Playboy Interview: Clive Owen

In a business known for its puffed-up pretty boys, fly-by-nights and poseurs, Clive Owen has emerged as a classic leading man cut from the same cloth as Humphrey Bogart and Sean Connery. He has romanced a succession of beauties on-screen, including Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts, Natalie Port-man and Keira Knightley, and given fellow tough guys like Matt Damon and Benicio Del Torn a run for their money. The 42-year-old Owen has made his name as a brooding, tight-lipped macho guy who lets his snarl, street smarts, catlike moves and fists do the talking. He's also one hell of an actor.

Owen has a reputation for playing it close to the vest on and off the screen. Ask any­one who has caught the acclaimed British actor at his deadly cool, suave best in a roster of impressive films such as Sin City, Inside Man, Children of Men, The Bourne Identity and Closer, the last of which earned him an Oscar nomination, a Golden Globe and a British Academy Award.

Although he has acted in movies, on Eng­land's stages and on teln>ision for more than 20 years, it took the 1998 film Croupier for Owen to gain international attention. He also dodged the expectations of those who touted him as the ideal successor to Pierce Brosnan's James Bond, managed to avoid looking ridic-

ulous spouting flowery dialogue in the cos­tume epic King Arthur and starred in a jacked-up series of BMW-sponsored shorts by world-class directors like Alejandro Gonzalez Indrritu and Wong Kar-wai.

Owen was born in working-class Coven­try, U.K., where his father, a country-music singer, left him and his four brothers and mother when Owen was three. Raised by his mother and stepfather, Owen was a good student whose grades went to hell when, at 13, he found his calling after being cast as the Artful Dodger in a local production of Oliver! After gaining admission to London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he spent three years winning attention in stagings of Shakespeare and Ibsen classics. He then joined the Young Vic Theatre Company. While playing Romeo in 1988, he fell in love with his Juliet, actress Sarah-Jane Fenlon. They've been married since 1995 and have two young daughters, Hannah and Eve.

By the early 1990s, a role on the TV crime series Chancer turned the baritone-voiced Owen into one of the U.K.'s biggest, most written-about stars. Tired of being hounded by paparazzi and trying to avoid being type­cast as a suave rogue and cocksman, he quit at the show's peak, giving him a reputation as a headstrong renegade.

Since Croupier, Owen has chosen wisely and shown power and presence in a long list of movies, many of them big hits. He has also appeared in Lancome ads and gotten a shout-out in the song "Risen Within," by MC Homicide featuring PAZ. His latest project is Shoot 'Em Up, an outrageous movie in which his character is on the run, protecting an infant and a lactat-ing hooker, played by Monica Bellucci.

We sent Contributing Editor Stephen Rebello, who last interviewed Denis Leary, to London to talk with Owen. "He is well-known as a guy who doesn't suffer fools gladly, who has been called defensive with the press and who very rarely and reluctantly sits down for an in-depth interview," Rebello says. "Yet we hung out for hours in the heart of London, and the normally reticent Owen was not only outgoing and friendly but opened up about his career, his succession of gorgeous leading ladies, marital fidelity and what it's like to be an object of desire for women and the envy of many guys."

PLAYBOY: Your latest, Shoot 'Em Up, seems destined to become a franchise. Are you hoping it will be a James Bond-style series of movies?

OWEN: If any movie you do could become a franchise, you would hope it was in part

because the role was meant for you. PLAYBOY: Is this one? OWEN: When the film was pitched to me, I immediately thought, I'll never do this. Then I read the script. I pissed myself laughing. It's pretty damn fucking wild, and this guy Michael Davis, who wrote and directed it, is insane. PLAYBOY: By insane, do you mean the scene in which you and Monica Bellucci have sex while you're shooting an army of assassins? Or perhaps you're thinking of another memorable moment, when Paul Giamatti cops a feel off a corpse. OWEN: Exactly. Michael described his script as John Woo's wet dream." When I met him, I said, "This may be John Woo's wet dream, but lohn Woo is a

fucking master of action. You've got only a certain amount of money to make this, there's tons of action, and you're not that experienced." But he was the most prepared of any director I've worked with. He storyboarded the entire movie and knew specifically what he wanted to do at the begin­ning of every day. He pounded through it like a madman. playboy: It's incredibly violent. OWEN: Incredibly. But it's redeemed by incredible wit. It's crazy comic-book violence, not violence that will upset or offend you. It's like saying, "We're just going to have a fun ride. Come along." When 1 saw Paul Giamatti fondling the dead girl, I couldn't stop laughing. It's all just so un-PC and out­rageous. There's a heartbeat in Michael. He's a lovely man and a fresh, very particular talent unlike anybody else doing this stuff. He has written a kind of sequel already, and it's fuck­ing wilder than this one. It's 50 fucking outrageous. We're going to wait and see how this plays first.

PLAYBOY: Shoot 'Em Up is some­how an old-time Humphrey

Bogart movie that meets a Clint Kastwood spaghetti Western by way of an Asian martial-arts film. OWEN: I'm a big Bogart fan, a big Hitch­cock fan, a big Cary Grant fan as well. I love that period of moviemaking and the actors of that time. Along those lines, Universal got the rights for me to play Philip Marlowe in an upcoming Ray­mond Chandler adaptation. PLAYBOY: Is it intimidating to think about playing Marlowe, a role that actors like Bogart, Dick Powell, Robert Mitchum and Elliott Gould have played so well? OWEN: Some fucking great actors have done it, but we're not taking on The Big Sleep. That would be suicide. We're taking one of Chandler's novel­las, Trouble Is My Business, and sort of

stretching it out. I love Chandler and Marlowe. I think it's just sublime writ­ing. I"m sure there's an audience for it. The trick is to make it relevant, make it feel like a film necessary for now, not a noir pastiche. We have an excit­ing guy writing it—Prank Miller, the graphic novelist behind Sin City and 300—who is noir-obsessed and with whom I had drunken conversations about Chandler and Marlowe when we were shooting Sin City. If you look at all Miller's material, it's taken from Chandler. Ask the guy anything about Marlowe, the guy drops you 10 lines like "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid." That's

where Miller's heart is. He'll attack it with real power, but he will be faith­ful to the source material because he adores it so much. And that dialogue! PLAYBOY: You landed the part of Marlowe, but another iconic role was often linked to you: fames Bond. What happened? OWEN: That was media chat. People just whipped it up. It was never anything more than talk.

PLAYBOY: Your fellow Brit Daniel Craig got the job. How did you like his Bond in Casino Ro\ale?

OWEN: He was a great choice. Daniel Craig is a really good actor. I liked the movie a lot. I like what they did to strip it down. PLAYBOY: Part of your Bond aura comes

from not seeming to give a damn about playing likable characters. You've been a sex-addicted dermatologist in Closer. a self-denying gay concentration-camp prisoner in Bent, a cold-blooded killer in The Bourne Identity, a mask-wearing bank robber in Inside Man and an unfaithful blackmailed husband in Derailed. OWEN: It used to tickle me when 1 went to the premieres and American jour­nalists in particular would say. "That was so brave that you would do that role." Somebody offered me a great fucking part! What's brave about it? I have no fear about how the characters could reflect on me. If a good direc­tor is at the helm and the material is good, I'll do anything. I've got no

boundaries. The worst piece of advice I've gotten in my whole career is from somebody who said, "Remember, it's all about likability." A number of times since then I've thought. What a pile of bullshit. Because that, for me, is not where it's at. It's certainly not about trying to be liked by doing a kind of insipid, charming thing. PLAYBOY: In 1990, after work­ing your way up in theater, film and TV, you became a full-fledged star in the L.K., play­ing a suave swindler on the TV series Chattier. How did you react to newfound celebrity? OWEN: A role like mine on Chancer gets a lot of tabloid attention, and that unstabled me. I didn't like it. I was uncom­fortable with it. I was being thrown at every tacky, horrible newspaper to do interviews. I was young, and I didn't deal with it that brilliantly. PLAYBOY: You earned a reputa­tion for being prickly and dif­ficult with the press. OWEN: I was just resentful. I thought the stuff being writ­ten was stupid. I did a second season of Chancer, but by then I'd talked to more-experienced actors. They'd say, "If you're

doing an interview, you can say no if you don't like the questions." So I got this reputation for being like "Oh, this cocky kid," and "He's not good with press." PLAYBOY: Is your main problem with the tabloids their invasiveness? OWEN: Yes. about background still! related to my family. 11 was all tabloid stud generally, but the person on a main TV soap or prime-time hit series gets a harder time than the biggest movie star. Tabloids are much more interested in TV. I have no problem talking about the work, but I wouldn't sit down and have ;i one-on-one interview with a tabloid. PLAYBOY: You continued to have con­siderable success on the British stage, on TV and in small movies, but things

took a giant leap forward in 1998 with the film Croupier, in which you played a mysterious card dealer-aspiring nov­elist. Was it a surprise hit. or did you know it would be a success? OWEN: That little movie ran for only about two weeks at the National Film Theatre in England. It didn't even have a poster—that's the kind of release it got. A huge part of where I'm at now is because a producer named Mike Kaplan, who knew the director of Croupier and was tight with Robert Altman, championed the film by tak­ing it to the States. He screened it for everybody, saying, "This is a really good film." Only because it got good reviews and a whole life in America, in England they went, "We'd better think about bringing it back." PLAYBOY: The reviews were so good, especially for your performance, that there was talk of Oscar nominations. OWEN: Yeah, there was talk and an award campaign. Then almost immedi­ately someone—nobody knows who— pointed out to the Academy that the movie had aired on Dutch TV at mid­night, and the Academy said. "Well, we can't let that happen." PLAYBOY: Was being disqualified for an Oscar disappointing? OWEN: The effect that film had on my career was such a huge gear change for me that I don't have any regrets about the whole experience. I didn't quite realize the effect it was having until three months into its American release, when somebody offered to pay me to fly out and do some interviews in the U.S. PLAYBOY: Were you chasing U.S. stardom? OWEN: Not at all. When I was eventually sent there with a couple of small films, I would take meetings with the assis­tant or the assistant's assistant and the assistant casting person. They would just have a good look at you and try to act like they knew something about you or they cared. The whole thing is about checking you out to see if you may be of some value. But the idea of hang­ing out in L.A. and chasing this stuff on that level? Forget it. You can break into that world only if you've got a film that is a real calling card. It's brutal other­wise. I enjoyed my work here and pur­suing my interest in small films, but we have a much smaller industry in Brit­ain. Unless things open up for you in America, you can't sustain a career in movies only. But still, there was no way I was going to chase that. playboy: You're making a historical movie, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, a sequel to the acclaimed Elizabeth, in which Gate Blanchett plays Elizabeth I. What led to it? OWEN: I was a huge fan of Elizabeth, and this film has a really good script. I |um|>e(l on it. Gate's back, Geoffrey Rush is back, Shekhar Kapur came back to direct, and I've seen enough to know it's pretty extraordinary.

PLAYBOY: You once shocked Robert Alt-nian by wanting to cut down your lines in Gosford Park. You're known for play­ing guys who don't waste time on chit­chat, but you won big acclaim for Closer by uttering some of the sharpest dia­logue in years, as in your great strip-club scene with Natalie Portman. OWEN: It's fucking great dialogue. I love movies, and I understand that some don't need much dialogue, but I'm trained in the theater, so lan­guage is important. The one thing lacking in movies today is great dia­logue. There's nothing more satisfying than doing something language-based like Closer, either as a film or a play. Go out and watch an older film like Sweet Swell of Success or Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? That language! You get good ideas for films now, but you don't get great dialogue. I'm not one of those actors who produce great stuff through improvisation. I find it hugely satisfying to hear a character say something smart and have some­body say something smart back. PLAYBOY: When you know you'll be working with actors as famous and writ­ten about as Julia Roberts, one of your Closer co-stars, do you have any expecta­tions based on what you've read about them in the press?

OWEN: I tend to take people as I find them. I never listen too much to what others have to say. You'll hear about somebody, let's say an actor, that they're difficult. You always ask, "Dif­ficult to whom and for what?" Being difficult could be a good thing. This could be somebody w'ho cares a lot, who's very passionate and will fight because they think it's important. Julia is dynamite. She's a great actress and was absolutely fantastic in the movie. You wouldn't know it from that film, but we laughed every day. 1 would love to work with Julia again. PLAYBOY: Jude Law was in Closer too. One year he was red-hot; the next he wasn't. Does that aspect of the movie business bother you? OWEN: You would be stupid if you paid too much attention to it. From a very young age I've wanted to be in it for the long haul. It's a career to me. I'm as excited about the parts I'll be able to get when I'm 50 and 60 as I am about those I've already done. I want to still be around. I want to still be playing, still be doing it. I've never been one for grabbing it when it's in front of me. It's not just a career; it's a craft I want to enjoy my whole life. PLAYBOY: Angelina Jolie, your co-star in Beyond Borders, has said you cracked up when she told you how sexy you looked in a T-shirt. Eva Mendes report­edly said, "If God exists, he looks like Clive Owen." George Clooney calls you a movie star and says, "He's, like, a man; there's a sexuality and a masculinity

that I think is really interesting." Do you take all that love in stride? OWEN: At the time I joked that Cloo-ney was obviously gay. No, he's not. Listen, I'm a big fan of George's as well. I like him tremendously. With­out being coy about it, there's nothing better than gaining the respect of your peers, because they know more about it than anybody else. With Angelina I just cracked a few jokes. PLAYBOY: You have been quoted admit­ting you've had "tons" of plastic surgery. Have you?

OWEN: None whatsoever. I have a feel­ing that was one of those quotes that are just put out there. No, I never said it. Somebody else asked me about it. I said, "What are you talking about?" PLAYBOY: Your Shoot 'Em Up director urged us to kid you unmercifully about what he calls the "guy-liner" you wear in the Lancome men's skin-care ads that are all over magazines and billboards. Are you taking any heat for them? OWEN: I haven't gotten any. nor did I expect any. It's a classy company. Every­thing has been done impeccably. It's been a good thing. I've enjoyed it. [laughing] Michael makes desperate attempts to get me, but I'll get him back. PLAYBOY: You are well-known as an obsessed fan and supporter of the Liver­pool Football Club. For Americans who still don't get it, compare American foot­ball with soccer.

OWEN: In an incredibly important, intense game in England between two rival teams, this fierceness, this pas­sion, this rivalry has to be seen and experienced to be believed. Liver­pool fans up in Anfield are legendary. There's a whole world of guys whose lives revolve around going to foot­ball matches. The results are hugely important to them. It's a passion that goes beyond being just a weekend hobby. I've been to sporting events in America, and I don't know if that pas­sion exists in (he same way there. PLAYBOY: Was it your childhood fantasy to become a sports announcer? You did a football pregame film that was broad­cast on British TV.

OWEN: My agent jokes that he can send me a script and it will lie around for three weeks, and he'll never hear from me. But because that particular offer had to do with the Liverpool Football Club, he heard from me in less than 20 minutes.

PLAYBOY: How obsessed are you? OWEN: Wherever in the world I'm film­ing, I'll somehow manage to see the games. I've been in Thailand watching live in the middle of the night. We were filming in the desert in Namibia, and I managed to run cable into the tent so we could see a game. PLAYBOY: How did you react to David Beck-ham's well-hyped move from Real Madrid to a five-year contract with the Los Angeles

Galaxy, a major league soccer team? OWEN: You've got to hand it to the guy. About six months ago he was basi­cally told that because he was going to America he would never play for Madrid again. Then Madrid got into trouble in a sort of dodgy season and recalled him. He's been hugely influ­ential there. I think the way that gin-plays, the way he can deliver a ball, he'll always be dangerous. PLAYBOY: Are Beckham's international stardom and lifestyle good for the sport? OWEN: No, but they will certainly bring it a lot of attention in the U.S. Ameri­ca's strange in the way it's been strug­gling to ignite soccer. I have noticed, though, more and more, that when you go to New York and L.A., people are starting to play soccer on the bas­ketball courts. It certainly seems to be growing. But Beckham or not, I wonder whether it will ever grow in America to the level it has elsewhere around the world. It would be scary if Americans took to it too strongly, because if they did, as in everything else, they'd probably dominate.

PLAYBOY: You're a fan of horse racing, too. Are you a betting man? OWEN: Not really. I just love horse racing. I know quite a lot of people in that world. I don't have horses myself, though. Before I did King Arthur I had ridden horses three or four times in movies. On the first one they asked, "Can you ride?" and I lied and said I could. I was thrown. It was pretty scary. As soon as I did the deal for King Arthur, the first phone call I made was, "I've got to get going on a horse tomorrow because I have a long way to go." A huge percentage of that movie is on horseback in very hostile environments, with smoke, fire, noise and crowds. I'd get on anything and be able to do what was required. Then I did a job on a film where they tried to get their horses cheap. They bought all these scary ex-racehorses that were seriously difficult to ride. PLAYBOY: What is the most important les­son you've learned about horses? OWEN: When you're not sure about horses or are uncomfortable with them, your instinct is to tense up if

something starts to go wrong. My stunt double on King Arthur taught me from scratch, really, and built me up. Now. I would never say I'm a great horseman, but I am pretty fearless. The thing I've learned more than anything is that the minute a horse starts to get a bit spooked, you have to relax, and the horse very quickly calms. It feels your confidence. Things go bad only if you freak out the horse. Knowing this is just about spending time in the saddle, as they say.

PLAYBOY: Beyond soccer and horses, has your movie money allowed you to indulge in any other hobbies? OWEN: I quite like old original movie posters, especially for films 1 love. I've gotten a small collection together. I suppose my prize ones now include a really beautiful French original of The Big Sleep. I met Lauren Bacall a couple of times and got her to sign it. I have an original Buster Keaton one-sheet for The Cameraman and Marx Broth­ers one-sheets for Horse Feathers and A Day at the Races. I listen to all sorts of music, too. I think the iPod's a fantastic invention, just huge. A few years ago you used to carry CDs around when you went away; now you bring your iPod. I've also got a very nice new Jag­uar in gunmetal gray. I like that. PLAYBOY: What sort of kid were you, growing up in the industrial city of Cov­entry in England's West Midlands? OWEN: I was just another kid, really. I didn't get into real trouble, and my grades were good. I got into the school musical Oliver! around the age of 13 and played the Artful Dodger. I'm still playing him. [laughing] I can't really sing, but you can get through those songs with the right attitude. I'd never done anything like that before, but it went well and I got a taste for it. Then I said, "I want to do this. I'm going to do this." I was hugely fortu­nate because Coventry had this little repertory theater with a youth theater attached. I joined and did a number of plays. I was obsessed. Academically, I was always in sort of the top stream until the last year or two, when I flunked everything—the lot—because I was interested only in going off and doing these plays.

PLAYBOY: How did your family react to your acting aspirations? OWEN: Everyone thought I'd grow out of it. I come from a very working-class family that watched a lot of TV. I didn't see many movies as a kid; I'd come home from school and watch TV. In class my friend Dominic and I were openly laughed at when the teacher asked, "What do you want to do when you leave school?" We'd sit there with our hard, stubborn little faces, him saying, "I'm going to be a guitarist," and me saying. "I'm going to be an (continued on page 142)

CLIVE OWEN

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actor." The teacher encouraged the others to laugh, and the general atti­tude was like "Lots of people want to be actors. Lots of people want to play guitar. But get real." Once I did it, acting was what 1 wanted to do. All I wanted to do. I've never wavered from that since. If someone were to ask, "What else would you have done?" I'd have to say, "I'd be fucked." PLAYBOY: Your father deserted your fam­ily when you were three. What impact did that have on you? OWEN: Only that I'll make sure I'm around for my kids. That's very impor­tant to me.

PLAYBOY: You didn't meet your father again until you were in your early 20s. Are you in touch now? OWEN: Yeah, we still are. PLAYBOY: You seem suddenly uncom­fortable now that we're talking about your dad.

OWEN: I have no trouble talking about my work. But the other stuff.... PLAYBOY: He played country music. Did that make you like it or loathe it? OWEN: No, I can listen to it. I'm fine with it.

PLAYBOY: We'll change the subject. Who was the first girl to win your heart? OWEN: She was a very beautiful girl—a

very lovely, beautiful girl, a local girl. I was 17. It was not a long romance. She was someone I acted with. PLAYBOY: As a young man, were you more the heartbreaker or the heartbroken? OWEN: I remember being in my early 20s and with a girl, and when we split up it was painful and horrible. But I don't know.

PLAYBOY: Growing up, did you style yourself after any particular pop-culture icons?

OWEN: I was crazy about David Bowie for a number of years—absolutely crazy about him. He was all I would listen to. I still listen because he is just amazing. Bowie was the man for me in my teens. I used to dye my hair and all of that. I'd dress like him. I owned every album on vinyl the guy had ever released—bootlegs, everything. I was pretty crazy then. Many years later I met him and his wife, Iman, at one of his concerts when I went backstage. I was very nervous, but he was great, and his wife is lovely as well. The idea that he's still putting out innovative, special music—he's had an incredible career. PLAYBOY: Did you graduate from high school after flunking your last two years of classes? OWEN: I was lucky. A woman who ran

one of the departments told the school officials, "Clive fucked up, but we should let him retake all his exams." which was unheard of, but they said yes. Then she said to me. "You've got to go to drama school." But I was an arrogant little cretin and said, "You can't teach people to act." This was me back then. She ended up encouraging me to apply. I left school and left home and in the next few weeks got into drama school. It was a big deal because it was one for which your local council paid your tuition, subsistence money, everything. Those were the glory days. Where have they gone? PLAYBOY: Did you jump at the oppor­tunity?

OWEN: Nope. One day I just said, "I'm not going to this drama school." Every­one freaked out: "You're crazy. This is your chance." Cut to two years later: All I'd done was collect unemployment. I stopped doing the youth theater thing. I was doing nothing. PLAYBOY: It's rumored you were a pool hustler. Was your life anything like the Paul Newman film The Hustler? OWEN: I wasn't a pool hustler, but 1 played pool. yeah. I was good because 1 played a lot. but 1 wasn't in the world of The Hustler. I've watched some of the greatest movies, and that one and those performances are just brilliant. You hold that film against its sequel. The Color of Money, and the first remains a phenom­enal piece of work.

PLAYBOY: So how were you making money then?

OWEN: Outside of collecting unemploy­ment, I wasn't. Finally, I said, "What the fuck am I going to do?" Somehow I sum­moned up the energy it took to apply to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. I'm sure a huge part of my getting in had to do with the luck of my having been directed in Coventry by a supremely tal­ented guy who had gone on to run the Royal Shakespeare Company. PLAYBOY: In 1984, as a young, good-looking, talented kid from a working-class family, now on the loose and studying in London, did you find your­self surrounded by beautiful, available-young women?

OWEN: Being at school in London, I had the most fantastic, exciting time because suddenly you're in an envi­ronment where everybody has the same passion as you. It was three years of just exploring, learning and indulg­ing, with none of the pressures of try­ing to get a job or a part. You just go bang, bang, bang, and the first couple of shows are done in-house, and then you're shot out to the public. I had joined the Young Vic company, and while I was in a touring production of Romeo and Juliet, I met my wife-to-be, Sarah-Jane Fenton, who was playing Juliet to my Romeo. I got married; I had a great time. But that's the

problem with tabloids. When you start to have big success on TV, you start to get some stuff written about you in the press and everything. Those kinds of rumors happened only once I had graduated, worked a lot in theater and started to play big parts on TV. It's never directly related to the way people are. When you play big parts, you get attention in that way. I don't think it's necessarily related to hard­core reality.

PLAYBOY: Having co-starred with stun­ning women like Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman, |ennifer Aniston, Angelina |olie and Cate Blanchett, how have you handled on-set temptation? OWEN: There is sort of a perceived notion that actors are fucking each other all the time. PLAYBOY: They're not? OWEN: I'm not sure that's the reality, no. 1 so value what I've got at home with my wife and kids that I've never fucked with that. For me, that's what it's about. I've had some great times with actresses, but that's in a movie. It's a fun thing to do, but it's not love. So I never have a problem with that. Even sex scenes are very straightfor­ward. You've got things to accomplish, work to do. I Find the thing to do in those situations is to just keep the atmosphere as light as possible. PLAYBOY: What makes you seem to do so well in a committed marital relationship when other actors don't? OWEN: My relationship is everything to me. I'm completely fulfilled with my career. I'm often doing incred­ibly exciting plays and films, but that would mean nothing if I were float­ing around and didn't have a solid family behind me. Sarah-Jane is an absolute diamond. She's incredibly grounded. I have to drag her out to a premiere. Having been an actress her­self, she knows a lot about the work and scripts and will always steer me toward quality. Our daughters are 10 and seven right now; she's got the VW camper van, and they're out together camping. She grounds them in a very real place, and for me, it's perfect to have that to go home to. We've been together forever. Relationships evolve and change and develop because things happen. You have to adapt and see where you're at, but we're still as tight as we ever were. PLAYBOY: How have international fame and recognition impacted your ability to just hang out?

OWEN: There's no question that being recognized is part of my life. You just don't breeze out into ridiculous situa­tions and environments. I go about my business and don't draw attention to myself. You know you're going to be recognized, but it doesn't have to stop you from doing anything. I'd argue that the biggest film star could go into a

north London pub, sit quietly in a cor­ner, have a few pints and not get too much hassle if he did it in a certain way. If you come in acting like a big-shot film star, maybe you'll get a bit of attention, but 1 can go under the radar. PLAYBOY: You mentioned the hit Sin City earlier. Will you do a sequel? OWEN: I was a huge fan of that film. There's been so much talk about a sequel, and it just goes on and on. 1 saw Robert Rodriguez, the director, not too long ago, and I think the project is out there in the ether, but when it comes to actually pinning the thing down, I don't think it's been done at all. PLAYBOY: In the great Children of Men, you play a burned-out former political activist. Are you politically active? OWEN: Not wildly, actively political, no. I'm involved with a number of charities. I'm a patron of the Harwich Electric Pal­ace Cinema, which is a completely intact theater from 1911 in desperate need of restoration. The place is special, just invaluable. I've fallen in love with it. PLAYBOY: In the opinion of many crit­ics. Children of Men didn't find the audience it deserved. Does box-office success matter to you? OWEN: We got pretty phenomenal reviews and a lot of respect for a film that is highly original, daring and ambitious. At the time, I was reading other scripts with roles that were great and absolutely clear. With Children of Men I didn't quite know my way into the character I played, but I was such a fan of the director, Alfonso Cuaron, I just thought, I want to go on this jour­ney with him. I said no to Spike Lee at first on Inside Man because in it I would walk into a bank, put on a mask and wear it most of the lime. He said, "I've got Denzel to play the cop. Does this change anything?" Denzel Wash­ington is one of the greatest actors out there, so that did change things. I'm so glad I did it, because I had a great time, and it was an entertaining film. Spike, who has become a good friend, is a phenomenal talent. I love his atti­tude. They're still talking about doing another Inside Man. I've had a lot of choices in the past few years and made some very big decisions, but it would be wrong to talk about specific films I turned down, some of which were hugely successful. That makes abso­lutely no difference to me, because I have my reasons for doing every film I do. I stand by them, and those are the choices I've made.

PLAYBOY: Is there anything missing in your life?

OWEN: No, I've not very much to be unhappy about. I mean, I'm not always going around happy and carefree, but things are very good. I feel like I've got everything—literally everything.

A candid conversation with the British tough-guy actor about soccer versus football, wearing "guy-liner" and why choosing likable roles is for sissies

America's strange in the way

it's been struggling to ignite

soccer. It would be scary

if Americans took to it too strongly, because if they did,

they'd probably dominate.

/ was crazy about David Bowie for a number of years. I used to dye my hair and all of that.