HIGH LIFE

For Tony Award-winner Brent Carver, success means the freedom to choose

By John Coulbourn - Toronto Sun, February 1997

It's a fleeting thing, midway between a twinkle in the eye and a sigh of utter contentment.

And in the millisecond before it disappears it says that his voyage, thus far, has been worthwhile.

Brent Carver has been talking about what he's been up to the last little while -- in the year or so that has slipped away since his Dora-winning turn in Lee MacDougall's High Life.

We've covered his awesome and awesomely simple performance in Lilies, touched on his turn in Whiskers (a tale of a cat transformed into a man that's slated for theatrical release in June) and covered one or two other things.

Now, he's talking about his month in Padua--just outside Venice, Italy--where he's been playing Leonardo DaVinci in a piece slated to air on HBO next fall.

"It was a tough, tough gig," he says, all put-upon earnestness and mock boredom, as the look flashes across his face.

This then is what success means to the Tony-winning star of Kiss of the Spider Woman.

Forget money, fame, hype -- those are the things that drive the pack