by Davar Iran Ardalan

This feature requires version 9 or higher of the Adobe Flash Player.Get the latest Flash Player.

Listen to Liane Hansen and Greg Kinnear as Kinnear reveals his true feelings about Verdell, the animal actor in "As Good as It Gets" and more...

MP3 Download

Gemma Watters, Weekend Edition

daniel_richard.jpg
Gemma Watters, NPR

Greg Kinnear with Liane Hansen.

I've always had a fascination with windshield wipers. I remember as a child, sitting in the driver's seat of my parents' Volvo 440. I used to flick the wiper lever up and down, watching the wipers go back and forth, squeaking against the dry windshield with each stroke, and I would count the seconds between wipes. It never crossed my mind that someone had dedicated their time to inventing the wonderful wipers — until I saw the preview for Flash of Genius, by first-time director Mark Abraham.

 

Greg Kinnear was absolutely wonderful to meet. He was extremely passionate when talking about the role of Robert Kearns, inventor of intermittent windshield wipers. After hearing about the film and speaking to Mark and Greg, I had an urge to sit in a car, play with the windshield wipers and reminisce about my childhood.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I'm from the United Kingdom, so I really have to be a fan of Robert Kearns because if there's anywhere in the world that would benefit from such an invention, it's the U.K.