LEX BRUHANSKI has grappled with the question for
close to three decades, and each time he descends
: into that inner world of reflection he comes a little

closer to the answer.

“What got me into acting?” he
says, flopping his stockinged feet
on top of a coffee table like a
1950s private eye. “Probably be-
ing the youngest child and
needing attention.

. “There was a lot of poverty

and illness in my family — my fa-

ther was struck with his first heart

attack in his mid-30s and died at

42, leaving my mother with no

money,” he explains in the living

room of his modest North Van-
couver townhouse.

“My early childhood was filled
with a lot of generalized fears. You
wake up in the middle of the night
-and your father’s dead. The idea
of getting out of that through
“let's pretend” became very at-
tractive very early.”

You might remember Bruhanski
from his portrayal of Cliff in The
Woolgatherer, or as C.C. on the
TV series Neon Rider.

Over the past 30 years or so, the
L.A.+trained actor has been har-
pooned, pushed off balconies and
shot at (“1 do great deaths,”’ he
boasts), made regular appearances
on Stephen J. Cannell’s The
Commish where, he adds, he got
knocked off by a fatal bullet to the
chest (Cannell has a proclivity for
seeing him die painfully, he says),
not to mention a handful of
feature films including Chuck Nor-
tis’ The Hit Man.

Unlike most established actors,

_ who prefer to keep their private
lives under wraps, Bruhanski is
remarkably candid about his life,
about the difficult early years
which saw him flee his Brooklyn
home Alice-like down the
Hollywood escape hatch, how his
resistance to the Vietnam War
forced him to leave L.A. at a time
when he was just beginning his
acting career. ;

’ Fresh out of Jeff Corey's acting

_ school, Bruhanski arrived in Van-
couver in 1966. The first few
months were painfully lonely, with
no friends, family or contacts

within Vancouver's fledgling act-
ing community. So, he ended up
working as a grave digger for
gruesome wages.

The hard knocks made him a
fealist as only a grave digger could

e.

“As a street kid coming from
Brooklyn, to a degree I've learned
to carve my awn breaks,’ he says.

Bruhanski has played “‘let’s
pretend” ever since he
transplanted hirnself to Los
Angeles from New York in 1963
and signed up for acting classes
with veteran instructor Corey,
whose former celebrity students
include Jack Nicholson, Dustin
Hoffman, Leonard Nimoy and
Richard Chamberlain (Cher was
one of Bruhanski’s classmates and
Mr. Spock his first substitute
teacher).

Corey proved to have the
greatest influence on his career,
and the two still maintain a work-
ing relationship. It was Corey's
love for the craft and ‘‘sense of
detail” that inspired Bruhanski to
shape his own teaching career. In
fact when he first began working
with students, he remembers how
he used to replicate Corey's
classes.

“ve been teaching for 26
years, but it was probably 15 years
before | started doing my own
thing,” he says.

While Bruhanski says he never

Evelyn Jacob
SPOTLIGHT FEATURE

planned to teach, many would
agree it is what he does best. Ap-
parently, because his Vancouver
studio has been going strong for
14 years now.

And although he has cut back
on teaching (he used to keep
workaholic hours) ironically, he
says he’s more excited by it than
ever before. Never one to gather
moss, Bruhanski has been in-
troducing new methods which he
says are aimed at teaching actors
how important it is to trust
themselves, ‘especially in this
meat-market kind of environ-
ment.”

Being the realist, though, he is
quick to add that he never gives
his students false hope.

“4'm very candid with actors.

In the beginning | always present
the stats on them ever having a
career. Once they understand how
stacked the odds are against them,
then we begin to chip away at
those odds. Those who are star-
struck get hit with reality very
hard.”

Bruhanski chipped away at
those odds so successfully he
could have had a second career as
a sculptor.

Although he has never been a
leading man (he considers that fact
to be both a curse and a blessing),
Bruhanski has never had to scrape
for roles.

Some of his favorites include
Raun the gay hairdresser on Bird
ona Wire, and Metis leader
Gabriel Dumont in the movie
Kootenai Brown (This, he says,
was one of the biggest challenges
of his career, Although he felt the
role should have gone to a native
actor, ne believes he executed the
character with integrity).

Unfortunately, the industry has
not been as kind to today’s young
actors.

Bruhanski says the typical
neophyte faces a myriad of
obstacles, like not being able to
find an agent because they’re ei-
ther a) not the right color or b) not
the right gender or c) not the right
age.

“It's like, come back when
you've changed your dialect, fixed
your nose, cut your hair,’ he says.

But it’s equally frustrating for
him to watch actors who have it
all — looks, intelligence, the
perfectly telegenic bone structure
~ throw away their talent.

“The reason they don’t make it
is what | call self-sabotage,” he
explains, running his fingers
through his silver-streaked hair.

“I could write’ a book on how
they do that: The Means by Which
You Sabotage, by Alex Bruhanski.
They either drink too much, have
a coke problem or get hung up in
relationships that are all-consum-
ing.” '

He stops for a moment and
adds: “‘! always thought it was
fear of failure, but [ think the fear

is of success. The tab on trying
something and failing is familiarity,
whereas the tab on success is
enormous.”

The refreshing thing about
Bruhanski is that he practises what
he preaches. For instance, he once
held the dubious title of Van-
couver’s ‘most successful
overweight actor’’ but realized life
was short enough as it is and pro-
ceeded to lose 42 pounds.

“| also used to smoke two
packs of cigarettes a day until | re-
alized | was playing out my fa-
ther’s script. Now I’m the bane of
smokers,” he laughs.

Getting in touch with his own |
feelings has meant more time for
family as well. Bruhanski has two
kids: Kira, 12, and Joshua, 4.

He says it’s made him not only a
better person, but a better actor ©
and teacher.

“ve worked with actors mak-
ing mega-millions like Mel Gibson
and Ted Danson, and sure, these
people have options up the
wazoo, but they’re no happier.”

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Wednesday, February 24, 1993 ~ North Shore News - 23

NEWS photo Tarry Poters

VETERAN ACTOR and teacher Alex Bruhanski says he never

gives his students false hope.

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