Clive Owen Interview, The International

Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Clive Owen has taken the big screen by storm, making quite a name for himself in the U.K., the United States and around the world. With his captivating performance in the title role of Mike Hodges’ sleeper hit “Croupier,” critics have compared him to the likes of Bogart, Mitchum, and Connery. The versatile actor also starred as The Driver in the series of BMW internet short features entitled “The Hire,” each directed by John Frankheimer, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-wai, Guy Ritchie, and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

In 2005, Owen proved himself a screen star by winning a Golden Globe and picking up an Academy Award nomination for his role as Larry in Mike Nichols’ “Closer.” The film also starred Julia Roberts, Jude Law and Natalie Portman. He was also seen in “Derailed” opposite Jennifer Aniston and went on to star in Spike Lee’s “Inside Man” opposite Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster. In 2006, Owen starred in Alfonso Cuaron’s action-packed film “Children of Men” opposite Julianne Moore and Michael Caine. The film was critically acclaimed, as well as Owen’s performance. In Michael Davis’s “Shoot Em Up,” he starred opposite Paul Giamatti as a man who must save a newborn baby from a gang of shooters. Owen followed this performance with a period piece “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” in which he portrayed Sir Walter Raleigh, the love interest opposite Cate Blanchett, who reprised her role as Elizabeth. Next up, Owen will star in Tony Gilroy’s “Duplicity” opposite Julia Roberts. He recently completed filming “The Boys are Back in Town” in Australia.

MoviesOnline sat down with Clive Owen recently to talk about his new movie, “The International,” a gripping thriller directed by Tom Tykwer from an original screenplay written by Eric Singer and shot on location in Germany and throughout Europe. Interpol Agent Louis Salinger (Owen) and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) are determined to bring to justice one of the world’s most powerful banks. Uncovering myriad and reprehensible illegal activities, Salinger and Whitman follow the money from Berlin to Milan to New York to Istanbul. Finding themselves in a high-stakes chase across the globe, their relentless tenacity puts their own lives at risk as their targets will stop at nothing – even murder – to continue financing terror and war.

Clive Owen is an amazing actor and we really appreciated his time. Here’s what he had to tell us about his new film:
 
Q: AFTER “SHOOT EM UP,” DID YOU THINK THERE WAS ANY ACTION PIECE WITH A GUN YOU HADN’T ACTUALLY FILMED YET?

CLIVE OWEN: No, it’s true. I mean — somebody asked me this morning — how did you prepare for the Guggenheim sequence in terms of the gun and everything, and I’m like, “Well, having done ‘Shoot Em Up,’ I don’t need any more gun training. I did enough on that.” No, I think the Guggenheim sequence in this film is probably one of the most exquisitely realized sequences on film I’ve ever been involved in. It was always a huge scene within the movie, and Tom’s preparation was extraordinary in terms of, months before we even started shooting, he and I walked around the Guggenheim and he had the whole thing planned out. He showed me pretty much how he was going to shoot it and I remember when we did the first full rehearsal with all the stunt guys, you felt that it was going to be a pretty extraordinary sequence. It had been very, very well mapped out and then I thought he executed it brilliantly
 
Q: YOU SHOT IN MULTIPLE LOCATIONS AROUND THE WORLD. WHAT WAS THAT EXPERIENCE LIKE FOR YOU?

CLIVE OWEN: When you’re traveling on a film like this, to different locations, you do hit the ground running. There’s a whole team that’s waiting for you, that’s all ready to go. You arrive, there’s no real time to acclimatize, you hit the ground running and you start shooting. Luckily, on this film, there were incredible locations and they were all great places. The only place I hadn’t been to was Istanbul. I’d never been there, and that was pretty amazing. That’s where we started the shoot as well, on the roofs of the Grand Bazaar. You know, on a film like this, environment is hugely important. You’re trying to suggest that this huge international bank is almighty and all powerful, and it’s very important that my character runs around the world trying to get close to these people, because that’s how far their reach is. They were all really great locations and the big set pieces in each of those locations, the places, were chosen really well, and they’re very evocative, and for an actor doing scenes like that, you’re incredibly supported when you’re doing a scene on the roofs of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul with the mosque framed either side. You feel that the location is a huge part of what you’re doing.
 
Q: THERE’S A LONG LINE OF DIRECTORS WHO LIKE TO BEAT UP ON  YOU. HOW DO YOU FIND THE REALISM IN THAT? ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I REALLY ENJOY ABOUT HOW YOU APPROACH IT IS, WHEN YOU TAKE A HIT, WE SEE IT HURTS.

CLIVE OWEN: That’s why I’d argue that it’s not - this character isn’t a traditional heroic movie character. For me, when you’re doing a sequence like the one in the Guggenheim, it’s like doing a big dialogue sequence. My job is to put people in the place of understanding what you’re character’s going through, and at that point, when that shoot-up takes off in the Guggenheim, that character will be terrified. It’s simple, you can do it in a movie kind of way and try and look cool with your gun, but I’m more interested in trying to convey what it might really be like to be in that situation. That’s my job as an actor, and I always treat those scenes like that, so I’m never trying to look cool. It’s about trying to put people in the position and think about how terrifying it would be to be here right now. So that’s the most important thing, keeping that realism going.
 
Q: WHAT DID YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT MAKING THIS FILM?

CLIVE OWEN: I think Tom Tykwer is as good a director as I’ve ever come across. I think he is really special, unique and has a grip on all aspects of filmmaking, probably unlike any other director I’ve ever come across. The guy gives me music before we even start shooting the film, which he has composed with his guys before we even start, so already I get a tone for what certain sequences are going to feel like within the movie. And he’s just incredibly prepared, incredibly bright. I just had one of the best experiences with him, because he’s a bit like me about being prepared. I love to be prepared as an actor, and we would even on days off get together to review what we’d done, what was coming up. He’s a bit of a workaholic, but I had a really great time with him, and I really liked the script to begin with, and he was constantly honing it and refining it. But the rhythm of his work is one that, by the time you come in there to shoot it, we’ve ironed out anything that needs to be ironed out. And it’s then just about executing it well. We don’t have those last-minute discussions on set about “Well, I don’t feel right about this.” We've ironed all that out, and I love working like that, so I really adored working with Tom.
 
Q: WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO THIS PROJECT?

CLIVE OWEN: There was a lot of research material that came with the script, articles from newspapers, articles about situations where banks had proven to be corrupt, whatever, it was a very well researched film. I mean, the thing that attracted me to it is because it felt like those Seventies paranoid political thrillers. It was intelligent. it was well researched, it was based in fact, but at the same it was also very obviously a big international, exciting thriller and it was marrying the two together very well. So it’s not dumb and it’s planted in proper research, but no one’s pretending it’s not a big movie. And that’s why I really wanted to do it.
 
Q: DO YOU SEE THIS AS A CAUTIONARY TALE ABOUT GLOBALIZATION AND THE TENTACLES OF THE INTERNATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM?

CLIVE OWEN: I think it’s amazing how timely it has become, because we finished a year ago. They had been working on the script for nearly two years prior to that, so they were using a lot of research then. Since we’ve locked that picture off, what’s happened with banks around the world — the film ultimately does ask questions. Yes, it’s a big entertaining thriller, but it does ask questions and opens up doors to question whether banks use people’s money appropriately and whether they’re completely sound institutions. And that’s what everybody’s doing right now, with what’s going on in the last year.
 
Q: ALL FILMS ARE DONE OUT OF SEQUENCE, BUT IS THIS THE FIRST MOVIE WHERE YOU SHOT THE END FIRST. HOW AS AN ACTOR DID THAT AFFECT YOU?

CLIVE OWEN: It was tough. Usually when people talk to me about shooting out of sequence, I’m like, “Well, this is the game, we know that, it’s like, that’s what you do. You have to be able to.”  But this film, because of the scope and the scale of it and the places traveled and having not shot anything, and to get to the point where you’re having the showdown of the movie, where finally the person that’s been untouchable, you finally get to stand there with — it was very hard because you haven’t got the luxury of everything that’s gone before to know where to pitch it. It was about pitch, it wasn’t about the intent of the scene or whether the scene was right, it was just about where it was pitched, and I did find that difficult. And as I say, I’m used to filming out of sequence, it doesn’t usually faze me but that one did a little.
 
Q: DO YOU FEEL THAT YOUR EARLY FILMS LIKE “CROUPIER” AND THE BMW FILMS WHERE YOU WORKED WITH TOP RANKED DIRECTORS HELPED TO EXPAND YOUR CAREER INTERNATIONALLY?

CLIVE OWEN: I’m sure, yeah, I remember “Croupier” was definitely the point where it was the first — I’d done a lot of small films, and a lot of work back in England, but it was the first thing that made an impact in America, so it opened up things in terms of films, and suddenly I was meeting people, and it certainly was a big gear-change. The BMW films were the first thing I took on after that impact of “Croupier,” and I was reluctant to begin with, because I didn’t think it was a very cool thing to be in a movie that people liked, and jump into a series of what I thought were commercials. Once the projects became clear that it was this very, very ahead-of-its-time clever concept and they were mini-movies with some of the world’s greatest directors, with proper little stories, it seemed to me a very exciting thing to get involved with. There’s no question that that has also added to things opening up for me.
 
Q: YOU’VE ALSO WORKED WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE VERY STYLIZED. HOW DO YOU FIND A BALANCE WHEN YOU’RE IN SOMETHING LIKE “SIN CITY” WHERE THE STYLE IS ALMOST A CHARACTER IN ITSELF AND THEN A FILM LIKE “THE INTERNATIONAL”? DO YOU FIND YOURSELF COMPETING WITH THE CHARACTER THAT YOU’RE CREATING?

CLIVE OWEN: Those two films are completely different animals. “Sin City” is a complete fantasy movie. I was a huge fan of that movie. I think it was groundbreaking. I thought visually it was one of the most stunning achievements, but it’s a highly stylized piece. It’s not based on reality, it’s something else, and I think every movie you do has a different tone. I don’t approach them any differently really. You know, the basic ground rules still apply. You say your lines and try very hard to make people believe you when you do it. The same principle applies. It’s just your surroundings are completely different.
 
Q: UNLIKE OTHER THRILLERS I’VE SEEN, YOU AND ELEANOR DO NOT HAVE A ROMANTIC MOMENT. I APPRECIATED THAT FACT.

CLIVE OWEN: It was important to all of us, because it would have been a very cliché thing to suddenly have them fall for each other. I really like it because I think it’s very mature, and what drives them is their commitment to what they’re trying to do. There is definitely an attraction there and, you know, in another time, another place, there is the possibility that they would make a good couple, but ultimately it’s about two people who are very committed to their cause, and they share that. That’s the maturity of the relationship and it’s very delicately placed, and, you know, it was very important to all of us that we didn’t fall into the obvious thing of then they’re going to fall together.
 
Q: ANOTHER ASPECT OF SALINGER IS THAT HE’S A RESEARCHER. DID YOU GO TO INTERPOL OR DID YOU FIND SOMEBODY WHO’S A REAL LIFE MODEL?

CLIVE OWEN: No, I’m much more instinctive than that. I have to know what it is I’m doing. I can’t be in a scene that I don’t fully understand everything that’s going on within the scene, but no, I’m much more instinctive than that. I will trust that the research has been done properly by the writer, and I’ll make sure that’s the case, and then it’s the instinct. It's about just committing and trying to make it believable.
 
Q: YOU’VE WORKED WITH ALFONSO CUARON, ALEJANDRO INARRITU AND ROBERT RODRIGUEZ. IS THERE ANYTHING THAT DISTINGUISHES WORKING WITH MEXICAN DIRECTORS FROM ALL THE REST?

CLIVE OWEN: All those three are pretty brilliant, there’s a similarity there. They are all brilliant very much in their own styles, but no, that’s all I’d say. When I think of those three, I think of them all – the three things I did with them are all very, very different, but I hold them all with the highest respect. Those three guys, I think they’re all pretty special directors.
 
Q: THE WAY THE MOVIE SHOWS VIOLENCE IS VERY TACTILE, YOU CAN ALMOST FEEL THE PAIN AS YOU’RE WATCHING IT. DID TOM SPECIFICALLY DIRECT YOU TO REACT IN ANY WAY?

CLIVE OWEN: Yes. There were concerns about that in the Guggenheim sequence when the guy gets shot and the blood is pumping out of his neck, but it was important really to do it in that way, because you want the scene to feel in context with the rest of the film, and you don’t want to suddenly go this is now a big action shoot-out in the Guggenheim, because it’s a pretty extraordinary place to base a big action sequence, and you don’t want it to suddenly look pretentious or out of context or like the style of the film is overtaking what the film is about, so it was important — as I said earlier, that me in the center of all that lot, I’m acting like it’s real. I’m trying to put people in the place of what it would feel like, but also, when people get shot, it’s important to see that people are really suffering and it just heightens the reality and the drama of the scene.
 
Q: HOW DOES THIS MOVIE AND “DUPLICITY” DIFFER?

CLIVE OWEN: They’re very, very different. I mean, I feel very lucky because I’m very proud of both the films. I really like both the films, but they are very different. They both have as good a script and as good a director as I’ve worked with, so I had a brilliant time on both of them and they’re very different films. I’m very happy with both of them.

Q: WILL YOU TALK ABOUT “DUPLICITY” AND YOUR CHARACTER IN THAT?
 
CLIVE OWEN: Duplicity is literally - there was a time where I was turning a lot of things down and Tony (Gilroy) sent me the script and I literally grabbed the phone the minute I read the last page and called my agent and said, “This is the one, get me this one. This one is dynamite.” It has some of the best dialogue I’ve ever been given on film. It’s brilliant, the writing, and it’s banter dialogue, it’s old school. It’s about a couple of corporate spies who  decide rather than work for the companies they are doing, they’re so good at what they both do, why not join together and scam the companies. At the same time they’re having an illicit affair, so they’re meeting as this thing is progressing, but they don’t trust each other because they’re so good at what they do, they think that either of them is going to have the other one over. So every scene is basically about trust, and it’s super smart, and a really brilliantly written script, and there’s just great, fantastic banter dialogue between Julia (Roberts) and me.
  
Q: WHY DON’T PEOPLE BANTER IN MOVIE ANYMORE?

CLIVE OWEN: Because it’s really hard to write great dialogue. If you go back and watch “The Sweet Smell of Success” and listen to the dialogue, it’s literally dazzling. You go back and see “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” the dialogue is completely — you’re enraptured by it. It’s so smart and clever. It’s very hard to do. People don’t write great dialogue on movies very often. Only a handful of writers can write really great dialogue, I find.
 
Q: DO YOU THINK IT HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE AUDIENCE, IT WAS HARD TO DO BACK THEN TOO BUT PEOPLE DID IT?

CLIVE OWEN: No, I think that there are a lot of writers that write great stories, but dialogue is the hardest thing to write, really good dialogue, dialogue that crackles and sizzles and is intelligent is really difficult. And when I come across it in a movie like that, I grab it with both hands, because I was trained in the theatre. It’s where you can do your craft. If you’ve got good dialogue to say, it’s when you can really go to work. And you know, I’ve been fortunate because a few of the films I’ve done in the last few years like “Closer” or “Duplicity” has fantastic dialogue, and I love going to work with that.
 
Q: ARE YOU LOOKING FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO GO BACK TO THE THEATRE?

CLIVE OWEN: I think about it. I haven’t done a play for quite a while, and it would have to be something that I was really, really excited by. I haven’t done a play for probably seven years or something, and I need to be passionate about it. The same as the way I pick movies. It would have to be a play that — when I read Closer, the play, the appetite to want to do that play on the stage was huge, it was like please. I think actors are at their best is when they really want to do something. There’s no play I’ve got in my head that I think “I’d love to do that play,” but if some new play dropped on my lap and it was fantastic, I’m sure I would want to do it.
 
Q: WHEN YOU DO A PLAY WITH THE  EIGHT SHOWS A WEEK, YOU’RE RETURNING TO THE CHARACTER EVERY DAY – HOW ABOUT RETURNING TO A FILM CHARACTER?  I READ THERE MIGHT BE AN INSIDE MAN CONTINUATION WITH THOSE CHARACTERS.

CLIVE OWEN: They’ve been trying to do that ever since we did the first one. There was talk of that very early on, and I think it’s been a struggle just to try and get a script that satisfies everything you want to do. I mean I was very proud of “Inside Man.” It was a really well-made film, and you only want to do another one if it’s going to be as good as that one. There’s no point in doing one if it’s not. I just know that they’ve now seriously got a very good writer in to have a go at it, and I’m sure we’ll all be reading it soon and hopefully it’s good.
 
Q: IS THERE SOMETHING ATTRACTIVE ABOUT RETURNING TO THE SAME CHARACTERS?
 
CLIVE OWEN: Listen, Denzel Washington is probably the best actor around, Spike Lee has become a great friend and he’s a great director, I’d loved that script to be good. I don’t want to do it if it’s not going to be as good as the first one, but if the script is good, I’ll do it in a flash, yeah.
 
Q: ARE YOU INTERESTED IN DIRECTING A MOVIE?

CLIVE OWEN: I do think about it sometimes, but again it’s a bit like what I was saying about the theatre, it would have to be just something — the rhythm of an actor and director is so different. To stop the whole rhythm of the acting thing would have to be something that I cared about so much that I’d put a halt to the acting and just stop and concentrate on that. You know, it’s a two year cycle directing a movie. For an actor, we can go in and out in a couple of months, and then go to the next one, but not for a director. I’ve worked with these brilliant, workaholic directors and they’re in a tunnel for two years, getting the thing up and running, getting it ready, shooting it and then completing it. It’s a very different rhythm. I do think about directing but it would have to be something that I was passionate enough to want to take that time out to do.
 
Q: WHAT ARE YOUR NEXT FILMS?

CLIVE OWEN: I don’t know yet, I haven’t got anything lined up.

Q: WHAT ABOUT SCOTT HICKS’ “THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN”?

CLIVE OWEN: Yes, I just finished that one in Australia, which is very different to all the films I’ve ever done really. It’s based on a book and it’s basically about me bringing up a small seven-year-old boy single-handedly after my wife dies, so it’s a very moving drama with mainly me and a young boy.
 
“The International” opens in theaters on February 13th.