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Drama, comedy, he's on it
Greg Kinnear has come a long way but now finds himself in a comfortable place.
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 1, 2007
NEW YORK - Between the far-fetched comedies of summer and the encroaching season of heavy dramas bestrides Greg Kinnear. "It's what I believe most," Kinnear says in a recent interview over breakfast, speaking about his inclination to mix comedy and drama. "I can't not find humor in elements of most parts of life, but at the same time nothing ever seems perpetually funny to me." Laughing, Kinnear adds with some self-mockery: "Deep sadness I find in everything." The 44-year-old, Indiana-born actor blends humor and seriousness in Feast of Love, an adaptation of Charles Baxter's novel by director Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer, Nobody's Fool), which opened Friday. In Feast of Love, Kinnear plays Bradley Thomas, a love-sick coffee shop owner careening optimistically from heartbreak to heartbreak. "He's in love with being in love," says the actor. Like several of Kinnear's roles, Bradley is a kind soul, earnestly struggling to keep any happiness. In last year's hit Little Miss Sunshine, he played a desperate self-help guru determined to keep his family afloat. Kinnear acknowledges that he's drawn to earnest, desperate characters, or at least, "people are drawn to me doing that." "People trying to keep it together in spite of a swirling vortex of despair they find themselves in is always something that sparks me," Kinnear says wryly. "I don't know what specifically it is that I'm drawn to, but I always feel like I understand it." Laughing at himself, Kinnear adds in a pitch-perfect President Clinton impression: "Feel your pain." "People kind of dismiss the fact that he's got a depth of talent, and he does," says actor Alan Arkin, who co-starred with Kinnear in Sunshine. "He's got a real range and a terrific imagination." Feast of Love director Benton says he's watch Kinnear develop as an actor, "and I believe with all of my heart that Greg Kinnear is this generation's Jack Lemmon."
[Last modified October 1, 2007, 00:01:18]
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