Kurt Russell revs film career back up, talks Canada, kids and ‘Art of the Steal’

TORONTO – As Kurt Russell transitioned from movie star to high-end winemaker the past few years, audiences might have wondered if his film career was in fact dying on the vine.

After all, the Golden Globe-nominated star of “Tombstone,” “The Thing” and “Escape From New York” appeared in only one film in the years since 2007’s “Death Proof” — 2011’s little-seen football drama “Touchback.”

But when he first read Canadian writer-director Jonathan Sobol’s script for “The Art of the Steal,” opening Friday, the 62-year-old finally stumbled upon something that carried as interesting a flavour as a good glass of pinot.

“This one made me come out of the vineyard,” the personable actor, who created the Gogi wine imprint with Ampelos Vineyard, said in a telephone interview from California on Monday.

“I’m glad it did, because it sort of reignited the feeling and idea of being back on the set, working with actors, writers, directors, producers and studios and the whole world of putting together a movie.

“I found that making wine is very much like making a movie, in that you’re going to finally, at the end of the day, after you’ve put all your effort into it, you’re going to put something with the final cut in the can, you’re going to put the final blend into the bottle for somebody to enjoy, be entertained.”

In the freewheeling heist pic, Russell plays Crash Calhoun, a rapidly fading motorcycle daredevil trying to forget his sordid past as a high-end thief (and the punishing stint he served in a Polish prison). And yet, in perpetual need of cash, Calhoun is eventually drawn back in for one last score by his duplicitous brother Nicky (Matt Dillon).

Together, they hatch a complex plot to swipe a supposedly priceless piece of art by assembling a hotshot team of criminals portrayed by the likes of Toronto’s Chris Diamantopoulos and Montreal’s Jay Baruchel, who plays Calhoun’s motor-mouthed screw-up of a sidekick. Oscar nominee Terence Stamp and “Daily Show” comic Jason Jones also show up for fun roles on the other side of the law.

In Baruchel, Russell found a kindred spirit and willing improv partner who was “very fun” to work with. Baruchel, meanwhile, was effusive in his praise for the screen veteran, with whom he savoured conversations about politics, sports and film.

“That’s one of the world’s last bona fide global movie stars,” Baruchel said in an interview during the Toronto International Film Festival, where the movie premiered. “When we were kids, there were two dozen bona fide movie stars — we don’t have those anymore. And Kurt is one of cinema’s great heroes.

“So I picked his brain like (crazy). And boy was I happy to find out that he liked nothing more than telling me what it was like shooting ‘Tombstone,’ or what happened up in Alaska while they were shooting ‘The Thing.’ It was so bloody cool.

“What a smart man,” he added. “Holy Moses.”

Baruchel also declares that Russell is an aficionado of all things Canadian, a distinction that elicits a chuckle from Russell when it’s reported back to him.

But “it’s not far from the truth.” From 2003 to 2006, he and wife Goldie Hawn took up residence in Vancouver while their son Wyatt was playing junior hockey there, a “tremendous time” for the family.

“We were ensconced, we were surrounded by Canadians, and it was a nice surrounding,” he says with a laugh. “What can you say? We had a ball. And years before that, I’d already built the home in Muskoka (in Ontario’s cottage country) and that’s still where we spend a great deal of our summer.

“So yeah, in that regard, we’re Canada-philes.”

After playing professionally in Europe and enduring an injury, Wyatt eventually left hockey behind to pursue acting — a familiar career arc to Russell, whose promising professional baseball career was similarly derailed by physical ailments.

The 27-year-old Wyatt has been cast in “22 Jump Street” — the upcoming follow-up to the 2012 comedy blockbuster starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum — and the Derek Sanderson biopic “Turk,” which will see the young actor portray Boston Bruins great Bobby Orr. His proud father says Wyatt is also circling a key role in a film about Georgian jam band the Allman Brothers while also developing a TV pilot with his siblings.

“We’ve had the joke in our family for a long, long time that the best actor in the family was the only one who wasn’t perhaps acting,” Russell says with a laugh. “Again, I think Canada wasn’t only somewhere where our family spent a great deal of time, but it played a great part in bringing up Wyatt and giving him a different outlook on life.”

The elder Russell approves of taking a circuitous route to the screen. He started acting at 10 years old, and never completely stopped working even as he seriously pursued a career on the baseball diamond.

After a childhood immersed in show business, Russell has never worried that a brief respite from the screen would spell the end of his career — and in fact, muses that such diversions fuel his acting, rather than distracting from it.

“I’ve never been afraid to leave Hollywood,” said the forthright star. “I realized that all the things people do outside acting are what makes me interested in acting. The last thing I’d want to do is just be interested in acting. I learned early on that that would have put me in the grave.”

And yet, he hasn’t followed the path of other restlessly creative actors to an expanded role behind the camera.

A few years ago, Russell confirmed the long-whispered rumour that he actually directed the 1993 Western hit “Tombstone,” rather than credited helmer George P. Cosmatos who was apparently overwhelmed by the task.

That experience, Russell said, “satiated” any lingering directorial ambition he harboured. Looking back 20 years later, he says even at the time he didn’t have any great desire to direct a movie, but simply wanted to make sure the film delivered on its potential (both creative and commercial, given that Russell had been integral in pulling together its financing).

“It was a difficult situation,” Russell said. “There was a lot of things about ‘Tombstone’ that people don’t know and that includes the actors on the movie. I was only interested in the fact that it got done. I’m only interested that they get done and I’m not interested in who gets credit for what.

“I think we live in a business where there’s way too much emphasis on credit and not as much on result.”

It was also a business that, seemingly, had begun to bore Russell.

If that was once the case, it isn’t true anymore. He’s recently been back and forth to Atlanta to work on the seventh film in the high-octane “Fast and the Furious” franchise, and he says he’s “having a ball” creating a role in the new movie.

From vino to Vin Diesel? From where Russell’s sitting, it’s exactly the sort of unlikely transition that makes sense as he revs his career up into a higher gear.

“I’m actually pulling myself out of the vineyard and I’ve read three or four things I’m really interested in getting done in the next year or two,” Russell said. “I’m looking to the business very refreshed….

“After that (film) I’ve got a couple other things, some are independents, and I’m just looking forward to having the opportunity to get them done, and working with people once again, and seeing if you can’t make something happen that makes people go to the theatre and have a good time.”