Clive Owen rarely gets into details about his life with wife Sarah-Jane Fenton and their two daughters. He sometimes makes a casual slip, like the USA Today interview where he claimed that his daughters were obsessed with Jennifer Aniston, or the Esquire interview where he talked a little about his marriage.

So it was surprising to read Clive’s recent interview with Irish Independent, where he talked in depth about how he and Sarah-Jane make it work. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t involve hot affairs with random gossip-blog readers. Damn! Clive gives a lot of credit to Sarah-Jane, saying that she has always given him the leeway to go and work and she gives him “space and freedom”. He also mentions in passing his total obsession with David Bowie. More from Irish Independent:

[Clive Owen] met his wife Sarah-Jane Fenton in his early twenties when they played the title roles in a Rada production of Romeo and Juliet. When they had children 10 years later, Fenton put her career on hold to be a full-time mother, allowing Owen the freedom to pursue his own opportunities.

I ask him if there have been moments when, like Watts’ character in The International, he has been forced to tailor his career as family considerations come into play?

“Amazingly, no,” he answers. “I give all credit and thanks to my wife Sarah-Jane for that. She has always given me the freedom to go and do that. I can honestly say I’ve never chosen a film because where it’s shot is convenient. I’ve just been in Australia for three months. But it’s very tough — it’s tough for me; it’s tough for the kids.”

“But I make sure there’s a balance to it. I make sure that if I’m off doing a film that then there’s time off afterwards. But all that juggling is made very easy because Sarah-Jane is so cool and gives me the space and the freedom.”

“She has maybe once in my entire career at some point called and said: ‘You need to stop and take some time off. You’ve been away too much’. I listened to her straight away and did that straight away. But ultimately she is the one who keeps the family together and gives me the support and the freedom so I’ve never felt constricted or felt I have to choose or not do something because of family commitments.”

It’s rare for any relationship to work in the kind of circles Owen is now part of, let alone one that existed before one half of it became famous. Though Owen admits that he’s “a little obsessive” about his work, he doesn’t appear to go in for any of the trappings that go hand-in-hand with stardom, meaning that when he’s not working his family and marriage is the focus of all his attention.

“I think Sarah-Jane and I work at it, but ultimately I give most of the credit to her. She keeps it all together. I feel I have everything. I have a very solid, lovely family life and I go off and I make movies and completely fulfill that part of my life too. I never take that for granted. I appreciate that and understand what a gift it is, but most of the credit is hers. I picked a good one.”

Sarah-Jane and their two daughters, Hannah, 12, and Eve, nine, came out to visit him during the school holidays. Owen is an avid Liverpool fan, insisting on having sports channels piped into his trailer wherever in the world he’s filming. He admits being “very intimidated” by singer David Bowie and Liverpool footballer Steven Gerrard. “I can meet any actor but not those two.”

As a treat, his daughters wore Liverpool shirts when they came to meet him but aside from that touching gesture he claims they see their dad as a figure of fun. “They always laugh at me. They don’t take me seriously in the slightest. They think I’m a joke.”

[Clive] would make a good Bond… he [appears] on every ‘best dressed’ and ‘sexiest man alive’ lists whenever they’re compiled. What does he think of such praise? “My 12-year-old girl had one of her friends go up to her with some magazine and go ‘Ugghhh. Your Dad’s on this list. It’s so weird’. I pretty much feel the same.”

From Irish Independent

As far as the David Bowie stuff goes, I’ve known a couple of David Bowie fanatics in my life, and they put all other celebrity-fans to shame. I’ve seen completely heterosexual men lovingly apply a full face of make-up to attend a Bowie concert. I’ve seen girls try to pretend they’ve got it going on like Iman. Not happening, Bowie-loonies.

Clive Owen is shown on 2/17/09 at the Jameson International Film Festival. Thanks to WENN for these photos