Imagine filming a sex scene with Clive Owen. You just squealed, didn’t you? Clive and Julia Roberts have some sexy, naughty scenes in their new film Duplicity. Both have been hitting the publicity rounds pretty hard to sell the movie, so it’s surprising that we’re just now getting around to hearing Clive talk about the dirty stuff.

Clive talked to someone at the Los Angeles Times gossip blog “The Dish Rag”. He claims that it’s a myth that actors get drunk together before shooting the naughty scenes, though I’ve heard many actors say that they needed a glass of wine or a shot of tequila before disrobing and grinding on camera. But not Clive! He does it the old-fashioned way: sober and British (he probably closes his eyes and “thinks of England”). He calls these and any sex scenes “weird and uncomfortable” but says that he gets through it by having a laugh. And now I’m imagining Clive naked and laughing. Mmm… LAT has more:

Clive Owen has some pretty hot sex scenes with Julia Roberts in “Duplicity.” Try complaining to your wife about that long hard day, huh?

“I’ve learned that you don’t go home after a scene and say uuuhhh, babe, honestly, I’ve had such a tough day. I’ve been in bed with Julia Roberts all day,” Clive tells The Dish Rag at the New York press junket.

And he insists (seriously) that sex scenes are no fun at all. “It’s always awkward and embarrassing doing sex scenes — whatever anyone tells you,” Clive says. “There are 50 crew members standing in a room and it’s always weird and uncomfortable. The best way, through, is to have a laugh always.”

But Clive says it’s often easier if you’re already comfortable with your costar. “If you’re friends and you like each other and you trust each other, you can sort of just have a laugh and be in it together.”

Maybe all that “champagne” that Clive and Julia drank helped. “It’s movie champagne,” Clive explains. “It all looks real until you taste it and it’s like ginger ale. [laughing] We’ve got five pages of dialogue and we’ve got to do it 25 times; if we were drinking real champagne, we’d be half-cocked.”

Clive admits that his pre-movie workout routine is completely based on whether he has to take his shirt off in the film.

“You read a script that says, ‘He takes his shirt off….’ Let me tell you, you get down to the gym,” he says, laughing. Not that he lets himself turn to mush when he’s not working. “No, I don’t ever let myself go that badly. But it intensifies when you know that you’ve got to get your clothes off in a movie, for sure.”

We’re going to see “Duplicity” just to check out Clive’s shirtless scenes.

[From LA Times “The Dish Rag”]

Does anyone else get hot and bothered imagining Clive say “half-cocked”? I realize that a lot of people adore Julia, but I would need a drink if I was spending three months filming a movie with her. But I’d imagine anyone would grate on my nerves after that kind of time.

Both Julia and Clive are really selling Duplicity like it’s a standard romantic comedy, so I don’t know what to tell you. I swear, I’ve read some coverage about the film, and it really sounded like the film was a dialogue-heavy spy story. We’ll see.

Here’s Clive Owen at the Cinema Society screening of ‘The International’ on February 9th. Images thanks to WENN.