more amusing than if you're just sitting around crying all the time, but I don't have a particular favourite between doing comedy and drama," Gross said.
"In this particular instance, though, it was great because I got to work with such great people; things just started happening that hadn't been planned or scripted, and that was really exciting."
British-born Sienna Guillory, who just finished shooting an independent feature, The Big Bang opposite Antonio Banderas, is the female lead. Joining Gross and Guillory are Tyler Mane ( Rob Zombie's H2), Dustin Milligan ( 90210) and Callum Keith Rennie ( Battlestar Galactica, Californication).
Gross plays the Montana Kid, a notorious American gunslinger who finds himself in a tiny Canadian frontier hamlet inhabited by stereotypically polite townsfolk whose sleepy existence is about to get a serious wake-up call.
When he's involved in a dust-up with the town's surly but otherwise passive blacksmith, Gross's character calls him out, enforcing the code of the Wild West by demanding a showdown.
But with nary a working pistol to be found in the town, staging a gunfight may prove to be an impossible task.
The sensibilities of both countries are caught in the crossfire in the ensuing hilarity, which takes equal aim at Canada's collective affability and Hollywood's portrayal of the American Wild West. It is the first Canadian-made western ever produced.
And for Gross, 51, it was an irresistible opportunity.
Born in Calgary and educated at the University of Alberta, he lives in Toronto now, but still considers himself an Alberta boy.
He learned to ride here, to embrace a certain western sensibility and to learn his craft.
"The lure of doing a western is almost primal for an actor. And one of the great attractions to doing the film was to work basically in one location, in this great, heartbreaking landscape. It was really wonderful. I would get to the base camp where we had our trailers and get all of my stuff on, and then I'd get on my horse and ride to the set. And I had a gun. It was sublime."
The movie was shot over 25 days last June in the arid countryside around Osoyoos, B.C. With its rolling, uninhabited grasslands and dry, dusty hills, the area provided a startlingly authentic Wild West backdrop.
Gross said the experience was fun, despite sweltering heat, choking dust storms that sometimes brought production to a halt, and, yes, even despite the agony of hair extensions.
He opted for the latter over a wig, a decision he lived to regret.
"I thought it was pretty cool for about the first four or five hours; after that, it was agony. I don't know how women do it."
And to play a highly skilled gunfighter, Gross had to master a series of gun tricks, which he learned himself. A few months before shooting began, props master Dean Godine gave Gross a non-functioning replica of a Colt 45 that was the exact weight and balance of the gun he would use on the set. Gross took it home and went to work.
"I pretty much spun it non-stop until I got carpal tunnel syndrome," Gross said. "I was terribly hazardous to be around at first; the gun's fairly heavy and it would go flying out of my hand, through plate-glass doors, through open windows, at passing cars. It's kind of a complicated thing to learn, especially the quick draw."
For his character, Gross drew from the big-screen westerns he loved to watch growing up. The Montana Kid is Gary Cooper from High Noon, Jack Nicholson from Missouri Breaks, Clint Eastwood from High Plains Drifter, and perhaps most of all, Lee Marvin as the drunken, bumbling Kid Shelleen from Cat Ballou, a 1965 western spoof that earned Marvin an Academy Award.
"I didn't consciously think about (all those roles) while I was doing it; it's sort of more to do with form. The whole movie is inside the frame of an iconic western and the character had to be as well, so that when things go off the rails it will be funny -- or at least that's the hope."
jhall@thejournal.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
SOURCE
Between takes, he would routinely point his Colt 45 at unsuspecting cast-mates, spin the gun in dizzying circles, practise his quick draw, and just generally make a nuisance of himself.
"Usually there's a code of etiquette on a set where you have guns, and I think I violated every rule there was," Gross said with a mischievous grin. "I don't know why people put up with me, but they did."
In truth, fun was had by all involved in the month-long shoot of Gunless, a western spoof that opens in theatres across Canada today. Audiences appear to be having a good time, too: At a red-carpet premiere, there was spontaneous applause after the film, and again after the outtakes that accompanied the credits.
On a cross-country tour last week to promote the film, Gross said sitting in the darkened theatres was a gratifying, if nerve-racking, experience.
"It's always wonderful if it's working, but it can very, very devastating if it's not," said Gross during a stop in Edmonton. "Usually a lot of time has passed since you've done the work (the movie was shot last summer), and you kind of forget until you see it again. Then you think: 'I wonder if that's going to work. Is that bit funny? It seemed funny at the time.'
"But the response has been really good so far. It's always fantastic to be in the midst of a bunch of people who are really enjoying themselves."
The project was a complete departure from his previous film, Passchendaele, based on the bloody First World War battle on the fields of Ypres, Belgium, involving 50,000 Canadian soldiers. It was the highest-grossing Canadian film of 2008 and won five Genie Awards, including best picture. Gross, a multi-award winner for his work on the television series Due South, was nominated for best actor. He wrote the screenplay, directed it and played the starring role, a character that was based on his maternal grandfather, Michael Dunne.
In Gunless, an Alliance film, Gross was called upon to wear only one hat, both figuratively and literally (it was black, as befits his role as the bad guy), which he was happy to do.
"I like doing comedy if for no other reason than the day is just more amusing than if you're just sitting around crying all the time, but I don't have a particular favourite between doing comedy and drama," Gross said.
"In this particular instance, though, it was great because I got to work with such great people; things just started happening that hadn't been planned or scripted, and that was really exciting."
British-born Sienna Guillory, who just finished shooting an independent feature, The Big Bang opposite Antonio Banderas, is the female lead. Joining Gross and Guillory are Tyler Mane ( Rob Zombie's H2), Dustin Milligan ( 90210) and Callum Keith Rennie ( Battlestar Galactica, Californication).
Gross plays the Montana Kid, a notorious American gunslinger who finds himself in a tiny Canadian frontier hamlet inhabited by stereotypically polite townsfolk whose sleepy existence is about to get a serious wake-up call.
When he's involved in a dust-up with the town's surly but otherwise passive blacksmith, Gross's character calls him out, enforcing the code of the Wild West by demanding a showdown.
But with nary a working pistol to be found in the town, staging a gunfight may prove to be an impossible task.
The sensibilities of both countries are caught in the crossfire in the ensuing hilarity, which takes equal aim at Canada's collective affability and Hollywood's portrayal of the American Wild West. It is the first Canadian-made western ever produced.
And for Gross, 51, it was an irresistible opportunity.
Born in Calgary and educated at the University of Alberta, he lives in Toronto now, but still considers himself an Alberta boy.
He learned to ride here, to embrace a certain western sensibility and to learn his craft.
"The lure of doing a western is almost primal for an actor. And one of the great attractions to doing the film was to work basically in one location, in this great, heartbreaking landscape. It was really wonderful. I would get to the base camp where we had our trailers and get all of my stuff on, and then I'd get on my horse and ride to the set. And I had a gun. It was sublime."
The movie was shot over 25 days last June in the arid countryside around Osoyoos, B.C. With its rolling, uninhabited grasslands and dry, dusty hills, the area provided a startlingly authentic Wild West backdrop.
Gross said the experience was fun, despite sweltering heat, choking dust storms that sometimes brought production to a halt, and, yes, even despite the agony of hair extensions.
He opted for the latter over a wig, a decision he lived to regret.
"I thought it was pretty cool for about the first four or five hours; after that, it was agony. I don't know how women do it."
And to play a highly skilled gunfighter, Gross had to master a series of gun tricks, which he learned himself. A few months before shooting began, props master Dean Godine gave Gross a non-functioning replica of a Colt 45 that was the exact weight and balance of the gun he would use on the set. Gross took it home and went to work.
"I pretty much spun it non-stop until I got carpal tunnel syndrome," Gross said. "I was terribly hazardous to be around at first; the gun's fairly heavy and it would go flying out of my hand, through plate-glass doors, through open windows, at passing cars. It's kind of a complicated thing to learn, especially the quick draw."
For his character, Gross drew from the big-screen westerns he loved to watch growing up. The Montana Kid is Gary Cooper from High Noon, Jack Nicholson from Missouri Breaks, Clint Eastwood from High Plains Drifter, and perhaps most of all, Lee Marvin as the drunken, bumbling Kid Shelleen from Cat Ballou, a 1965 western spoof that earned Marvin an Academy Award.
"I didn't consciously think about (all those roles) while I was doing it; it's sort of more to do with form. The whole movie is inside the frame of an iconic western and the character had to be as well, so that when things go off the rails it will be funny -- or at least that's the hope."
jhall@thejournal.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
SOURCE