Paul Gross relaxing between takes, with Martha Henry in the mirror behind him. (Bill Grimshaw/The Globe and Mail)
''I'd play a hockey player, but I'm a terrible skater,'' says Gross, during a break between filming the miniseries H20 in the residence of Ottawa's British high commissioner, serving as the set of 24 Sussex Dr., which is just down the street.
Gross, who is wearing a pinstriped power suit but has pulled off the tie, sips a glass of water at the dining-room table overlooking the Ottawa River at Earnscliffe, once also the home of Canada's first prime minister, John A. Macdonald.
H20, which Gross co-wrote, is a political potboiler being filmed all over the nation's capital until the end of May. The cast and crew are filming scenes on Parliament Hill this week.
"It's slightly unusual to have 80 people in the house all the time," says High Commissioner David Reddaway, who watched a scene with the movie's star being filmed in his living room.
Gross plays Tom McLaughlin, the son of a prime minister who drowns in a canoe accident that comes to look increasingly suspicious. He reluctantly replaces his father after his eulogy galvanizes political power brokers who convince him to run.
Gross, who became one of Canada's most recognized actors as Constable Benton Fraser on the award-winning television series Due South, doesn't give any thought to a real-life political future. "I could never run because I have too many skeletons," he says with a wicked grin.
But it's hard to imagine that Gross, still a boyishly handsome heartthrob at 44, has that much to hide.
Married to actress Martha Burns, the father of two was born in Calgary, but spent much of his childhood moving around Canada, the United States and Europe because his father was in the army.
"It was instructive," says Gross. "Quite often when you move, you have to sort of reinvent yourself to fit in."
He started acting at 14 in commercials, later moving to the stage both as an actor and a playwright while also performing in a band. Gross didn't let bad reviews deter him in his early years - although he did stop reading them for a while. He still remembers the headline in an Edmonton newspaper accompanying the review of a play he wrote when he was 23: Gross is an Insult to Theatre.
He went on to write more plays, TV series and films, as well as act in them. He received Gemini Awards for best actor in Due South in 1995 and 1996.
Gross wrote, directed and starred in the 2002 feature film Men with Brooms. He says he and Brooms co-writer John Krizanc decided to tackle a political thriller about two years ago, and H20 is the result. "We thought we should wade into political waters, and see what we find in there, partly because I think there are a lot of issues percolating beneath the surface."
The miniseries - with a budget of $8.5-million - has a twisting plot, 92 characters and 450 scenes to be shot. It is a co-production of Gross's company Whizbang Films Inc. with CBC, Telefilm Canada and others.
"It's a really compelling story about our country," promises H20's award-winning director, Charles Binamé.
"I was thrilled to bring it to the screen. It's a five-star cast."
Canadian actress Leslie Hope, who played the wife of Kiefer Sutherland on the television hit 24, will play Gross's love interest. Hope, who has lived in Los Angeles since 1983, says she was "thrilled" to come back to Canada to play the part of a forensics investigator who pulls the threads of the mystery in H20 together while making eyes at Gross's character.
Hope also recently played an investigator in Line of Fire, an ABC series featuring an FBI field office. It's the first time the Nova Scotia native has worked with Gross, although the two have crossed paths several times.
"We met last year at Monaco for the television festival and we both lost a lot of money at the craps tables," says Hope with a laugh. "That's where I'd say we really cemented our friendship."
Veteran actress Martha Henry plays the part of the prime minister's widow and the leading man's mother.
"They've created a fascinating female," she says. "You've got somebody who has been very bruised by the political process."
Watch as well for some other familiar faces in the miniseries, which is set to air next fall.
Some Members of Parliament are set to play reporters in cameos, and failed Conservative leadership contender Belinda Stronach is also expected to be one of the journalist extras.
Gross is already at work on his next script: an epic love story set against the First World War. He'll play a soldier.
In the meantime, Gross, who has joined other Canadian actors to lobby Ottawa for funding for Canadian film and television productions, says he wants to tell more made-for-Canada stories. And play more Canadian parts.
"I would rather stay here," he says. "It's my country. And I've been lucky enough to do that."
