Actor Clive Owen Transfers Fears Through Intruders

Details

Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Tuesday, 10 April 2012 16:44

Written by Brad Balfour

For British actor Clive Owen, Intruders offered more of a psychological thriller to work with than a classic horror film -- something like a Hitchockian story filtered through a tapas taste. Spanish tapas, that is, since its Oscar-nominated director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has a bi-lingual, multicultural background.

Intruders outlines the tale of two children speaking different languages, in different countries and eras, who are united by the same nightmares of a faceless assailant who wants to possess them. The film really deals with virtual realities more than actual ones -- with its actors and audiences on a ride driving towards a tortured conclusion. Fresnadillo has tackled another favorite of the horror-fan set -- the rage plague-infected 28 Days Weeks Later.

More and more, top-flight actors are drawn to the horror and sci-fi genre not just because of the box office potential but also for the challenges presented by its limitations. The 47-year-old Owen is no stranger to genres, having done his share of costume dramas (Elizabeth: The Golden Age), actioneers (Duplicity/The International) and sci-fi (Children of Men), but this is may be his first psycho-chiller. 

Q: What drew you to this thriller?

CO: Same thing that applies to every choice: it always starts with the script. Juan Carlos [Fresnadillo, the director] sent me the script and I really liked it. I thought it was a very interesting take on this kind of movie. 

I thought he was really trying to explore some interesting ideas, and I was a very big fan of his work. I loved 28 Weeks Later and I loved Intacto, a Spanish film he did. So it was a very easy thing to say yes to. I think Juan Carlos is a very visceral director -- strong, cinematic and physical. 

I’m a huge fan of The Exorcist, and there were a few times where the story reminded me a little of the flavor of that [film].

Q: Why do you like The Exorcist and how does it parallel with this movie?

CO: The Exorcist is a very well-directed movie -- not just a horror movie, but an all-around movie. It was extremely well-acted. It's disturbing, and it still holds up today. 

My 12-year-old daughter has heard about it and says "Dad, I want to watch The Exorcist." I said, "You’re not watching that for ten years." I had it in the house and I got rid of it because I’m paranoid. They’ll say "Oh, I’ll just have a little look" and they’ll be traumatized for years.

Q: What are the parallels?

CO: The religious context of the Spanish end of the story, the traumatized boy and the priest.

Q: Does this kind of role tax your mind instead of your body, since the threat is more psychological?

CO: That’s a good question, because it’s harder work than you think.

You have to take the audience to quite an intense place. Sometimes doing that is as hard as doing a page of dialogue, because if you fall short, the thing doesn’t work. You have to get to a level of intensity. 

That’s why I think Ella [Purnell, who plays his daughter Mia] was so good in the movie. She really holds that together in some ways. It’s her emotional terror that we’re gripped by as the film goes on, and it does take work to do that.

Q: Why do audiences react to seeing children terrified?

CO: Because we remember being terrified, probably. The one thing that resonated with me when I read the script was, it’s about dreams and nightmares when you’re young -- very bad, very intense experiences. 

I remember it, and have seen it in my own children. Over time, you learn how to process it. You wake up very quickly and figure out what’s real and what isn’t real. But for a child, it can really throw you off center.

Q: When you’re dealing with child actors in these intense scenes, do you have to check with them afterwards and see if they’re okay?

CO: You have to do that before you even start working. I think it’s hugely important that they feel safe before you begin, especially if you want to push it into areas that are uncomfortable -- which I think is a good thing to do. 

But the child needs to feel safe and that everything is okay. So it’s very important to put a bit of time into that and make sure you got that rapport going. 

I’ve done about three films in the last few years that had strong relationships with children. I actually really love working with young [actors] because they’re so responsive and instinctive.

It’s a much less honed craft that they’re employing, but it’s very real and reactive. It requires you to do a similar thing back for the relationship to work. And that can open up some interesting stuff.

Q: It does seem as though playing a parent is becoming one of your specialties. 

CO: I think it’s really interesting to explore parenting in film. To do it in a very truthful way is very exciting. 

And playing a parent isn’t just about reading the lines. People can smell it when [characters] don’t look like a family. When family members are very open to each other, I think you have to put time and care into building that. 

There’s no question that Trust, The Boys Are Back, and this film obviously are related, because I’m a parent. There were things within [them] that I thought were really interesting to explore. 

Q: You were really good in Trust. That film about a stalking pedophile must have hit home. 

CO: I have two young girls and they’re of age, and I think it’s important to be discussing [everything]. We’re at the point where we can’t legislate kids' use of computers, the Internet. They’re walking around with powerful little mini-computers in their hands. 

You say you have to watch what they do on the computer, but they [have] access to everything everywhere. I think the important thing is that they’re well-informed, keep talking about it, and keep things as open as possible.

Q: How does your character’s issues with his mother affect his parenting skills?

CO: There’s absolutely no question, on a very simplistic level, that the central theme of passing on fears to your children is a very real and truthful thing. 

I’ve got a friend whose mother is scared of dogs and now the kids are scared of dogs. I saw it in the mother and now I see it in the children. They just picked that up. 

That’s a very simplistic version. But I think kids are very sensitive to what’s going on in people, specifically their parents. I think the idea that you can pass [things] on to your kids is very true.

Q: What scares you now?

CO: What scares me now, without a doubt, is the welfare and well-being of my children. That’s the one thing you don’t have much control over, and you’re fearful over whether or not they’re going to be okay.

I was not a very fearful kid, really. I remember having nightmares, but I never had recurring nightmares and I wasn’t scared at night. I wasn’t that sort of child.

Q: Have you passed on any fears to your kids?

CO: Only good things [laughs].

Q: What movies have scared you?

CO: I’m not a great one for classic horror or cheap thrills. They don’t really do it for me. I find it better in films when they’re psychologically strange and disturbing, as opposed to horror things. I can’t think of any at the top of my head.

Q: When you make a film like this, do you look at other films?

CO: It depends. On this one, I didn’t do too much of that. There are some films where I do that an awful lot. 

There’s one film I’m about to do, set in '70s New York, and I’m immersing myself in all those great '70s New York films. 

It’s called Blood Ties, with the French director Guillaume Canet, who did Tell No One. It’s about two brothers, and that period is great.

Q: Are they shooting it in New York? 

CO: Yes. We haven’t started shooting yet, we start at the end of April. But it looks like it’s all going to be in Brooklyn and the Bronx.

Q: What was your first time in New York?

CO: I was in my 20s. I went somewhere just outside of New York and jumped onto a bus going to New York and there was steam coming out of the grates. I stood there and felt nostalgia, even though I had never been there. It felt so familiar, and I had never set foot in the city before, but I was like, "Of course."

Q: Will you be swearing off thrillers to do more comedy now?

CO: No. I have an instinctive response to material, and at the end of the day, you look at it and that’s the shape of a career.

I am planning a comedy now, which is very exciting. It’s the first one I’ll do, really. I really like it, it makes me laugh. I’m excited about that, but that’s not for a while now. 

Q: Since you were in a film about Ernest Hemingway, what would you ask him if you had the chance?

CO: That’s a hard question. I read everything about him, I immersed myself in him. 

It’s known he [was] a heavy drinker. In his relationship with Martha Gellhorn, which lasted seven years, [in] photographs of him at the beginning, he looked great, he was in good shape.

At the end of those seven years, he looked like he had aged 40 years. He looks ravaged and you think, how could that be seven years? It must be alcohol. So I’d like to ask him about his alcohol intake.

Such an incredible character, really, just in terms of traveling. The guy was 18 and moved to Italy, Paris in his 20s, lived in Africa and Cuba. 

Q: Are you interested in being a director or working behind the camera?

CO: Yes, I am, but I’ve never found that piece of material to drive me through it. I just [have] to find the right material that I’m so driven I want to drop all the acting and plow on with that.

Q: How do you stay so grounded? We don’t read about you getting trashed.

CO: I don’t know. I think success in films came to me relatively late. I’ve been working a good long time -- over 10 years in the UK in small films and theater and TV.

It can be very unsettling for a young actor, if you’re 20 years old and you end up in a movie, getting thrown into the spotlight, and suddenly you’re the hot thing. There are so many people pulling at you and wanting a piece of you. 

I had a big TV hit when I was young, so I had experience with that kind of attention. When it happens to you later, you don’t take your eye off the main thing, which is the work. That’s the bottom line -- that’s the way you’re judged.

• < Prev
• Next >