Clive Owen on love, new movie and going back to TV

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Clive Owen has co-starred with his share of beautiful ladies over the years, including Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts and most recently, Juliette Binoche. But he says only one actress has held the key to his heart — Sarah-Jane Fenton, his wife of nearly two decades.

 

His secret? "If you go away for a long period of time for a shoot you then go home for a long period of time and put it back there because otherwise you're not going to sustain it," the actor explained in a recent interview.

 

Owen stars in "Words and Pictures," out Friday, as a rumpled English teacher at odds with a prickly art instructor (Binoche) at a Maine prep school. Their issue: What's more important, words or pictures? But while the two wage war on campus, they're falling in love behind the scenes.

 

Before becoming a film star and receiving an Oscar nomination for "Closer," Owen got his start in TV as the lead in the 1990-91 series "Chancer." Now, as so many movie actors are doing these days, he's going back to the smaller screen, starring in the Steven Soderbergh VOD miniseries "The Knick," which is out later this year on Cinemax.

 

"We shot all 10 hours set in the world of medicine in 1900 New York," Owen said. "It's a big sort of sprawling look at New York at that time and in particular the world of medicine, all seen through the eyes of this big hospital. I play a genius doctor who is struggling with drug addiction."