CLIVE OWEN

Q: Could you talk about the outstanding shootout sequence at the Guggenheim Museum? It's one of the most amazing action sequences in recent memory.

CLIVE: I agree, I think it's one of the most exquisitely-realized sequences I've ever been involved in. It was talked about from the first time I met Tom. He said it wasn't an action film, but when we've got action, I want it to be as explosive and as intense as we can do. And the thing about that sequence is it was strange, because it bled through the entire shoot. They built a replica of the rotunda – an absolute to-scale replica – and while we were prepping the film, Tom had the whole thing worked out and choreographed way, way in advance. And eventually, just before we set off for Istanbul, we did one run-through of the whole sequence – without the guns going off, but with the stunt guys and everybody involved – and at that point, when we finished that run-through, the general feeling was that if it even approaches this, this sequence is going to be pretty incredible. Then we start the film in Istanbul and we come back, and the first few weeks are doing nothing but that shootout sequence. We then started to shoot other things while they built a set of the whole ground level, exactly to scale. So then halfway through the Berlin shoot, we then go back to that and we start shooting all that sequence, and right at the end of the movie we come to New York, and we go in the real Guggenheim. So it felt like that sequence bled through the entire shoot of the film. 

Q: What was it like balancing the intense action scenes with the more low-key scenes, in particular your great interrogation scene with Armin Mueller-Stahl?

CLIVE: They're kind of not too dissimilar, weirdly. I agree with you about the scene with Armin, because that guy is as good at acting as I've scene close-up really. He's a really phenomenal actor, that guy, and it was a real pleasure to do a long dialogue scene with him. But in terms of the shootout, it's kind of the same things apply. Basically, my job is to try and put people in the position of what it's like to be in there – and it's not to run around the Guggenheim trying to look cool with a gun. If guys came in there and started shooting guns like that, the reality is you'd be terrified, and it's about trying to make people feel that palpable fear and intensity of what it might actually be like to be in the middle of that. So it's kind of the same acting instincts that apply for dialog really. You've just got to put people in the position you're in, and try and make them understand and believe what you're doing. 

Q: What was it like shooting in all these "international" locations?

CLIVE: Istanbul was the only place I'd never been to before, and that was a hugely exciting place, and an incredible location – the rooftops of the Grand Bazaar, and inside the Grand Bazaar. The amazing thing about this film is not just the places we visited, but the locations within the places. So you come to New York, and it's one thing to come to New York, and it's another to do a full-blown shootout inside the Guggenheim. You go to Milan, and you takeover the main square there for two weeks, and it becomes a set. In Istanbul you're on the roof of the Grand Bazaar, and Berlin all that incredible modern architecture we filmed against. But in terms of actually enjoying a place, you think, "It's great! We're going to enjoy all these places!," but you hit the ground running. You arrive, there's teams set up, they're ready to go, you have a quick prep time, and then you're shooting. And once you're shooting, it's a hotel room, and a location. You don't get much time to really enjoy a place. Somewhere like Istanbul, I want to go back there and experience it properly without having to work every day. 

Q: How do you think the economic crisis will affect the way audiences digest this film? Will they view it as a cathartic experience to see you running around and gunning down bankers?

CLIVE: [Laughs] I think no one could have predicted how timely the film is, really. I think it was always a relevant script, but with the collapse of the banks, the big questions of the film: can you trust your bank, are they sound institutions, do they handle money appropriately, they're all questions everybody's asking now, and nobody could have foreseen how timely the film has become. 

Q: How did researching and making this film affect the way you view government policy? 

CLIVE: When the script came, it came with a lot of research material. Both Tom [director] and Eric [screenwriter] had been looking at and basing a lot of the script on real events that have happened about corrupt banks and globalization, so it was always a very well-informed, well-researched script. Ultimately, it's an entertainment. It's a big, sweeping international thriller. But, it was very, very grounded, and it was quite eye-opening to see this. An area of the film that the movie goes into, which is food for thought for everybody, is a simple thing like guns. You think how many firearms there are in worldwide circulation, and then you think every single one of them is bought and sold. That's a huge amount of money being spent, which means banks have to be implicit in there somewhere in the line. I just think that it opens up these kind of global questions. 

Q: What films have you seen that have had a lasting impact on the way you view certain political subjects?

CLIVE: I only saw it reasonably recently, in the last few years, but I was totally blown away by "The Battle of Algiers." A lot of directors strive to make their films feel real, and I think that film was really astonishing in terms of how it was a fiction, it was a narrative, but it smelt and felt as real as anything I've seen, and I found it an incredibly powerful and humane movie. 

Q: There are tons of close-ups of you in the film. How cognizant are you of where the camera is, and what's going on behind the scenes on a film set?

CLIVE: I certainly don't watch myself. I think it was Stanislavski who said, "Beware of the actor who looks in the mirror all the time," or something along those lines, and I agree with that. I think it's a very dangerous thing to observe yourself acting. I'm very aware of what goes on on a film set, in all departments, and I think it's hugely important for me to be conscious of what the camera's doing, and how I react to that – and that is not necessarily to be obvious that I know what it's doing – is a hugely important thing, because it means that I can be more specific about what it is I'm trying to do at any particular moment. A good example I can think of is some of the stuff in "Children of Men" that was shot in a particular way that was supposed to feel like you were just there in the middle of it. It was very important that it didn't look conscious for me, that it looked like things were happening as they were happening, and I think that's what film acting is about really. You have to be conscious, but then not be obvious about it. 

Q: What was it about this character that attracted you to the role?

CLIVE: There was something about his passion, his anger, his obsessiveness, and how far he's prepared to go really that is the thing that I liked about it, and why I wanted to do it. At any given point in the film most people would give up and not carry on in their pursuit of trying to bring down this hugely powerful corporation. He's a very fallible human being, because it's at the cost of everything else in his life, but in some ways he's kind of heroic because he's prepared to go that far, and he's go an innate sense of what's morally right and wrong. I was attracted to that. 

Q: What was it like shooting in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul? I heard you didn't even get to close it down, so you were running around there with a gun amid these huge throngs of onlookers.

CLIVE: I had a security guy very close to me sticking by me at all times, but some of the reactions were pretty shocking. Some people would just see the gun and just laugh, and I was like, "If this was New York or London, I'd be put up against a wall by now!" 

Q: What was it like working with Naomi Watts? It was an interesting relationship because you do have a bit of chemistry, but there are no romantic sparks.

CLIVE: It was great working with Naomi. I've known her on-and-off for a while, and we nearly worked together a few times and it didn't quite happen, so it was great that we finally did. I think she's a special, great actress, and she's a lovely girl, and it's easy working with her. I believe everything that she does, and the whole thing was a pleasure. I was very glad that it didn't descend into cliché really – the relationship. I think they are a partnership, and there is an attraction there, but it's based on their work ethic really and their pursuit of the bank, and I think it would've been an obvious and cliché thing to do to descend into a typical romance. I think it's a very delicately, well-pitched relationship, and I was happy that we didn't do the obvious. 

Q: The director of the film, Tom Tykwer, labeled you, "The thinking man's action hero." 

CLIVE: He's so full of shit, I can't tell you! [Laughs] 

Q: But how do you see yourself as an actor? And when did you know you wanted to become an actor? 

CLIVE: I certainly don't think of myself as an action hero. In my opinion, I've done one crazy action film called "Shoot 'Em Up," which was a comedy-action film, and every other film has got action in it, but it's just the sweep of the story. I don't see myself as an action guy. It's interesting the parts that I'm attracted to. I knew from a very early age – I'm a bit of a cliché. I did a school play when I was 13, and from that moment on I decided that's what I was going to do, and I've been pretty unwavering ever since. If it hadn't have worked out, it's a terrifying thought, because I've never wanted to do or been able to do anything else. 

Q: What part was it? 

CLIVE: It was 'the artful dodger' [in "Oliver Twist"], and I'm still playing the part over-and-over again! 

NAOMI WATTS

Q: Is it true you were offered the role around the time you were having your first child?

NAOMI:  Well first of all it came to me that Clive Owen was doing a movie with Tom Tykwer and that made me instantly want to read the script despite the fact I felt that there was no way that I would be working that close to having my first child. Then I met with Tom and the way he talked about the film, his sensibilities, cinematically, sounded very interesting to me. The subject definitely played a part and Tom also said, “You know, look, let me go away and see how I can work the schedule and make it durable for you,” and he did and he came back and said we can do it in twenty-one days and shoot five consecutive weeks. They started two months before me so by the time I got to the set my son was 3 months old. So I felt ready to go back to work.  Also, I couldn't have done a film where I was driving, I couldn't have played Clive's part, definitely not. Some of the films I've done the character's sort of in a very emotionally turbulent state, and Ellen Whitman was actually quite together and I felt that I could handle her.

Q:  Did making this movie alter your vision on how banks operate at all?

NAOMI: Yeah, people have said, you know, the timing is extraordinary, and did you know? Yeah, actually we created the whole thing as a publicity stunt [laughs]. No, I mean, it is uncanny the timing and what's going on today but it makes it extra thrilling for an audience member, I suppose, being on the edge of your seat.

Q: With the economy in ruins and people in every industry, including the film business, getting laid off in massive numbers, are actors making too much money?

NAOMI: I mean, well I don't know about the filmmaking too much across the board, but yes, certainly. I'm doing a movie now where it's the least I've been paid in about 10 years maybe, and people are willing to go to work now for that which I think ordinarily maybe that wouldn't happen but I can't see the film industry coming to a grinding halt any time soon. I think we may be more open to negotiations and things like that but I think the art world tends to thrive in times of recession. We need the escapism, we need stories to be told to take ourselves away from the reality of our situations of circumstance. So I don't think it's gonna stop. I think money is gonna be tight, definitely.

Q: In the film there is no explicit romance between you and Clive, but there is still a palpable chemistry between the two of you. What do you attribute that to?

NAOMI: We shot nine love scenes that just didn't work and got cut. [laughs] No, but I think that was the thing about… we did shoot one scene that was an ‘almost' moment and even that scene was very, very carefully done. There are many times in life that you have those almost moments but it doesn't happen for whatever reason and so to put it in the movie would've felt completely inauthentic and taken us out  of  the movie. You would have gone, “Yeah, this is the Clive and Naomi moment that the audience is waiting for,” and I think we would've been lost in that moment. And that's what I love about Tom's style is that there's never any moments, he's never giving you exactly what you're waiting for. It's always surprise and truth more than anything. So we did shoot that moment, and it was in a couple of cuts but I guess it didn't feel right or ring true. And when I say subtle, it was just like a moment of she leans on his shoulder and that's it. Will they kiss or will they not? They didn't.

“The International” blasts its way into theaters this Friday, the 13th .