Clive Owen, actor and star of Shadow Dancer (SCOTSMAN)

Clive Owen. Picture: Carlo Allegri/AP

By JAMES MOTTRAM
Published on Sunday 12 August 2012 11:14


WHEN fame first came knocking for Clive Owen, he was ill-prepared for the unwanted attention it brought to his private life. This time round, the laid-back star is taking it in his stride

There’s something very reassuring about Clive Owen. Such is the aura of quiet confidence he carries, you can imagine him being very calm in a crisis, unflappable even. It’s just after 2pm when he arrives in the hotel room for interview, dressed in a navy suit and white shirt, unbuttoned to reveal a silver chain nestling around his neck. He has a pot of tea delivered. And he speaks in such a warm baritone voice, you can’t help but be instantly soothed. Ridiculously, ruggedly handsome, his features make a mockery of the fact he turns 48 in October.

Owen also seems remarkably together for a man who has glided in and out of Hollywood with ease, in films like Sin City, The Bourne Identity and King Arthur (in which he played the round-table legend). Owen doesn’t really do scandal, doesn’t do tittle-tattle and doesn’t seem to carry an inflated idea of his own image. The Times called him “the first male movie star this country has produced since Cary Grant” (with, presumably, apologies to Jude Law). Others have pegged him as a pin-up. “If I went around thinking I was a sex symbol,” Owen purrs, “I’d be on very dodgy ground.”

It took Julia Roberts to nail it, though. The two starred in Closer, Mike Nichols’ searing take on Patrick Marber’s play of sexual misadventure, before reuniting for espionage romance Duplicity. “George Clooney is obsessed with Clive,” she explained. “Every good-guy actor talks about Clive as one of their favourites. Because he’s English, because his successes have stood on the shoulders of his talents alone, and because he hasn’t been carried away by popular culture.” Playing an arrogant version of himself on Ricky Gervais’s comedy show Extras is about as far as Owen has got when it comes to getting carried away by popular culture.

His latest film, Shadow Dancer, is arguably his best role since 2006’s apocalyptic Children of Men. Directed by James Marsh, who made the Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire, it’s a taut drama based on true events. Set in 1990s Belfast, it tells the story of Colette McVeigh (Andrea Riseborough), an active member of the IRA who is forced to turn informant in order to protect her son. “I just think it’s a great predicament to start a movie with,” says Owen. “She’s given an option: you never see your kid again and spend a long time in prison, or you come and work for us.”

READ MORE: http://www.scotsman.com/scotland-on-sunday/scotland/interview-clive-owen-actor-and-star-of-shadow-dancer-1-2463917