Clive Owen bares all about Sin City
Clive Owen is certain that he wouldn't last very long in Sin City. "Oh no," he laughs. "It scared the **** out of me! I wouldn't last a day in that place."
Fortunately, Owen's character, Dwight, is a man practised in the art of survival in one of the toughest urban environments ever conceived - where the women dress like every man's fantasy but are liable to kill you for looking at them too long.
The 40 year old star, who was born in Warwickshire, England, made his name with eye catching roles on British television (notably Chancer and later, Sharman) and then began building his reputation as one of the very best English film actors.
He received wide acclaim for his role in Mike Hodges' The Croupier, joined Robert Altman's star-studded cast for the period drama Gosford Park and starred alongside Angelina Jolie in Beyond Borders.
He took the lead in the swashbuckling blockbuster King Arthur and more recently won a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for his performance in Mike Nichols' Closer.
Owen lives with his wife and their two children in London. He has recently finished filming the thriller Derailed with Jennifer Aniston.
Rosario said that there was talking of you going bottomless, as it were, and revealing all. Is that true?
(laughs) There were some very graphic drawings in the original graphic novel, that's all I'll say. I think the finished article is hard-boiled enough, don't you?
Did you have a problem with the violence?
Not at all. I think it's like the most fantastical, macabre wit. I think it's at its funniest when it's the most violent. That's not violence that is related to our every day lives, it's nothing like it. The most extraordinary heightened stylised violence and I might be a bit sick, but I chuckled all the way through. I seriously think it is the most ground-breaking movie I've ever been involved with and there's definitely a market for it because people will just have to check it out. It's going to be very hard to ignore this film because it's so extraordinary.
When you play a character like this how much do you actually create yourself?
None of it (laughs). It was all there for you. We were given such incredible strong guidelines because Robert (Rodriguez's) intention was to be as faithful to the original material as possible. What that means is that there is a whole world of discussions that you have on movies that doesn't apply to this. You arrive and you get to work. There's no 'I think my character would.' bullshit. Because he wears that coat with those red Converse, his hair looks like that, this is the frame today, you have just done that and that bubble there is what you say. It was that defined and within that you do what you do. But there is something rewarding about having such a strong guideline to what you are trying to achieve.
How did you see your character, Dwight?
I'm a big fan of (Philip) Marlowe and (Raymond) Chandler and Dwight for me was like some kind of Frank Miller twisted version of a classic noir character. And I think that's the root of all of Sin City; he starts there and completely bends it out of shape.
Was Frank Miller there all the time?
Yes, all the time, all day every day.
So you could use him as a resource?
I think it would have been impossible to have made the movies without him being there because he has created such an incredible world and he knows these characters inside out. Half the characters bleed into other novels and he fills you in on how he conceived the character, how it has changed, where the storyline came from. And we were being so faithful and he had plenty to say if the dialogue wasn't working right, he would nip and tuck that, if physically it didn't have the dynamism and energy of what he had drawn, he would get involved in that.
How was working with green screen?
It's weird for a day and then you get used to it. With films you use your environment, you go to a set or a location and it becomes part of what you do, you inhabit it, you use it. That's what filming on location is all about but on this you are stranded in no man's land - you've got nothing around you and you feel very exposed for about a day and then you just hone in and it's all about the performance, that's all that is going on. Which is all Robert is concentrating on because there is nothing to distract him; there's no lighting or environment things he has to look after. He is just looking at the actor and what they are doing, which is not such a bad thing.
It's very different film, obviously, to your previous film, Closer..
It's very different and I've always had the objective to keep it as mixed and varied and interesting as possible and you couldn't get more different things. But to be honest about it, I was immensely proud of Closer as a piece of work, as a whole movie and I'm the same with this, I'm just hugely proud to be a part of it. And it just doesn't get any better. It makes the whole thing very special when you do a piece of work and you watch it and you really like it.
Sin City is a tough city to survive in. Do you think there is one thing that helps the characters survive?
I would never attempt to have a sweeping general theme because Frank has created such a mental, complex crazy place (laughs) that it would do a disservice to sum it up. I literally think that movie is so jam-packed. I felt I'd been to the wildest place I've ever been taken to in a movie, it scared the shit out of me really. I mean, I wouldn't last a day in that place (laughs)! I don't know where Frank pulls it from but he must be scary somewhere..!
What was your reaction when you were offered Sin City?
I was very flattered. I didn't know the books, but I'm a big fan of Robert Rodriquez who sent me Frank Miller's graphic novels and I thought they were wild, dynamic extraordinary things. He told me Benicio Del Toro would be in it and I jumped at the opportunity.
It's a ground-breaking project that's paid off. But is it a leap of faith to commit to something like this?
Well, you're backing the filmmaker to pull it off really. Because what we do is only one part of it. The green screen stuff, acting, you are completely exposed. But what completely astounded me when I saw the film is the journey we went on after that - I had no idea I was in that movie. Great. I'm still baffled by it - I don't know how he pulled it off.
Is there a danger with this type of film that it becomes a triumph of style over substance?
No, I think he has created he most incredible wild, weird wonderful world with this. I think everything is bedded in. I think it's the most successful bedding in of computer generated stuff I've ever seen. At the end of the movie I felt I'd been transported to this wild world but I wasn't just marvelling at the technical wizardry and how he had pulled it off, I thought it had all gelled together so exquisitely that he pulled off something extraordinary.
It's very film noir. How do you capture that working in front of a green screen?
You go back to the dialogue and it's easy to underestimate how good the dialogue is when it is a bubble in a graphic novel. And when you read it you think 'my god, this guy can write,.' it's got great wit, great energy, great rhythm. The dialogue is lifted out of the books and you realise how talented Frank is.
Your character Dwight has an unusual alliance with the ladies in the film. Tell us about that..
He is lured into Old Town which is run by the ladies of the night where there is a very delicate truce and there is a guy who is causing some trouble and it could all explode really and turn into a very violent situation so Dwight is running around trying to look after his girls. He's as near as you are going to get to a hero in Sin City, because there aren't really any heroes. He is trying to do the right thing.
How would you describe Sin City as a place?
It's the weirdest, wildest, most extraordinary scary place you can go to, really.
How beneficial was it to have Frank Miller on set?
Absolutely essential, we were recreating his world and we wanted to do it faithfully. All the characters have weird and wonderful histories that Frank is obviously in tune with and we couldn't have done Sin City without him.
What was it like to witness the relationship between Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller?
It was fantastic. Because there were very clear guidelines about what everyone was trying to achieve and lots of initial discussions, we were trying to be as faithful as possible.
And what about working with Quentin Tarantino?
He came in with his own energy, he was just fantastic. It was a joy to see all of the - Robert, Quentin and Frank - there. It was special. And actually, that was a lot of fun, too.
Do you think that with technology progressing the way it is, actors could become a smaller cog in the filmmaking process?
No, I would disagree with that. I think Sin City is another example of no matter how far you go with all this computer stuff, actors are at the heart of this movie. No matter how technically wonderful it is because it's full of the greatest, weirdest, wonderful characters. Some of the acting in it is really fantastic - Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis give phenomenal performances. It's the bedding together of it all that is so successful in this.
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