Clive Owen

The brooding Brit goes Hollywood heavy in the new drama "Closer."

Everything about Clive Owen exudes "serious," and that seems to be how the English actor prefers it.

There's the dark, striped Armani suit he wears to our bistro lunch in trendy north London: ultra thespian chic. Then there are his movies: from 1998's "Croupier," for which he won kudos for his role as a chain-smoking casino dealer, to his starring role in last summer's somber "King Arthur" (a box-office disappointment), to the new "Closer." In that buzzed-about Mike Nichols drama, Owen, 40, is the least known -- for now -- of a ménage à quatre with Hollywood biggies Julia Roberts, Jude Law and Natalie Portman.

"'Closer' isn't going the "King Arthur" route, i.e., the hoped-for blockbuster," says "Variety" film critic Todd McCarthy. "Nevertheless, it could restore the critical cachet he got initially with "Croupier" and hasn't followed up on commercially."

And above all, there's Owen himself: a tall, strapping fellow with sensitive green eyes and a boxer's nose who speaks solemnly about "Closer." In it, he marries Roberts, and the two tear into each other, shocking themselves -- and the audience -- with rabidly explicit details of their past sexual indiscretions.

"I enjoy the heavy scenes," Owen announces over forkfuls of pasta with chorizo and artichokes.

Roberts seems to agree: "I think he's just breathtaking. I've done some of the most unapologetic scenes in the history of movies with him. He's very, very powerful. I can't wait for everybody to figure out how versatile Clive is."

Ironically, Owen is someone with little direct experience of the amorous upheavals faced by Larry, the doctor he plays in "Closer." Owen and his wife, former actress Sarah-Jane Fenton, married since 1995, are parents to Hannah, 7, and Eve, 5. They live well away from the press glare in suburban London, just the way the actor likes it: "I am one of those where it's all about the work."

Time was when the British tabloids were more than interested in his life -- specifically, his estrangement from his father, a British country-western singer who reportedly walked out when Owen was 3 years old, and his one-time potential as a fresh young heartthrob in a land that can't seem to get enough of them. "I absolutely hated it," he says.

An Oscar nomination for "Closer" could catapult Owen onto Hollywood's A-list -- or not. Critic McCarthy says he feels Owen is "almost resistant to letting it all go and going the 'big star' route."

And then there's the talk of Owen as the next James Bond -- or not. "Would I cast myself?" the actor asks. "No." And suddenly, unexpectedly, he starts to laugh.

Matt Wolf is London theater critic for "Variety" and "The International Herald Tribune."