I’m not sure he can bluff at poker, but when it comes to diplomatically not answering a direct question, Bruce Greenwood can hang with the best of them.
I’ve interviewed him before, I’ve watched him work on sets, and I’ve had the opportunity a few times to just chat with him informally. He strikes me as really down-to-earth, a decent guy who projects a certain kind of charisma. There’s a reason he got tapped to play JFK in “Seven Days,” and there’s a reason JJ Abrams cast him as Commander Pike, who had such a great couple of scenes with Chris Pine as Kirk in “Star Trek.”
I wanted to find a more graceful segue into “Star Trek Into Darkness,” next year’s sequel, than you’ll see in this interview. It’s because everything at the “Flight” press day was running off-schedule, and midway through this interview, the count went from “three minutes left” to “wrap it up” in what felt like about 45 seconds. When we wrapped, I wasn’t satisfied with the answer I got from him on-camera, so I tried another tactic.
“So, listen… I talked to JJ Abrams, and he told me to tell you that it’s okay to tell me everything.”
He smiled. “I doubt that.”
“No, it’s true. You don’t even have to text him to double-check. He said to tell you, “Go ahead and tell Drew every secret about the new movie. He’s cool.'”
He laughed, recognizing the scent of freshly spun bullshit. “Sounds like you’ve got it covered.”
You’ve had a chance to see it now yourselves, so tell me… what did you think of “Flight”?
You can see Greenwood doing his best to save Denzel Washington in “Flight,” now playing in theaters everywhere.