Home ~ News ~ Biography ~ Filmography ~ Gallery ~ Extras ~ Contact ~ Forum ~ Guest Book ~ Links ~ Link Us

How Vancouver's Barry Pepper Conquered LA
May 16, 2000

When he was five years old, Barry Pepper's dad loaded the family into a 50-foot sailboat and abandoned their Vancouver home in favour of the South Pacific.  Now 30, the intense, angular Pepper, who plays a prison guard in last year's "The Green Mile", and stole the show as a Bible-quoting sniper in the previous year's "Saving Private Ryan", claims it was his TV-free childhood that gave him the skills to become a great actor. 

This Friday, Pepper returns to the big screen in a sci-fi movie, “Battlefield Earth”, starring John Travolta.  In it, Pepper wears hair extensions and two-foot-long leather nose plugs.  He spoke to the “National Post” from his Vancouver home, where he lives with his wife, who is eight months pregnant with their first child.

How have you avoided permanently relocating to Los Angeles? 

Pepper: Well, I’ve been fortunate enough to work in films rather than in TV, and it’s easier for a film actor to have a more transient lifestyle.  You have to be firmly planted in LA if you’re doing a sitcom.

So you skipped the sitcom route?

Pepper:  I spent three or four months of one of the most brutally hot pilot seasons in the history of Hollywood [1997].  It was 400 degrees in the Valley, and I had to commute into the various studios.  I was driving a Dodge Dart Swinger with black vinyl seats and no A.C.  It was really brutal.  I was melting. I did one pilot, but luckily it didn’t get picked up or I wouldn’t have been free to shoot “Saving Private Ryan”.

What made you decide to move to LA that summer?

Pepper:  I’d cut my teeth in Vancouver on TV shows and movies of the week and low budget features, but I decided to wait until I had a page of guest credits before I went to LA, so that people would take me seriously.

Vancouver is a great springboard for LA because you can experiment and there’s a real strong sense of freedom for young actors.  There are time restrictions and money restrictions, so you have to learn how to do your job fast and efficiently.  You learn to be professional overnight.

What shows were you on?

Pepper:  I worked on a teen soap opera drama called “Madison” for four seasons.  I was a recurring character on “Lonesome Dove” and “Outer Limits” and “Highlander” and “Sliders”.

Would you advise a young actor today to try to stay in Canada?

Pepper:  Well, you can stay, but only to a point.  What happened to me was I had basically done all the shows there were to do and I was starting to repeat them.  I got a wake-up call one day when I went to this audition and I’d already worked for the director and producer and done the show before.  I’d worked with everyone in the room, and when I walked in they all acted like they didn’t know me.  That’s when it just became apparent that it was time for me to move on and broaden my horizons.

Why?

Pepper: Well, Vancouver was still in its infancy stage – still growing and learning and developing – and I think people were just sort of unsure of themselves.  Maybe they didn’t know how to handle auditions properly, or how to treat people properly.  They were growing and learning as much as I was, so I don’t think it was really out of any snobbery.  They just thought that was the way you were supposed to do a job.  If it had been all roses, and if I hadn’t gotten that wake-up call, I probably would have stayed.

You were one of the least well known actors in “Saving Private Ryan”.  How did you land the part?

Pepper: I read in a cattle call with 40 million other actors who wanted that role.  But I brought in this scene I thought I was supposed to read, and it turned out it was the wrong piece.  I read it anyway and the casting director said, “That’s great, some things are meant to be.  I’ll send it off to Steven and see what he thinks.”  I got a call a few days later and Steven wanted to meet me.

What was that like?

Pepper: I met Steven in a hangar at the Van Nuys airport, where he was filming the last few weeks of “Amistad”.  I’m standing looking up at the deck of the ship, which was blowing my mind, when all of a sudden he calls “Cut!” and asks me to come up on set.  So I walked up the plank and we started talking about “Private Ryan” as if I already had the job.

There was another fellow with me who was there for another role, but I was raised to believe that it’s better to remain silent than let people know you for a fool, so I usually let other people do all the talking.  I think [Steven] kind of took a liking to me because I was just listening and really enjoying his presence.  When I left, he turned to the producer and said, “Hire Barry Pepper.”

How is life different in Vancouver and LA?

Pepper: There’s a real strong Hollywood clone machine.  If you spend too much time down there you sort of end up becoming a clone of everyone else.  It seems like my personality and my soul soars up here in Canada, where there are forests and deer and grouse in my backyard, and sea lions on my beach.  There’s just no comparison.  I’ve never found a place in LA that allows me the spiritual freedom I feel here.

Was there a specific moment in your career when you started to feel like a real actor?

Pepper: “Saving Private Ryan” put it all into perspective.  As an actor, there’s not a lot of career stability or job security or career longevity.  There’s no guarantee you’re going to be able to put breakfast on the table, so you constantly feel like you’re just blessed to be working.  Even talking to Tom Hanks after “The Green Mile” it was the same – we’re unemployed, what’s next?

But after “Private Ryan” I realized it was a job well done and it was a really different movie.  And when we wrapped and I had “Enemy of the State” lined up I felt a lot more comfortable and confident as an actor.  I always felt that I could make a living at it, but I want quality work and to be involved on good projects.  The lifeblood of what we do as actors is look for quality material – to try to be a part of good stories.

What’s you new movie “Battlefield Earth” about?

Pepper: It’s “Star Wars” meets “Planet of the Apes”.  It’s about aliens who have seized the Earth and pushed humans back into the wilderness.  I play a character who lives in mountainous regions of the Rockies set in 3000 A.D.

After reading the script, I realized that I needed to be in incredible shape and started working out with a trainer in Vancouver.  I was doing a lot of mountain climbing and I took bareback horseback riding.  We shot for three months in Montreal with John Travolta.

I hear Travolta likes to eat.  Which set had better food, “The Green Mile” or “Battlefield”?

Pepper: I don’t know if Hanks is as much of a connoisseur as John, but they both treated everyone the same.  On “The Green Mile”, Tom would bring in a sushi chef of a whole van of In and Out burgers.  On “Battlefield”, Travolta’s principal photography started two weeks after we started, and we were up in the mountains outside of Quebec City and the catering was atrocious.  When Travolta found out that the catering sucked, he flew in his own private caterers and brought in the best sushi chefs in town.

Who do you dream of working with?

Pepper:  Sean Penn, Harrison Ford, Scorsese, Coppola, and someone like Norman Jewison – he’s Canadian.

What’s up next?

Pepper:  I’m doing a baseball film with Billy Crystal.  I’ve already gained 20 pounds for it.