Greenwood: Theater Vs. Movies

Bruce Greenwood, who played Captain Pike in Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek into Darkness, has taken on the role of a theater director in Rehearsal.

In Rehearsal, Greenwood’s character chose live theater over a film career, but for Greenwood, his preference is for movies. “I did [about] ten years on stage and when I moved to L.A., I just started working in film and I’ve gone back and done stage stuff since then. But I’ve been lucky enough to find enough interesting stuff to do in movies. It hasn’t all been interesting or worthy by any stretch but there has been enough stuff that it’s remained challenging for me.”

Greenwood has taken part in both small and big-budget films and believes that doing both types of films is important. “First of all it’s very difficult to earn a living doing just the independent stuff. And some of the bigger stuff has tremendous themes. Both Star Trek films have themes that resonate independent of the grand spectacle of it all.”

But big-budget films can mean long stretches of doing nothing and waiting to be called. “Sometimes you get less time to do the acting because they spend an inordinate amount of time making everything look big and spectacular,” said Greenwood. “They’re doing a great big sequence where the plane crashes or the town burns down. So there’s a lot of waiting around.”

Greenwood occupies himself during these long stretches of waiting with hobbies. “I read; play guitar,” he said. “Sometimes play chess. Always have a chessboard with me.”

Rehearsal will make its premiere that the Whistler Film Festival, which begins today.

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T'Bonz

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