Some days, I need some Clive Owen. Just looking at pictures of his piercing, intense, brooding green eyes and his jet-black hair lifts my spirits. It’s always a good day when I can eyef-ck Clive. So today is a good day. Clive is the cover boy for the October issue of Details Magazine. And I get to read his dark, brooding words too… except Clive in interviews is rarely dark and brooding. He usually pretty pleasant, revealing himself to be one of the most well-adjusted actors out there. Unfortunately, the interview takes place at a graveyard, so that adds to the general morose atmosphere. Was the interview done by a 14-year-old goth chick? I don’t know. Clive talks about his new film out in November, The Boys Are Back, which is based on a memoir of a widower sports writer who finds himself raising two young sons alone.

On his working-class background: “It was a very, very working-class family,” he says as he takes his seat at the café. His parents split when he was 3, and he was brought up—the fourth of five brothers—by his mother and stepfather. “It was fine,” he says, trying to shift the subject moments after it’s raised. “It wasn’t an unhappy experience—everybody struggled.”

On fame: “It’s all about how you conduct yourself,” Owen says when asked how a movie star can live such a seemingly normal life. “I’m quite good at getting on with my thing. I feel I’m pretty nifty; I can spot trouble coming. I’ve been in certain situations where people have been drinking a lot.” He pauses. “It’s going to get a little uncomfortable now and then.”

On his wife, Sarah-Jane Fenton, and how they met when they were cast as Romeo and Juliet: “Yes,” he says, “a cliché. I fell in love with her the minute she came in. She was late, she had these glasses and a pile of secondhand books, and there was something about her straightaway.” She gave up acting not long before they had their first child, and she is now training to become a therapist. “There’s no regret or resentment,” Owen says of the different paths their careers have taken. “She always smiles and looks at what acting can be like, and it’s a relief to her that she’s not doing it.”

On traveling so much: “There have been times in the past when it’s become clear that there needs to be a break,” he says. “Too much working. Too much going away. You just stop. As things have opened up for me, I call it. I say, ‘I’m sorry, you want to film then? I can’t do it.'”

On his own family drama: “I knew those scenes very well,” he says as he finishes his coffee. He’s talking about his own family drama, which involved his relationship with his dad, who sought him out when he was 20, after a 17-year absence. “It was a very bizarre experience, looking at someone you’ve never known and going, ‘Oh my God, that’s my father.'”

On future projects: A lot of what he’s reading is “not very good,” he says. “And these are films that are funded and ready to go—expensive movies. You’re amazed that people are funding them. I start to think it’s me—that I’m being too choosy.”

On the being an actor: “I got in a cab in Glasgow years ago,” he says. “And this quite surly cabdriver says to me, ‘You’re that actor, aren’t you? You get paid to lie, don’t you? That’s what actors are, aren’t they? Professional bullshitters.’ It had quite an effect on me. I f’ing get paid to lie. . . . I walked out of there and I spent a bit of time thinking about it. And then I realized I think it’s the opposite: It’s an opportunity to tell the truth. I try to do that in everything I do. And whether you like a movie I’m in or not, I want you to believe me. More than admire me or think I was brilliantly skillful, I want you to believe me.”

The Boys Are Back director Scott Hicks on Clive: “I’ve walked with him through [London’s] Soho, and occasionally someone will notice him, but he doesn’t turn on this high-wattage projection, and people respect that,” Hicks says. “I get the impression that he’s content with what he has. That’s a rare quality in the movie world, where no matter how much people have got, they want more.”

[From Details]

Sigh. I love this man. I’ve started to get a slight “curmudgeon” vibe off Clive, but somehow that just makes him sexier. I love when he talks about his wife and his two daughters, but mostly I just love him, the man. I even learned something new about Clive – I didn’t realize he had been estranged from his father at all, let alone for such a long time. As far as the movie goes, it sounds a little weird, doesn’t it? Not really a family film, but too kid-oriented to be a straight drama? Well… I’ll probably still see it, because it’s Clive. I sat through that crapfest The International for my Clive, and this one can’t be worse. By the way, I just rented Duplicity two weekends ago, and I loved it. I would highly recommend it if anyone if looking for a good, sexy Clive movie. And Julia Roberts wasn’t even half-way annoying! Hurray!