BRUCE GREENWOOD CONNECTED TO DYLAN POETRY

Bruce Greenwood, a lover of poetry, connected to Bob Dylan’s words more than his music.

When Bob Dylan was at the height of his career he toured Europe cavorting with debutantes and butting heads with evasive journalists who demanded to know the truth about his music.

In I’m Not There Bruce Greenwood, most recently seen on HBO’s John From Cincinatti, plays the BBC reporter who grills him. Bruce was attracted to Dylan’s music because the poet in the singer songwriter spoke to him.

“I was more into poetry as a kid than I was music and for a long time when I listened to pop music I would really only listen to the words. As late as 20 years old I had arguments with people where I’d say ‘that’s a great song,’ and they’d go, ‘the song’s awful, the words are OK.’ And I’d go, ‘what’s the difference.’ And it was a long time before I realized that it’s two things that come together to make great music, great pop music. But I’d just listen to the lyric and to me the poet spoke to me.”

Bruce plays another character in I’m Not There in addition to the journalist. He is almost unrecognizable as an old man who is the nemesis to Dylan’s Billy The Kid persona played by Richard Gere.

“It was really fun. I mean I don’t get a chance to play stuff that that’s far out very often. They put this wig on me that weighed about three or four pounds. And it felt great with this big fat hair swinging it around and then they put the beard on and a little bit of latex around the eyes and so you can virtually do anything except the beard was a little bit restrictive so I found a way to work it.”

Bruce Greenwood also stars in National Treasure 2 coming out in Christmas, and then he’s set to board the USS Enterprise to shoot Star Trek playing Christopher Pike where we meet Spock and Kirk as fresh graduates from the Starfleet Academy.