Clive Owen Interview, Shoot Em Up

We had a chance to sit down with one of the toughest guys in show business, Clive Owen to talk about his role in the upcoming thriller Shoot `Em up. Clive Owen as of recent has built an image for himself around being the hero, and not always the squeaky clean one at that. In Sin City he was a rogue hero, and in Shoot Em Up he is the same deal.  

The gritty, fast-paced action thriller, "Shoot Em Up" kicks into high gear with a memorable opening scene and never relents. The movie is written and directed by Michael Davis ("Monster Man") and is scheduled for a Sept. 7, 2007 release. Clive Owen stars as Mr. Smith, a mysterious loner who teams up with an unlikely ally (Monica Belluci) to protect a newborn baby from a determined criminal (Paul Giamatti) who hunts them throughout the bowels of the city. Here is what he had to say during our interview at Comic Con.

So, how much fun was this?

Clive Owen: A lot of fun. Did it look like fun?

It was a hell of a movie. It was so much fun. I don't think I've had that much fun in a movie in a long time.

Clive Owen: Good, good, good. That's what we want to hear.

Did you break anything?

Clive Owen: No.

Was the role very physical?

Clive Owen: A lot. There was a lot, yeah. This is the way Michael shoots. He's got this thing about action, when it gets very spectacular and the camera comes away and there’s big danger, like, he wants to feel like he's in there with the guy. He wants to be the guy shooting the gun. It means he wants to come in all the time as opposed to pulling out. So, yeah, it was very physical.

There are rumors that they tried to get you out of this film for another movie and you didn't accept to do it. Is it true? And if it is true, why did you accept to do this?

Clive Owen: No, it isn't true.

Okay. Why would you do this film?    

Clive Owen: To be honest with you, I was told about the film, I was pitched it and I thought it's not going to be for me. Then in a while it was like, this doesn't sound like my kind of thing, I don't know, but I'll read it. When I read it, then I watched this animated pitch, the 17-minute, and I rang up the agent, I said, "This is wild. I mean, if this guy can pull this off, this will be extraordinary." I think it was just because of me and my thought to see, to talk to him about his ideas.

If the guy didn't make this film, the guy was going to explode. There was seven years of [f*****] dreaming every angle of this movie. And as I sat there and said, "Look, it's one thing, you know, writing these big action things, but they take real sort of time [in this movie]. Everything I threw at him, he was like, "No, it doesn't matter, because I can script those guys to do that, and if I run out of time, then I just need the angle there and I go there, I go there." Everything I put in front of him he was like, "Covered, covered, covered, covered." And I walked away and I rang my agent and I said, "He will pull it off, this guy will pull it off. This guy has to make this film, so I think we should do it."

Would you do a Bond movie?

Clive Owen: I'd be very happy to.

How hard was it not to laugh in the scene where you and Monica were having sex? Can you think of someone obviously where you’re paying attention but it just seems like she’s so into it.

Clive Owen: Listen. Being that close to Monica Belluci never becomes monotonous, let me tell you that.

That's your second film with a baby. Did you have any problems about that?

Clive Owen: And a birth scene. Not only a baby but actually delivering a baby. Although only in one do I shoot the umbilical cord. Guess which?

A lot of the action was just so completely over the top. How hard is it to walk that line?

Clive Owen: You have to -- well, listen, the tone of the film very clearly says when the carrot comes out of the back of guy's head--if you take the film too seriously, you're on a bum steer. But at the same time you do have to root it, I agree. If you make it too indulgently whacky and [like], and then you switch off. So, it has to be sort of -- you've got to constantly ground the film and make it like here in its own ridiculous way that it is --But that's Michael. That's Michael's tone because he takes this shit really seriously.

When he introduced the film last night, he was like a little kid with a new toy. He was --

Clive Owen: Let me tell you, coming here, he's so psyched about Comic Con. This to him is better than Cannes, it's better -- like there was no better place to launch this movie.

So that was his tone on the set as well? Like as you were shooting he was just real excited about what he was doing?

Clive Owen: Excited and incredibly prepared and organized. It helped that we had Peter Pau, who is brilliant. So, Peter was very -- but, you know, the film wasn't like a ridiculous budget for the amount of action that's in there. So, you had to be organized, disciplined and we had to move fast. And he from day one, we moved faster in our work than on any movie set in my whole career. It was the speed with which he nailed and executed what he needed on, on, on, on. Because we had to, there was so much to do.

Right.

Clive Owen: Over 40 setups a day. It's like a lot.

And you get to get back to the BFW, you know. That's always fun.

Clive Owen: I did, yeah. .

Did you ever feel like, you know, one more take, because you've got to go?

Clive Owen: Not on this, no. It was like something, you know, you're doing a film that's very about—sort of very delicate acting or pitching, and I would be one of those people that's like, we need to spend proper time but this film is -- actually is was very satisfying, especially when it's so storyboard and clear. It's about just nailing it beat by beat. You do that, it's still an acting job. You've got to look like you're in there and doing it. But it's about just going bang, bang, bang, bang, and there's something that's very satisfying about knowing very clearly what it is, everybody's objective is, like just nail this bit and move on. I enjoy that.

In doing action movies, what would be your favorite movie, like this or something like Closer ?

Clive Owen: That's a difficult question, because I mean "Closer" was very particular because I had done the original play and I had a history with that, and I loved getting all of that dialogue on film. And I loved playing the dialogue, but if you look at the films I've done in my career, I'd like to keep it mixed up. I love making films. It doesn’t--you know, I have no -- I have no huge preference.

It's always great to get your hands on good dialogue, I will say that, because if there's one thing films often lack, it can be that. People saying very smart things to each other. We've sort of lost that skill a little bit, I think. I think we tend to -- you tend to read very good ideas and very good scripts, and sometimes they just lack great dialogue.

There are a lot of really great one-liners in this. Do you have a favorite one that you remember?

Clive Owen: Yeah, there are a few. I like them all. I like them all. They're all good.

You were very angry. Do you have to do anything to stay in that angry mode throughout the shoot?

Clive Owen: No. I mean, that was Michael. Michael was very keen on that. He'd often push me to be a bit angrier. I wanted to play it cooler.

Really?

Clive Owen: He was, like, he just loved that you know, the guy's got this sort of "bad ass" angry attitude, he liked that. So, he was always pushing me to be a bit angrier.

Did you guys come up with ideas, like, "Oh, you know what else might piss them off?

Clive Owen: No, but it was -- I agree with you. It's one thing I enjoy playing, more than anything, is like a common thing of given the jerk his come uppance. I like that as well.

You could almost make a whole movie about a guy that just walks around doing that all day.

Clive Owen: Yes, yes.

Are you ready for the fact that the Daily Mail in Britain might be screaming 'this is the most violent movie ever made?'

Clive Owen: And I'll be like, "Yeah." Listen, you know, the kind of -- the truth is, as in "Sin City," it's my kind of violence. It's movie violence. It doesn't relate to my real life. I don't see that in my life. Nobody does. However violent it is, it's a total cinematic experience. It is not related to real things. It's a celebration of, like, you know, you're completely sort of ignoring a whole world of very satisfying movie-making if you ignore the fact that watching really great action is a really fun thing to do.

What was the most challenging scene for you physically as an actor? I mean, the whole movie was challenging, but was there one scene that stood out?

Clive Owen: The skydiving one was, because I was hanging from wires most of the time. "Hoist him up, hoist him up." But it was all physically challenging, actually. But, again, it's still pretty -- straight-forward is the wrong word, but it's very clear what you were trying to achieve all the time. So, it was physically demanding, but not -- it was still a pleasant experience.

They didn't drop you?

Clive Owen: No.

Was that actually you jumping out of a plane, did you skydive?

Clive Owen: On a wire that they then ease up. So you, I've got like a harness on, they drop me at a speed and then slow it down in the end.

Was it your idea to actually do that stunt yourself?

Clive Owen: No, it was Michael's idea. "We've got to see it's you!"

Tell us about working with Paul Giamatti, how much fun was that?

Clive Owen: Oh, it's great. I was thrilled when he came onboard, because I couldn't think of anyone better for it, really. Paul's another example of somebody who can play crazy, high and wild, but he keeps his sanity. He's such a great actor that however ridiculous it is, he stays grounded. He's a perfect foil for Mr. Smith in terms of you've got the dry, cool, iconic sort of contained, dropping one-liners, and you've got sort of Paul having the time of his life, sort of gunning for it.

What else are you working on?

Clive Owen: I'm gearing up to do a film with Tom Tykwer, the guy who did "Run Lola Run ," "Perfume," which is a great script. It's like a throwback '70s paranoid political thriller about a guy trying to expose a [Big Mac]. He shoots all over the world, so I'm just about to start that.

Can you give us any news about Sin City 2?

Clive Owen: You know as much as I do. I know nothing about Sin City 2. I just hear rumors

How is it working with Cate Blanchett in The Golden Age?

Clive Owen: She's fantastic, a phenomenal actress. I was a huge fan of the original movie, so the idea of her coming back and Shaker coming back, and Geoffrey Rush coming back, you know, it's a very exciting movie.

Do you feel sort of like the new kid on the block because of the returning actors?

Clive Owen: There was definitely an element, but it was quite a long time ago they did the first one, and a lot has gone on in between. It wasn't like they were -- they only did it last year or something. But, yes, there was certainly an element that they had been through it before.

So, how many carrots did you eat and how tired did your fingers get after shooting all those guns? I've just got to ask.

Clive Owen: Well, I cheated sometimes with the carrots, because it's very odd doing two pages of dialogue with dry carrot breath, so we used to cheat, get rid of it sometimes. So, but at least it was carrots. It wasn't like I was, you know. And the fingers, no. I got used to the guns, it was easy.

Can we go back to the sex scene? I just thought it was such a hot scene, I loved it. Can you just tell us a little bit more about -- like how long did it take you to shoot, was it choreographed?

Clive Owen: It was very, very choreographed, yes. It's one thing, like, again, it was an animated scene they’d done on this animated pitch. You're looking at it again and going, "Michael, is that physically possible?" It's one thing -- "Would you actually be able to do that?" Then we worked out how we did do that, you know. No, it was always -- it's certainly one of the more enjoyable set pieces of the movie. It's so crazy, it's such a crazy idea.

One of the questions we asked the producers was what their favorite death scene was. What was yours?

Clive Owen: That's a good question. I'd have to say the organ one through the back of the neck, just because it’s sets the tone

And that was an added scene, wasn't it?

Clive Owen: Yeah, but that was a real genius scene, because it so clearly sets the tone of the movie.

Exactly.

Clive Owen: And it's not like -- it's not done like sort of, like, you know, I'm looking pretty serious in it, but it's just ridiculous.

Can you talk about the ambitiousness of Children of Men compared to shooting Shoot 'Em Up?  

Clive Owen: He (Alfonso Cuaron) was so brave. Honestly, they were so ambitious those shots that we wouldn't shoot some days. Can you imagine going to a studio with a film of that scale with that many people there and the light starts to go and he hasn't turned over and all our notes are going to say, 'We shot nothing' with all these people there. The reality is of course when he gets it he does four days work in one hit. But they were so excited to be involved with it because it's like a great coming together of everything that is great about moviemaking. Everybody goes in there and they've got the same objective and it's so ambitious what they're trying to achieve.   I'm sort of dancing with the camera operator because it can't feel too worked out. It's got to feel like we're grabbing it as it's happening. We're in a real visceral situation so when you go off to do one of those extraordinary takes where it's a half a day reset, you can't blow the side of a wall up. It takes time. It's very exciting. It's sort of the real coming together of the collaboration to make a movie.

Thank you very much.

Clive Owen: Thank you.

For those who have not yet checked out the trailer we have added it below for your viewing pleasure.

 
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