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Julia Roberts, Clive Owen ('Duplicity')

Julia Roberts, Clive Owen ('Duplicity')
Five years after coupling up in Closer, Julia Roberts and Clive Owen are back together and generating sparks in Duplicity. This romantic thriller written and directed by Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton) finds them as corporate spies who are constantly treading on each other's toes and, every now and then, falling into each other's arms. They chat to DS about being professional liars, baring their souls as well as their flesh, and the secret to great chemistry.

Were you keen to work together again after Closer?
Clive: "Yes, we were. We had gotten on very well on Closer so I was always very keen to work with Julia again."
Julia: "And they paid me loads. Ha, no. I mean, if we can do a movie like Closer and get through those scenes together and still be friends, I think we deserve to be able to revisit that professional relationship with a bit more fun dialog."

Getting to shoot in places like Rome must have added to the fun factor, right?
Julia: "It was amazing to film in Rome. That was the end of the road for us on our shooting schedule and it's just so beautiful and cinematic. I mean you really feel like you're in the middle of some kind of dream."

The Rome hotel stop is one of the more intense scenes though. A lot to sink your teeth into...?
Julia: "Yeah. It was really long and we covered a lot of ground with the characters I thought. But all the scenes are really impressively written, truly. They were all so fun to perform and to try to navigate and find our way through the truth and non-truth."
Clive: "Generally on the films I do there's a couple of scenes that you think, 'I'm really looking forward to doing this scene', because it's so well written, because it's a pivotal scene for your character. But I can honestly say on this, every single scene was so well written that when we finished one I was thinking, 'Great, we've still got these ones to go.' I literally loved every scene."

When it comes to doing bedroom scenes, with the nudity as well, how much does it help that you've worked together before?
Julia: "I don't do them as much as he does, let's just say that! No. It helps, but I think that, for me, it has more to do with the fact that we laugh at the same things."
Clive: "I think it's very important in those scenes. Whatever anybody tells you they're always awkward. I mean you walk into a room, you've got fifty guys standing around you and you take your clothes off and get into bed. It's never going to be comfortable and easy, but it really does help if you keep it light and keep some sense of humor in the room."
Julia: "We didn't have all of our clothes off, either. Come on!"

So that overall playful mood of the film translated behind-the-scenes too?
Clive: "Yeah. We laughed a lot, didn't we?"
Julia: "We did. When we were shooting we were always being so silly and almost to the point where Tony would get annoyed with us because we couldn't get serious and play our serious selves in the movie. But yeah, we have a very similar sense of humor, but we're not really pranksters together. We're more mature than that!"

You're both in a position to get the first pick of scripts; are there enough of these smart ones around?
Julia: "No, not this smart. You just don't find scripts at this level very often at all. I don't think."
Clive: "No, I think it's really hard to find great dialog, that's the truth of it. You have writers who can create great stories and great characters, but actually when it comes to the dialog within scenes, it's really rare to come across dialog like this."

Is it easier working for a director who's also the writer?
Julia: "Yeah, it's a dream. Tony's a dream. It's so true because he has all the answers so if there's a problem he can fix it quickly and it's just one-stop shopping, isn't it?"
Clive: "Yeah, because Tony wrote it he knows exactly what he intended in a scene, so if there's something missing, or he knows it needs something, then he can aim towards it and he knows quickly what it is and he moves on. It's always great working with writer-directors."

Having a debonair Englishman on your arm seems to be a classic trend in Hollywood. Julia, you've had your fair share of English co-stars…
Julia: "Yeah, I have had a lot of your countrymen. As co-stars! I don't think English makes the man…but I like this guy right here. He's nice and tall so I never have a double chin. In every scene I'm like a swan! Well, we all laugh but it's so true."

Duplicity is out in cinemas this Friday.

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