'Horrible' dad turns cool dad

A little over 15 years ago, Greg Kinnear looked set for movie stardom. He had successfully transitioned from TV chatshow host to bona fide Hollywood talent, securing an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor with only his fourth film, 1997's As Good As It Gets.

Nowadays, he is known for his work in smaller pictures. As he is 50 years old, blockbuster action roles have most likely passed him by.

But he has found his niche as one of Hollywood's most reliable character actors, whose credits include We Were Soldiers (2002), Bad News Bears (2005), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Baby Mama (2008) and Green Zone (2010).

"I've not been very genre-seeking in my movie choices," says Kinnear at a press meet in Toronto.

"That's probably stupid of me in career terms, but I always just responded to a script or I didn't. I've done some element of every type of genre to some degree, but I guess I'm not very forward-thinking. I'm very linear. If something comes in and it feels good, then I go for it.

"In terms of career observation, I'm not great at that either, though I guess I'm in my literary phase right now with my most recent movies."

Earlier this year he starred opposite Julianne Moore in The English Teacher. He is currently on screens in Singapore in the light family drama Stuck In Love.

The new movie was originally titled Writers, with a screenplay and direction by first-timer Josh Boone, and it is hung on a literary-minded family that is suffering in the wake of the parents' divorce. Kinnear and Jennifer Connolly feature as the divorcees, while rising stars Lily Collins and Nat Wolff play their children.

Kinnear says: "Josh Boone told me that this story between Jennifer Connolly's character and my own was born out of his own parents' divorce and how powerful that was. I was quite moved by it."

His character is a successful novelist, eager to encourage the creative writing skills that abound in his offspring. He is also a very open father, sharing many of his own problems and anxieties with his children. "It was interesting playing a 'cool' father," he says with a laugh, "because I'm a horrible father in real-life."

The actor married British ex-model Helen Labdon in 1999 and the couple have three daughters, aged four to 10. Their parenting style, he says, is far more traditional than that of his character, who conducts frank conversations with his children.

"I have friends who deal with their kids as contemporaries, as peers," he notes, "but then the problem is that the kids treat you as contemporaries too, so they're asking about sexual experiences and what have you. That type of parenting seems a two-edged sword."

Kinnear's own upbringing was nomadic. As his father was working as a Foreign Services diplomat for the US State Department, the family travelled to Lebanon and Athens, and it was while studying in the Greek capital that Kinnear first tried his hand at talk show hosting on radio.

These days, he says, he tries to provide his own children with a settled, safe and balanced upbringing, which he finds increasingly difficult in a world where technology plays an ever-greater role.

"My oldest is 10 and I try and keep the computer away from her as much as possible, but it's hard," he says. "I also have a four-year-old and all she wants to do is play with the phone or iPad.

"It is a worry because there have been studies done that prove that computers can have a harmful effect on the memory.

"For me, as a parent, the great trick is to try and get your children passionate about something, to get them away from computers and out into the world."

Would he like his children to follow his path into Hollywood? He shakes his head. "If it turns out that acting and drama are their passion, I shouldn't dissuade it," he says with a smile.

"But I am going to do everything I can to make them not be actors. It's a very competitive and random business."

stlife@sph.com.sg

Stuck In Love is showing in cinemas.

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