This weekend, for instance, Owen’s back in Toronto doing the media circuit on two new films – a shoot-’em-up espionage thriller called Killer Elite (also starring Jason Statham and Robert De Niro) and a horror/psychological drama, Intruders, in which he is once again a distraught dad, trying to protect a 13-year-old daughter who has been assaulted in their home.
After that comes HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn, in which Owen plays the Nobel-prize-winning writer during his marriage to journalist Martha Gellhorn (Nicole Kidman). Then he’ll switch gears yet again, starring in a film directed by James Marsh (Man on Wire) called Shadow Dancer, a genre thriller set in tumultuous Northern Ireland.
Owen’s mixture of tenderness and smoulder gives him the versatility to play a wide variety of roles: great for a working actor, but perhaps a detriment to mega-stardom. All of which makes him the ideal poster boy for a festival that is a unique blend of commercial films with artistic cachet and art-house films for the masses.
IN GOOD COMPANY
Clive Owen is one unsung actor at TIFF – but he’s in good company with these fellow scene-stealers coming to the festival.
Bryan Cranston
The Emmy winner has drawn rave reviews as Walter White, a high-school chemistry teacher with terminal lung cancer, in the AMC drama Breaking Bad. The show has netted the American film and TV star three consecutive Emmy Awards. At TIFF, he stars alongside Ryan Gosling in the thriller Drive as the younger man’s long-suffering mentor and friend.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
The boyish-looking actor broke out in 2009’s charming 500 Days of Summer, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. In the cancer comedy 50/50, showing at TIFF, he is a young man battling for his life with the help of his overbearing mom (Angelica Huston) and his rough-around-the-edges best friend (Seth Rogen). Gordon-Levitt carries the film with finesse, delivering a touching but humorous performance in a film about a disease that is anything but funny.
Catherine Keener
Nominated for two best supporting actress Oscars for Being John Malkovich and Capote, Keener is Owen’s female equivalent – the actress who can play it all, from a grieving mom in Trust to her two new TIFF entries, the romantic comedies The Oranges and Peace, Love & Misunderstanding.
Juno Temple
Only 22, the British actress has already won widespread acclaim for her work in serious dramas (Atonement, Notes on a Scandal) and raucous comedies (Year One). At TIFF, she’s in another U.S. comedy, Killer Joe (currently in competition at Venice) with co-stars Matthew McConaughey and Emile Hirsch. She’s also landed a part in next summer’s star-laden blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises from director Christopher Nolan.
