Clive Owen Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

it's not a bad thing to be scared it's not a bad thing to go in there thinking the chance of failure is pretty high but just give it a go when you're challenged like that as an actor that's how you improve Children of [Music] Men you know sometimes you read a script and you say oh I know what to do here or there's things I can do here I didn't see it in that I I I thought it was a really interesting cool script but I was like where's the character where where where do you get to do things I met Alonso and he blew me away with his vision of the movie and then I realized actually I'm the conduit it to which he wants to discuss these things now by setting a film in the very near future I think it gives you license to discuss headon things that were already troubling and concerning people you set it slightly in the future and it gives you your way of of really getting into those subjects without it feeling heavy-handed and you know in the moment and I realized that my job was to not get in the way of it really is to not act too much I really saw that I thought I see you need to see this world through this character so it was really about you know signing on to Alfonso's vision for the movie and it was one of those films that still like people still talk about today there was an article in the New York Times I think like 10 years after it was made saying why is children and men still the most relevant film of today I mean that's how much I think that Alonso was on it really my memories of those sequences is how close my relationship was with the operator because we had to do a dance really in those scenes especially that long sequence at the the end of the movie and we spent a long time rehearsing and there were half day resets if we didn't get it right it was a half day before we could go again to reset the whole thing so it felt like me and the operator were doing this dance and I have to not make it obvious that you know I have to make it feel as natural as possible and the beauty of those sequences the intent of them is just to get you in to feeling what is going on not to show you how great Alonso is and now great Cho was it's the best way to plant you emotionally in what is going on I really have fun memories of doing those because I kind of love that technical aspect and that kind of meeting with the with the operator and was both trying to achieve something together like that even if they discovered the cure for infertility doesn't matter too late World went to you know what it was too late before the infertility thing happened for sake I'm was just trying to tell a joke man Michael Kane's a legend and when you work with him you realize why and you realize why you know his his career has lasted as long as it has because he's like the ultimate Pro and he's smart and economical and you know it was a joy and there was something quite special on that movie I I did a couple of films with Mike Hodges who did the original Get Carter with Michael Kane which was a big film in Michael Kane's early career and they hadn't seen each other for like 10 20 years and so I got Mike hoders onto the set of children and men and just listened to them to sort of Reminisce about the early days and the making of that movie which for me was just a treat just to listen to those you know guys just going back and and and and remembering the the the the stuff that they done the [Music] Nick he's based on a real guy he's based on a guy called William holed who was a genius doctor at that time but had this you know massive drug addiction and was like a wild wild but still was at the Forefront of medicine and and and like hugely brilliant we need to lengthen the incision and get the baby out now jwes nice SM knife KN we had an amazing medical adviser on the Nick who has this townhouse New York that has over a million medical photographs and every single operation in the show was based on a real operation of that time there was nothing that was like made up about it at all and Soderberg wanted us you know we did as much work as we could in the suturing and all of that and he would use and wanted to use us as much as possible and I never forget the first operation we did which is the first operation in in the nick it was just a river of Blood on the floor the expert doctor was was standing there and just go more blood more blood more blood and S just kept shooting and shooting and we were doing it and we were losing this patient and everyone was just sort of soaked at the end of it it was like Wow nothing I'm hugely proud of that show and I think Steven Soderberg did an unbelievable job and the cast of that show is I rate so highly you know I'm English and I've been brought up on period shows where everyone lives in a nice house and goes sauntering off for a little walk with an umbrella and here we are in the nick 1900 where life feels visceral dangerous and probably more like what it's like for most of us if we were living at that time you know there was an urgency to life life expectancy wasn't great you didn't want to end up in a hospital at the turn of the century and it was so refreshing to be in a show that sort of really really told how it might have been for an awful hours this is a uh technique I pioneered myself and one I know to be completely safe if done correctly there were photographs that show doctors did that at that time they were cutting themselves open to teach people how to do certain operations and they were doing it on their own and when Steven Soderberg came to me to to pitch me the whole thing he already knew that that's the way we were going out at the end of the second season he's phenomenal I I realized very quickly we start shooting and then I go oh my God he's he's editing it as he's looking at it and we shoot the edit we don't shoot anything else we don't do loads of coverage of different people we don't and then gives him lots to play with later he looks at a scene and he attacks it with an editor's brain and says how would I put this together I go bum bum bum bum bum and that's the way we shoot it it's so focused his set is like a hallowed environment there's no Small Talk there's no it's concentrated which I adore I walk into that environment and I go this is why we're all here there's no seats for anybody to sit down there's no monitors for people to watch it's all like so focused and concentrated and I just had like the best time with him and and rate him so so highly Sin City hey baby I don't hear you making those calls answer me oh I don't need to GRE hi I'm Shell's new boyfriend that I'm out of my mind what I didn't realize when I when I signed on to do Sin City that it was going to be so faithful to the source material to the point where every scene started with an image from the graphic novel and it was an unusual shoot because we were kind of floating in thin air it was all green screen we started off with car and things like even that went so in the end it was a seat and a steering wheel like that's all we had so it's like floating you know you're like acting in a sort of weird floating State and then I couldn't believe what he did when I saw the movie I honestly couldn't believe it I I sat there the world he created and how he made everything fused together was so impressive and it was so faithful to The Graphic novel I I watched it and went this is the graphic novel just burst into life this is not like you know some cinematic takeover there of it he has got into that material and just sprang it into life I I thought it was a really impressive movie The Scene that I did with bisho in the car Quenton Tarantino came in and shot was literally two boxes and a a wheel for the for the drive you know and that was it and the rest all the car everything else was was created afterwards you ain't even going to make it to the pits you shut the hell up I'll make it not unless you keep your eyes on the road sugar pain watch it it's unusual to begin with but then you kind of suspend belief and it becomes a bit like theater or something you sort of know that that but still I didn't realize how well he was going to achieve the world you know how that that how fleshed out that was going to be and how well done he was going to do the energy and smart of Robert Rodriguez really he was really like brilliant to work with and I didn't quite know what it was because it was all green screen so I'm like I don't know what the Finish thing is going to be like but I totally embraced the way the way he was working and and the way we were shooting it inside man when Spike first gave me the script to Inside Man I went into the bank and I never took the mask off I put the mask on and I spend the rest of the film in the mask and I said why what why would I do this I said you do you want me to do a voiceover like you know do I want to stick around for months to do a film where you never seen my face and we left it and then 3 months later I get a call going I got Denzel for the cup does that change anything I was like yeah I think it does actually yeah I think that definitely does and we met up and he took me to a Knicks game never really talked about the movie didn't say a word you know didn't realize that he was part of the game is remonstrating with the players and the r playing to the crowd still didn't talk about the movie at the end of it said to me you got to ride I said yeah yeah like um he said can you drop me off so we went back to his house car pulls up and he goes is you doing it or what I was like of course I'm doing it just sort the mask thing out and he goes yeah yeah we'll find a way to get the mask off a few times and I had a great time on it and he he's become a great friend I just a few months ago I I gave him a sort of BFI Fellowship award in in London and like you know I'm I've got nothing but you know a huge respect for Spike and I I I had a great time on that movie I'm going to walk out of that door when I'm good and ready can I get you to do that today I didn't think so any other proposals oh please do not say proposals my girlfriend she wants a proposal from me it was just a very well well written char character and Spike was always always talking about like he needed someone who could go Toe to Toe with Denzel cuz he's so strong and I just knew that that character had to feel like he had the upper hand throughout the movie and that was the way through it really closer I'm sorry you were don't say it don't you say you're too good for me I am but don't say it you're making the mistake of your life you're leaving me because you believe that you don't deserve happiness but you do honor yeah so closer I remember where I was when I first read that play they were workshopping the play they weren't even putting the play on and I was like that's a fantastic piece of writing I wanted to play Larry and Patrick marvus said I was too young it was seven years before in the movie then a year later they they do the play they're going to do it in the National Theater my agent comes to talk about something else and I say that play Closer what a piece of writing and he says well Kieran Hines is playing Larry how do you feel about the other part and I go you know what there four great Parts like yeah if they want me to play Dan I'll play Dan and I did and I did the original production of the play so we launched that play and it was a big success and really kind of like a bolt of lightning really people were walking out join I regularly it got towards the end of the first half of the play and people would walk out when it it was getting so intense 7 years later I get a call G going Mike Nichols wants to meet you for lunch in New York and I'd heard rumors he might be doing the film version of closer but it wasn't clear well I wasn't told exactly why but that was in the air and I went and I had lunch and then he told me he we cast he told me you got Judy Roberts Jud law Natalie Portman and he offered me the part of Larry and I walked out that lunch like on cloud because I knew that play really well and I knew it was a gift a gift of a part in a brilliant piece of writing I remember walking out of that lunch just yeah so thrilled when when did you do it here answer the question I mean it's a it's a really tough scene and I think because of you know the language that's used and where the Scene goes we approached it very sensitively and it was feeling a little like too on the nose and a little too excruciating and then Mike came up which he did throughout his career and he did this with with a a lot of his films is that he likes people to be busy and to move them around so that the scene is happening within the context of something else so it's not just two actors sitting there having that this super Frank like you know detail very personal conversation and so he started to move us around the apartment in the scene me following Julia up and down and and suddenly the scene Comes Alive because we're buried in a movement and there's a sort of energy to it you know as I was doing the play playing the other part I knew the power of that scene and how sort of intense it was I just embraced it and it's it's such a powerful disturbing piece of writing that play thank you thank you for your honesty now off and die Kier that film possibly the most important in my career in terms of of a gear shift it was a very small film cost less than a million dollars I think practically didn't get released at the beginning in fact Mike Hodes who directed it said that film wasn't released it escaped like but it had a it had a really big impact on my career because it became the kind of cool indie film of that year in America and open doors and suddenly my career shifted so it feels like you know an an important film and it was made by a great friend Mike OES 21 blackj I went to cupia school for for two weeks straight all day every day the one thing I remember about that training is they were obsessed by stealing like they drilled into everybody learning to be cre I don't think you'd ever get away with it because unusually I don't know if it's still the case but unusually it was a rare thing where there's so much cash around people were giving cash people were spending cash there was this General paranoia that if you're coming to train as a creier don't think you get away with it if you feel like you found a way to steal from us I just remember that being drilled into people chance well that was the kind of the first really big project that I did I'd left drama school I hadn't done much and then I landed this TV show I went away somewhere and I came back to London and there were massive posters everywhere in my face and I think they had a sort of phrase underneath saying what's the matter don't you trust me cuz he was a real chancer he was a kind of guy that was like pulling scams every week against the big Banks it was the first time I really noticed the shift of being in the public eye I got in the tube and people were this is like a day or two after it air and people were looking and giggling and I went into a shop and and it was the beginning of understanding what that kind of shift in profile entails really that was a very strong memory of going oh my gosh it took time to adjust to that you know to be in a prime time TV show when you hadn't really done anything it was a big shift it takes time to adjust and process and find your way through that really you are a rude arrogant self-opinionated corrupt and dishonest young man oh know cheers unfortunately you're just the kind of man of business seems to need these days it was great and there was an actor in it called Peter War who I really really became very fond of and I I kind of leared a lot from him really about sort of dis and approach and always being ready and focus as a young actor I I watched him closely and and and was really impressed with him yeah but that show was the sort of you know the the beginning of everything in some ways King Arthur I remember the big thing on that one was I'd had a couple of bad experiences on horses I've been thrown off on a TV thing I went to America to do a pilot and I had an awful experience where they put me on very Lively horses that I wasn't really good enough and I developed a bit of a thing about it and so we negotiated to do King Arthur and the day the deal was done I made a call and said I need to get on a horse tomorrow and I had a long time before that shoot started but I knew it was going to be a journey because the whole movie was on a horse and I needed to get comfortable you should be on your knees I came to see your face so that I alone may find you on the battlefield and it would be good for you to mark my face Saxon but the next time you see it it will be the last thing you see on this Earth I was very lucky there was this brilliant horse stunt guy called Rob inch who was kind of the best at any horse stunts he'd done some really big stuff in movies on horses and he walked me through it and he train me on a horse and we got better and better and he got me into shape for it it was wild yeah and they built Adrian's wall and it was about a mile long and they were saying it probably cost more than the [Music] original than the actual thing it was huge it was huge sets I remember we did scenes where we sort of iced vast areas to do scenes in the snow and it was a big movie Knights the gift of Freedom that is yours by right impeachment American Crime Story didn't mean to catch off guard Mr President uh sorry I was just you don't have to apologize for doing your job I was very surprised when they called me up and said they want you to play Bill Clinton I couldn't see it I couldn't see it at all I was like why why would someone come to me you know I'm English firstly but also I just didn't see it and then I started to think about it and then I started to look and like a lot of projects that I do if something gets set a light in me suddenly I go well there's something I I think I can do in this and there's something I want to give a go and I knew it was a challenge I knew it was a big reach and but I wanted to take it on if you've been set a light and ignited and there you feel that you could possibly do something it's not a bad thing to be scared it's not a bad thing to go in there thinking the chance of failure is pretty high but just give it a go because you know that's when you're challenged like that as an actor that's how you improve Mr President even if you didn't have sexual relations by that definition you still engaged in other sexual activities so the statement there is no sex of any kind in any manner is a lie is it not well that depends upon what the meaning of the word is is it's a difficult line you know to treade because you don't want to do just a bad impersonation you just don't want to you you need to infuse it in with something but you know in some ways for me the most satisf Ying part of doing that was that there was all this footage so and we were recreating some of it and it's there for you so there's something you know you know what you're trying to do there's something very satisfying about having a really clear idea of what you're trying to achieve and it's not open to a sort of actor's interpretation the clarity of what you're trying to nail is is is very clear and I kind of like that a murder at the end of the world I did a lot of work with Brit Z on that show just before we even started shooting just you know when they first came to me and they put it to me and there they wrote each script we would jump on a zoom and discuss it and talk about it I didn't base that character on anyone in particular but you know the one thing that was becoming clear and they were kind of exploring and I imagine is the truth is that when you're that successful that powerful that wealthy it can be a lonely place and a little paranoid because you've got everybody around you're never quite sure of people's intent around you because you're in a slight different place to them all the time the isolation and how you know it must be a strange place to be and it must be very very hard to to trust things and people around you you're holding us hostage not one of you he's going back to the surface of the Earth until I know who has betrayed me that came from the the work that that that Britain zal did but also that feeling of somebody who's very cool and very calm and very on the top but when triggered of you know it was just a character thing that this guy's got a temper and you know it's a way of expressing that Underneath It All that he's not as as as cool and collected as he appears Miss [Music] Spade PR Vu Sil Play De quite the pepper gun you got there Madame I get get a call from Scott Frank wanting to talk to me about a project and him and Tom Fontana jump on the phone and they pitched me the idea of a spin on Sam Spade taking him 20 years ahead the room I was sitting in when he called me I've got an original multis Falcon poster on the wall I take a shot I send it to him and say you've come to the right guy like I'm C I'm a huge Bogart fan I'm a huge multis Falcon fan and it was it was like a gift it was like a you know a genre that I love and uh something I was very excited about these things will kill you these are the same ones doctor smoke I saw on TV it's difficult to try and reinvigorate Noir in a way because we've kind of seen everything before you know when when when you set it up in a very classic way people feel very quickly very familiar with it and I think it's hard to reimagine and reinvigorate it and Scott did a very clever thing and he he he moved it 20 years ahead and put him as a complete Fish Out of Water living in the south of France and he did an awful lot of work on the you know Spades getting older Spade's not the guy was he's trying to live a quieter life but it also gave me the opportunity which I welcomed to go back and and really flood myself with bogar and those kind of characters from the 40s because it's also important to know that's where the guy comes from he might be getting older but I I needed to ground myself in the origins of the The Source material really plus the fact that I was surrounded primarily by French actors so I'm trying to do a kind of like period kind of American Sam spay thing but kind of isolated because no one else is doing that around me because we're now in in sort of early 60s France so I used bot's voice a lot to ground myself and sort of get me I lifted all of his his his dialogue from the multis folen and cassablanca just his dialogue and that was my kind of setting template every morning on the way into work Philip could have taken the shot with Teresa in the car hard to imagine even Philipe doing that and he's wounded which shouldn't make it too hard to find for a pair of top detectives like you and ID we've already talked Scott and I about ideas and possibilities some really cool exciting ideas about where to take him and what to do with it but um it's just a case of let's see how this goes and then we'll take it from there were you ever in TOS to play James Bond No and uh it's not a bad thing to be talked about I didn't you know it was like but no it was all uh it was all rumor

Channel: GQ

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Keywords: a murder at the end of the world, celebrity, chancer, children of men, clive owen, clive owen closer, clive owen film, clive owen films, clive owen gq, clive owen iconic characters, clive owen inside man, clive owen interview, clive owen monsieur spade, clive owen movies, clive owen sin city, croupier, gq, gq iconic characters, gq magazine, iconic, iconic characters, impeachment american crime story, inside man, monsieur spade, sin city, the knick

Id: SxrtalFmFO8

Length: 25min 45sec (1545 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 15 2024