Clive Owen Makes Parenting the Priority
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On screen Clive Owen is usually cast as the dashing male lead, but at home the 44-year-old actor says he’s anything but. “My girls completely boss me,” he tells PARADE. “I have no power in my house whatsoever.”
Proudly proclaiming himself the family “geek” and “so low-status…you wouldn’t believe it,” Clive says that it was nevertheless “odd” for daughters Hannah, 12, and Eve, 10, to see him playing a father in the new film The Boys Are Back. “I know they’re thinking, ‘Who are these kids that are around my dad?’” he explains. “But they seem OK with it.”
The same could not be said for Clive himself, however, when it came to shooting one emotionally draining scene in which he informs his fictional son that his mom is about to die. “It was such a devastating idea just to even think about it…Every time I read it in the script it upset me,” Clive concedes. “I think it will move people in lots of different ways.” As for knowing how and when to break bad news to Hannah and Eve, Clive says, “You trust your instincts on that, don’t you?”
“You give them as much information as you think they can take. You shouldn’t overload children. I don’t think you should give them too much. When my kids were very young, I wouldn’t let them watch the news because I thought they were too young to actually really fully understand and process it.”
Because the film tackles parenthood from a father’s perspective, Clive says that he finds it “very touching” and easy to relate to. “What you see is a part of my life,” he explains. “Parenting has been a priority for me.” He adds,
“I don’t have boys, but I’ve got two girls…and I’ve always considered helping to raise them to be separate from making movies. I go off and make movies and then I come home and I’m a father. I look after my girls. I do the washing up, I do the laundry. I don’t let the place go.”
Hannah and Eve are Clive’s children with wife Sarah-Jane Fenton. The Boys Are Back is in theaters now.
Source: PARADE
– Missy
