Clive Owen is forever!!
Clive covers one of the multiple covers of GQ’s Age Issue (the October issue). Clive is having a little bit of a career resurgance lately because of his role in The Knick, a Cinemax series by Steven Soderbergh. Clive is also representin’ the 50-something dudes – he turns 50 next week. I’m sort of shocked that Brad Pitt is older than Clive Owen. Isn’t that weird? Anyway, you can read Clive’s GQ interview here. It’s a good piece if you already like Clive and want to hear his thoughts on acting, David Bowie, fatherhood, balance, etc. He’s not really into soundbytes or being “cool” but he’s interesting, measured and intelligent.
His best health advice: “The best thing I did for myself was give up smoking, when my first daughter was born.”
If he’s ambitious: “I’m trying to think if I really am ambitious. It’s funny, when I was younger, it was something I didn’t like seeing in other people—naked ambition, when somebody is really pushing hard to get to where they want to be. I don’t know why. I was always… I’m competitive with myself, but I’ve always thought of ambition like, ‘I’ve got to get them. F–k!’ But it might not be that. You can look at it… That’s the way I look at that word: if you’re stepping on anything to get there.”
Whether love changes with age: “If anything, it probably gets stronger, especially with kids. [The sex] gets better as well.”
What happens to us after we die? Nothing. I think we’re struggling to make sense of something that never really does make sense, is my theory. Anything post–this life is a desperate attempt to make sense of something that doesn’t really make sense. Life is scarily random, and that’s what I believe. I believe we shape all these things to make us feel a bit better about it. I don’t shape anything. I think when it ends, it ends. When I think about it, I think the reverberations of us as people carry on through other people.
Aw, I like what he says about love and sex getting better with age. His wife is really GD lucky. I mean, I’m sure Clive feels like the lucky one, but that she just proves how lucky SHE is. What kind of sorcery is she wielding? WITCHCRAFT!! As for Clive’s existentialism… I think it is what it is. He’s not trying to convince anyone of his point of view, he’s not proselytizing or anything. I didn’t realize he was such an existential dude though. If anything, it makes him hotter (to me).
Photos courtesy of Sebastian Kim/GQ and Fame/flynet.
he is perfect.
I don’t believe in saying that about people. but he is very vert close. And yes he is right – nothing after we die.
My view is if there’s life after death good. If there isn’t I won’t be worrying about it.
Life before death is the important thing…
Agree that life is scarily random.
I don’t know about existential. In a largely irreligious country like the UK, if you ask people what they think happens after you die, most of them will say, “I don’t know. Nothing, probably.” And again, where most people are at least agnostic, if not atheist, they will express the feeling that the only immortality comes with being remembered after we die by the people who knew us. These are both really common things to be said here.
Mr Sixer has a MAHOUSIVE boy crush on Clive Owen. Clive is his little (well, tall) role model. Mr Sixer LOVES Clive.
Yeah, on your first paragraph.
Hee-hee on the last sentence. That’s very cute.
Cute about Mr. Sixer.
Why do you think the UK is largely irreligious? I was wondering if maybe your history had anything to do with it, as in Bloody Mary and Elizabeth I – so many people killed for their beliefs and in the name of religion that people just became disillusioned? Or something else?
the turning point was Henry V111’s attempt to divorce us from Rome’s interference and the Pope. He created the Church of England taking bits from Catholic and protestant religions, and he did try and create a harmonious peace loving religion that supported science and discovery. Unfortunately, he went a bit far and ripped the ministries are apart and Queen Mary [Bloody Mary] made things worse. Oliver Cromwell, went to far too. And, then came some sanity under under Charles 11 and during the Restoration – he was a big science and education supporter. But, with everything we went back and forth, back and forth. today, religion in England, I am not speaking for Wales, Scotland and N/Ireland is often tied to religious schools and middle-class parents pretending to be religious to get their kids into a good school.
And I also think Brits are far more laid back about things, we concentrate on working and shopping at weekend, no room in our lives for Church. Our Sunday’s are no made up of recovering from hangovers, sunday lunch and walks.
and we are also very multi-faith/non faith now
😀 I like that.
I like living in a country and saying i’m an atheist and not worry about losing my head, job or family.
I think Europe as a whole is more laid back when it comes to religion than America. I mean, my country is almost 90% Catholic and our president is an agnostic and our prime minister is an atheist. No one cares. I’ve never heard anything bad being said about atheists. Maybe because we were a communist country for so long so people at least know what atheism is, they don’t think atheists are devil worshipers.
Also, a lot of people identify as Catholics but aren’t exactly religious, because Catholicism is such a huge part of our national identity. I think that is the case in most European countries.
I was wondering, maybe because there are so many different religions and denominations in America, people feel the need to express their religiousness more? Because here, there is no point in proclaming your Catholicness because everyone around you is Catholic too.
Mr. Sixer isn’t alone in his boy crush. My BF has a man crush on Clive Owen too. He watches The Croupier like it was a religious service.
@GNAT – I honestly don’t know. I was thinking about it t’other day after a discussion on here, actually. It’s so, so different in America. I don’t think the UK is strongly atheist. I think it’s agnostic. A great many people who self-identify as Christian mean it culturally not religiously and are actually agnostic.
Two possibilities: a large section of white America is descended from strongly religious Brits (and others) who buggered off from the motherland due to persecution. So it could be a cultural memory for you guys? First/second/third generation immigrants. In the UK, the most religious people come from this section of the population. Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus are more likely to worship and maintain faith. As are Christians with black Caribbean heritage. So it could be a proportion of immigrants thing?
No concrete answer for you though.
No concrete answers on this side either. The regions where those strongly, religious Brits settled along with the rest of the northeast became heavily Catholic with the waves of immigrants from Ireland and Italy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Boston has had mostly Catholic mayors for the last century; same with Providence, Rhode Island) but those states also then became more agnostic. The other parts of the country became more religious.
It’s an interesting topic, isn’t it? How about geography? Just sitting here thinking about it, it occurs to me that cities here are, generally, more secular than rural areas. I suppose churches still offer community support in rural areas with fewer facilities. And of course, the UK is teensy-weensy. The vast majority of us live in urban areas. Is it more religious outside the big cities stateside? And if so, does population density make a difference?
@sixer – yes, i think that the rural parts of the US tend to be more religious, and urban areas more secular. as you point out, i think some of it at least has to do with population density and living in such proximity to people of different backgrounds, different religions (or lack thereof), different belief systems. it’s more difficult to isolate yourself in a city, and more difficult to be able to get along while holding onto a lack of understanding of others. physical proximity breeds empathy, and maybe a broader view of the world and how others view it. which may lead one to relax or abandon the ways one was brought up with. it’s easier to be and stay insular in a rural environment where your interactions with “the other” are limited.
this is interesting, but a ton of data to digest. 🙂
http://religions.pewforum.org/reports
regional distribution of religions in the US (you can also compare by education, and it’s super interesting that some religions see a drop as the education level goes up, and some are static or see an increase):
http://religions.pewforum.org/comparisons#
in this map, you can drop-down the box to a given religion, or use “unaffiliated,” and it will show you the % of your choice in all the states:
http://religions.pewforum.org/maps
Ooh. Cool. Thanks, Ag. I’m off to look!
@Sixer, I think you’re immigration due to religious persecution and rural vs. urban theories both make sense, although I consider blacks in the US, at least the south, to be very religious as a group, so it isn’t just whites. It is interesting, though.
Mm, ‘P’enny. Of course the wealthy first-worlders are concentrating on the joys of shopping on the weekend (Gee what deep fun!), while the poor ignorant third-worlders, who make your lifestyle possible, cling to their religion. Disbelief has always been most common among the most privileged who live in the most artificial world. Perhaps, not for nothing, is it said that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than the rich consumers of the world to get into heaven. Science and technology produced the atom bomb, nuclear waste, genetically modified food, but hey, we have gossip sites, so let’s turn and laugh at the people who make our cute fashions possible.
Also, HVIII was a tyrant of monstrous proportion. And I highly recommend the “Protestant Reformation in England” by William Cowbett or “Stripping the Altars” by Eamon Duffy to find out the non-6th grade version of history.
It could also be argued that the poor and meek have been manipulated, being told they will inherit the earth, go to heaven, and will be rewarded ‘some day’, so sit tight. It’s a mighty fine way to keep people in line, hoping for the after joy instead of revolting against the privileged class to share in the riches. It’s also a way that desperate and disenfranchised men and women are coerced into becoming suicide bombers. The reward in heaven.
“Science and technology produced the atom bomb, nuclear waste, genetically modified food,” If there is a god, why then was science allowed to develop them without divine intervention?
Just an alternative perspective for you.
@Joan, I think you’re putting an awfully harsh interpretation on what ‘P’enny actually said.
@joan
what the f…? i didn’t say anything about third worlders and clinging to religion, and supporting bad scientific inventions and laughing at the poor workers etc- where on earth in my post did you get that from?
Haven’t seen the new series yet but hope it does well. I enjoy him as an actor.
OMG you must! He is amazing and the show itself is just perfect 🙂
I do like the show, but It’s so full of cliches. His character is basically 20th century House, then we have the feisty nurse, almost perfect black man who perseveres against the odds, the rich liberal lady benefactor, etc.
It’s a great show, and he’s perfect in it!
I’m completely obsessed with this show (The Knick).
The description GQ used is “hypnotic” and I think it’s quite accurate. Clive Owen is a dynamite on it.
I haven’t watched anything so good since Breaking Bad.
See it, but if you’re squeamish, look away during the surgery scenes. I’m enjoying The Knick immensely, although I have to look away at certain moments. So glad this is working out for him.
10/10 would bang
Kaiser, so you think mimifism is involved? lol
He was a little bit jumbled in describing competition, but I think(?) I understand. He once thought it was a winner takes all, at all costs (to everyone) endeavor, and that perspective has changed? Or has it not changed and I don’t get it?
MY FOREVER DONG
Any man can wear a suit, but Clive just makes that suit on the GQ cover look so sexy.
How did I not know about him? Very handsome.
I don’t believe in heaven in the sense that it’s just like earth, but streets paved with gold and everybody is young, etc. But I do think that God is at least partly made up of the collective goodness and love in our souls, spirits, hearts and intentions, and that after your body dies, that part of you still exists in perfect peace and understanding. And that’s probably the worst explanation you will ever get of heaven. Lol
You’re made up of goodness (beige booty shorts and Just Yikes!), Unsurprised. I don’t know where it comes from, but you are a keeper.
You are made of goodness and humor and spice, my funny friend. Thank you.
I like your vision very much, GNAT, and you explained it very well. It’s similar to how I try to describe “heaven” to my kids, or at least the one who believes. He seems to want a tangible place to imagine — that seems to be a childlike impulse — and I’ve tried to explain that I think it transcends physical space. I hope it’s reassuring to him, it’s hard to tell.
Actually, he didn’t say this is what he wanted to imagine, at all.
He said he based his thought on observation of life, not on his desire. He seems quite comfortable with nothingness. It was his conjecture that other people might want to make sense of something that looks senseless. He didn’t mention ‘a place’ in his musings on others’ beliefs at all, only the desire to find comfort and meaning.
Now, you may think he is wrong in his theory, but his theory is not what was implied in your comment. Just clarifying and not intending to be offensive.
Actually by “he” I meant my son, sorry if I was unclear. Agree completely about Clive. 🙂
Sorry Esmom, that may have been my misunderstanding.
l like your explanation of heaven a lot better than the streets paved with gold and every righteous person gets a mansion and all that jazz. I’ve always felt that vision of heaven was just a wishful construct not much different that the Greeks Elysian fields or the Norsemen’s Valhalla.
Clive is unbelievably, indescribably beautiful !!!
love clive. and i agree with him on sex getting better as you age, and that nothing happens after we die, so we better concentrate all of our efforts and all of our good deeds on the here and now. 🙂
I love Clive. I read an article on his career, how he was poised to become a big movie star and then made some bad choices right in a row that flopped and lost most of the clout he had to be chosen for roles, not considered someone who could open a movie anymore box office-wise. I felt bad for him, because I love him in movies. He even did a TV movie, I think. I saw it on Lifetime. Something to do with a daughter that could have been heavy-handed, too melodramatic, but it was restrained, which is rare on Lifetime.. It was good from what I remember.
.
I’m glad to see he got on a great series. I loved him in the HBO movie, Gellhorn & Hemingway, playing Hemingway. He was so good and sexy.
That’s interesting, I’d kinda always wondered why/how he seemed to disappear off the A-list radar.
I need to check out that Hemingway movie, thanks!
There was a really old film on film four the other night. It was some weird 80s movie about incest. Starring the young Clive Owen. I had no idea how beautiful he was when he was young. He was stunning.
I rewatched Trainspotting last evening. I’d forgotten he was in that. Awesome actor. He was breathtakingly good in Children of Men.
Maybe he should watch “Ghost Inside My Child” on LMN and try to explain that phenomena.
No one ever came back from the dead to tell us what happens in the here after so …slow down there buddy.
LOL I was thinking the same thing. Maybe Clive needs to sound a WEE bit less certain. I still find him incredibly sexy for having the guts to face up to the existential view that life is just randomness… in a sharp suit!
I want to see Angelina and Clive together again in a movie. He is the only match to Angelina’s hotness. I also think he is the one that can tame Angelina.