By Christina Radish
|
|
|
Clive Owen at the "Children of Men" premiere held at the Mann Village Theater in Westwood, Calif. on November 16, 2006. |
The wildly edgy and inventive action comedy Shoot ‘Em Up stars British actor Clive Owen as Mr. Smith, the angriest, most hard-boiled man in the world, who unexpectedly finds himself entrusted to protect a newborn child. When Smith delivers the baby in the middle of a gunfight, he soon discovers that the infant is the target of a team of mysterious and endless assailants, led by Hertz (Paul Giamatti), whose mission it is to erase all traces of the baby. Amid a hail of bullets, Smith teams up with a prostitute named DQ (Monica Bellucci) to solve the mystery, as to why the baby’s life is being threatened, before this makeshift family ends up on the wrong side of a bullet.
While at the San Diego Comic Convention this past July, the 42-year-old father of two talked to MediaBlvd Magazine about this over-the-top roller coaster ride.
MediaBlvd Magazine> How did this project come to you? Why did it appeal to you?
Clive Owen> The whole concept was pitched to me, and I honestly didn’t think it was going to be for me. It didn’t sound like my kind of thing, but I decided to read it, anyway. And, I read the script and was blown away by it. I thought it was the freshest, wildest, funniest thing I’d read in years. Then, I saw writer-director Michael Davis’ 17-minute animated action film, which was also very witty, and made you see how physically witty it was as well. I rang up my agent and said, “This is wild. If this guy can pull this off, this will be extraordinary.” And then, it was just a question of meeting Michael, to talk to him about his ideas. It’s one thing to write all that, but pulling it off is another thing. In the animated pitch, he had a thing, at one point, going, “This is John Woo’s wet dream.” John Woo does happen to be a master of the genre. So, I met Michael and he was so prepared. He was so together, when it came to all the practical questions I had about shooting it and how he could achieve the scale of this movie with a certain amount of money. Everything I threw at him, he had the answer and was covered. And, he had the whole thing story-boarded. If you actually look at the action in the movie, it’s almost frame by frame with the animation. That’s how close it is. If the guy didn’t make this film, he was going to explode. He spent seven years, dreaming every angle of this movie. I walked away from the meeting with Michael and rang my agent and said, “This guy has to make this film, so we should do it.”
MediaBlvd> The audience doesn’t get to learn a lot about your character, in terms of backstory, so did you create your own backstory, for playing this character?
Clive> I had my own ideas, but I don’t think it’s really that important. It’s a classic man-with-no-name. All you have to know is that, when the shit hits the fan, he’s going to deliver. I think this is a very funny film. It’s an action comedy, really.
MediaBlvd> How hard is it to walk that line between spoof and comedy, when some of the action is so over-the-top?
Clive> The tone of the film very clearly says that you can’t take it too seriously. But, at the same time, you do have to root it. If you make it too indulgently wacky and heightened, then you switch off. You’ve got to constantly ground the film, in its own ridiculous way. That’s Michael’s tone. He takes this shit really seriously.
MediaBlvd> What was his tone on the set?
Clive> Excited and incredibly prepared and organized. It helped that we had Peter Pau, who’s the brilliant D.P that shot Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But, the film wasn’t a ridiculous budget, for the amount of action that’s in there, so it had to be organized and disciplined, and it had to move fast. From day one, we moved faster than I’ve worked on any movie set, in my whole career. We nailed and executed what he needed because we had to. We had so much to do. There were over 40 set-ups a day.
MediaBlvd> Do you prefer working that way, with quicker set-ups, or did you ever wish you could have just one more take?
Clive> No, not on this. If you’re doing a film that’s got very delicate acting, then I would be one of those people that’s like, “We need to spend some more time.” But, this film was very satisfying because it was so story-boarded and clear. It was about just nailing it, beat by beat. But, it’s still an acting job. You have to look like you’re in there and doing it. And, there’s something very satisfying about knowing, very clearly, what everybody’s objective is. You just nail it and move on, and I enjoyed that.
MediaBlvd> So, do you prefer doing movies, like this and Inside Man, or do you prefer the more dialogue-driven stuff, like Closer?
Clive> Closer was very particular because I had done the original play and I had a history with that, so I loved getting ahold of that dialogue on film. But, if you look at the films I’ve done in my career, I like to keep it mixed up. I love making films. I have no huge preference. It’s always great to get your hands on good dialogue, I will say that. If there’s one thing films often lack, it can be that. We’ve lost that skill, a little bit, of people saying very smart things to each other. You tend to read very good ideas and very good scripts, but sometimes they just lack great dialogue.
MediaBlvd> Had you fired guns, prior to filming this?
Clive> Oh, yeah. Not as many, and not as many different ones. Not as much as in this film, but I’ve shot guns in movies before.
MediaBlvd> What sort of training process did you go through for all of the physical action sequences?
Clive> It was a very physical movie. With all that kind of stuff, I’m one of those people who just needs to know what I’ve got to execute. I took the scene seriously, where I put the gun together. I wanted to be able to do all that. This guy is supposed to be the top man with a gun, so I just wanted it to look like he knew what he was doing. Physically, it was very hard work. Michael is really obsessed with action movies and he hates when the action becomes so spectacular that the camera backs off, and obviously the guy is doubled because there’s this big explosion. He wants you to feel like you’re the guy shooting the gun in the scene, so he comes in with the camera, all the time. It’s very hard to use a double because he likes to be right there, in the thick of it. So, it was physically very demanding.
MediaBlvd> Was it your idea to actually do that stunt yourself?
Clive> No, it was Michael’s idea. He said, “We’ve got to see it’s you.”
MediaBlvd> Did you get injured?
Clive> No. Just a few little bumps and scrapes that were inevitable in a film like that.
MediaBlvd> Were any of the action sequences particularly difficult, or were they all hard?Clive> The skydiving one was hard because I was bloody hanging on wires for 10 days, being spun around. We were in a huge studio and there were quite a few times I had to leap off of something. I was pulled and thrown and spun. But, there was something very satisfying about it because Michael was so clear about what he needed, each time. It was all physically challenging, but it was very clear what we were trying to achieve, all the time. It was physically demanding, but it was still a pleasant experience.
MediaBlvd> While you were shooting, how did you unwind, after a day of doing all of these physical things? How do you turn that off and go back to your family life?
Clive> Well, I wasn’t actually at home. We shot in Toronto, and my family was in London. They came out for some of it. They saw the scene where I come running out with all the guns. That was their introduction to the film. It was like, “Come and see daddy, working on this film,” and they stood to the side with these ear things on, and I came around the corner shooting, and they were like, “Oh, wow!”
MediaBlvd> They weren’t scared?
Clive> No. They’ve been on enough movie sets to know it’s not real.
MediaBlvd> What appealed to you more, the character or the overall project?
Clive> The overall thing. Just Michael’s vision and the craziness of it. It was the wit of it. It made me laugh, all the way through, while I was reading it. I thought, “This guy is insane.” I just loved the attitude. Somebody asked me if I was concerned about the violence in the movie, and the amount of violence, but it’s the best kind of violence. It’s crazy movie violence. It’s got nothing to do with my real life, and it’s very satisfying because of that. I don’t see that in my life. Nobody does. You know that this film is not taking itself too seriously. The truth is, as it was with Sin City, it’s my kind of violence. However violent it is, it’s a total cinematic experience, and it’s not related to real things. You’re completely ignoring a whole world of very satisfying movie making, if you ignore the fact that watching really great action movies is a really fun thing to do.
MediaBlvd> Can you talk about working with Paul Giamatti and Monica Bellucci?
Clive> The three people that Michael wanted for the film, he got, and it’s extraordinary for a director to get his first choices. I was thrilled when Paul signed on to do it because I just thought he was perfect for it. We compliment each other very well. I’m the contained, dry action guy, and he’s having the time of his life. But, he’s such a good actor that he grounds everything. It’s heightened and it’s crazy and it’s fun, but however heightened a film like this is, you have to keep centering it and making sure it doesn’t get stupid because then people drift away from it. Paul is an example of somebody who can play crazy and wild, but he keeps it centered. He’s such a great actor that, however ridiculous it is, he keeps it grounded. He was a perfect foil for Mr. Smith. And, Monica was just perfect in the part. The lovely thing about Monica was that she was unashamed about playing this character, and she does it brilliantly. It was a lot harder than it looked.
MediaBlvd> How long did it take to shoot that scene and was it choreographed?
Clive> It was very choreographed. It was an animated scene for the pitch, and I was looking at it going, “Michael, is that physically possible? Are we going to actually be able to do that?” And then, we worked out how we could do it. It was certainly one of the more enjoyable set pieces of the film. It’s so crazy. It’s such a crazy idea. And, being that close to Monica Bellucci never becomes monotonous.
MediaBlvd> How were the babies to work with?
Clive> The babies were great. For danger reasons, you can’t put the babies in those situations. I wish there was more of the real babies in there, only because when we used the babies in the action, it was really centering. You change, physically, even if it’s just a little bit, because there’s a little, precious thing there and it affects the way you do the shoot. If you’re not using a real baby, it’s very easy to forget that that’s what the film is about. We did do some of the stuff with the real babies, where I’d spin and go to shoot, and we’d put the shot in afterwards because we couldn’t freak the baby out. My last two movies (Shoot ‘Em Up, Children of Men) had full-on birth scenes in both, but they were a world apart in their tone. Only in one did I get to shoot the umbilical chord. .
MediaBlvd> Are you tired of eating carrots?
Clive> It could have been worse. If I’m being honest, I cheated a little bit. I would spit it out and then carry on with the dialogue, and pretend to chew a bit. It’s very hard, doing dialogue scenes with lots of dry carrot in your mouth.
MediaBlvd> This character has so much anger. Is there anything that you hate that much?
Clive> I’ve got no real hates. Nothing leaps to mind. I’m a nice guy. I don’t hate anybody.
MediaBlvd> Did you have to do anything to stay in that angry mode, throughout the shoot?
Clive> Michael was very keen on that. He’d often push me to be a bit angrier. I wanted to play it cooler, but he just loved that this guy had that bad-ass, angry attitude, so he was always pushing me to be a bit angrier.
MediaBlvd> Sin City and this film are dark crime movies. Are you wanting to do more of those now, or are you looking for something different?
Clive> No, I’m not steering away from those kinds of films. I’m producing and bringing along the Marlowe movie, playing Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. We’ve got Frank Miller writing it. He’s perfect for it. We’re just starting the whole process. It’s going to be a long-term thing. I don’t think that will be ready until next year. But, I’m very excited about it.
MediaBlvd> Are you going to be involved with Sin City2 at all?Clive> I don’t know anything about Sin City 2, to tell you the truth. I just hear the rumors.
MediaBlvd> How was working with Cate Blanchett on Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which you have coming out on October 12th?
Clive> She’s fantastic. She’s a phenomenal actress. I was a huge fan of the original Elizabeth movie, so the idea of her coming back, and Shekhar Kapur (the director) coming back, and Geoffrey Rush coming back, was very exciting.
MediaBlvd> Did you feel like the new kid on the block?
Clive> There was an element of that, but they did the first one quite a long time ago (1998) and a lot has gone on, in between. It wasn’t like they did it last year, or something. But, there was an element that they’d been through it before.
MediaBlvd> Children of Men wasn’t an overwhelming financial hit at the box office, but people talk about how much they were affected by that film. Have you had that experience with it?
Clive> With that film, especially. People responded very strongly to it. Personally, I think that film was ahead of its time. I think it was a very incredibly bold film. Alfonso Cuaron is a real visionary filmmaker. And, it was a hugely ambitious, exciting movie. Regardless of what business it does or doesn’t do, I’m sure that, in 10 years time, it will be a film that’s still talked about, and I’ll be as proud of it as any I’ve ever done.
MediaBlvd> Have you shot anything else, or are you working on any other projects?
Clive> I’m gearing up to do a film with Tom Tykwer, who did Run Lola Run and Perfume, called The International. It’s a great script. It’s like a 70's throwback paranoid political thriller about a guy trying to expose a big bank.
