CLIVE OWEN ON THE BOYS ARE BACK

FROM THE CANADIAN PRESS

When CLIVE OWEN signed on as the lead in THE BOYS ARE BACK, about a journalist forced to cope with single parenthood after the death of his wife, he didn’t rush out to meet the man whose memoir inspired the film: SIMON CARR.

“I read the script and I read the book and it was talked about: ‘Do you want to meet SIMON?’ and I felt it was probably better not to,” CLIVE commented in a recent interview at the TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, where the drama screened.

“I felt it was better to go in and interpret it from my own thing. I thought it would be better to go in clean.”

THE BOYS ARE BACK stars CLIVE as JOE, a sportswriter shellshocked when his wife dies of cancer and he becomes a single parent to their six year old son (NICHOLAS McANULTY). Things become even more complicated when his teenage son from a previous marriage (GEORGE MacKAY) comes to visit.

CLIVE said it wasn’t until one of the last days of shooting that NEW ZEALAND based SIMON CARR brought his two boys – now aged 19 and 26 – to the set in LONDON and met the cast.

“It was quite an incredible moment, really,” remarked the BRITISH actor, who lives in LONDON.

“The guy whose life we’d just been portraying was suddenly there and seeing the two boys meet the two actor boys was quite striking as well because they were obviously more grown up now but they had similar energies.”

CLIVE also brought his two daughters to the set in SOUTH AUSTRALIA, where most of the film was shot. For director SCOTT HICKS, it was his first time making a movie in his home state of AUSTRALIA since 1996′s ACADEMY AWARD winning SHINE.

“CLIVE was living next door and he had his family there and they would walk along the beach front to the fish & chip shop on the bay,” said SCOTT HICKS, who also brought the cast to his vineyard and even shot a scene of the film from his home.

“It had a very family feel about it, the way we were putting it together and in a subtle way those things can rub off onto a film and they affect the feeling of it.”

ALAN CUBITT did the screenplay and CLIVE’S main goal was to execute it with little sentimentality, since SIMON CARR remained strong even when his wife died in their own bed at home.

“I felt the book wasn’t sentimental at all and I really didn’t want the film to be overwrought,” stated CLIVE, who is known for playing tougher roles in such films as DUPLICITY, THE INTERNATIONAL and 2004′S CLOSER, which earned him an OSCAR nomination.

“I wanted it to push the more difficult tones because any parent knows that the whole bringing up kids is a constant, changing negotiation and I thought this film dealt with that really well and I was very interested in making it difficult for me as a father -‘Let’s push it. Let’s make it hard’ – because parents will relate to that.”

What some parents might not relate to, CLIVE acknowledged, are the heaps of freedom his character bestows upon his children as part of his newfound “free range parenting” style and “Just Say Yes” mantra.

In particular, CLIVE asserted, some viewers have told him they raised their eyebrows at a scene in which his character drives a jeep along a beach while his young son rides on the hood.

“People have been saying: ‘He’s standing on the car!“‘ CLIVE laughed.

“The film is an examination of a guy trying to doing it on his own. It’s very much a guy’s perspective – but guys, you know, we may be a little crazy when it comes to that, but I think that’s what it was examining.”

SCOTT HICKS said he was initially worried about losing the audience “through some of the crazy things that JOE does or allows to happen.”

“It’s a great sort of testament to CLIVE’S ability to retain our empathy despite doing some pretty stupid things.”

Besides, the father’s liberal parenting proves to be “fallible” at the end of both the memoir and movie, noted CLIVE.

“I believe in the notion that maybe we’re a little too quick to say ‘no’ to things and we’re not sort of very available and open, but that kind of winging it ultimately is going to collapse. You can’t carry on like that.”

“He said in the book and the film, if there is absolutely no structure it’s not going to sustain. You need some element of structure there.”