THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST: CLIVE OWEN ON “HEMINGWAY & GELLHORN”
By Abbie Bernstein
British actor Clive Owen has built up a mystique of his own, playing a wide variety of characters, from a gay concentration camp inmate in the feature film version of BENT to the eponymous lead in CROUPIER to the legendary British monarch in KING ARTHUR to the swashbuckling Sir Walter Raleigh in ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE to distraught fathers in both the hyper-realistic TRUST and surreal INTRUDERS.
Now Owen is applying his intensity to the formidable persona of literary lion Ernest Hemingway in HEMINGWAY & GELLHORN, the new film which has its debut on HBO Monday night, May 28. Directed by Philip Kaufman and scripted by Jerry Stahl and Barbara Turner, the movie details the romance between Hemingway and fellow war correspondent Martha Gellhorn, played by Nicole Kidman.
Hemingway was familiar with combat situations. Owen doesn’t find himself in similar peril to life and limb, but he does get swarmed at a press event for HEMINGWAY & GELLHORN - the crush might be worse, except that an even bigger mob is surrounding Kidman. Owen responds to the situation with becoming graciousness and candor.
With Hemingway being such a larger than life and famous figure, did Owen have any concerns about going over the top in his portrayal? “I think it’s possible to go over the top playing any part,” Owen responds. “But yes. When I took this on, it was a huge challenge. And I took a lot of time off to get ready for it.”
How did Owen prepare to play the renowned writer? For starters, Owen says, “I watched everything I could. The good thing about playing Hemingway is, there’s still an awful lot of footage of him, there’s audio of him, there’s a lot to actually work on, so there’s a huge mine of stuff you can use to get prepared for a part like this. The thing is to read everything that he wrote, to read everything written about him, to listen to all the audios, all the recordings of him talking. It was actually a huge pleasure to take a number of months off and just sort of tear yourself into that. I really enjoyed it.”
The research made Owen even more aware of what he was facing as an actor in the role. “There’s certainly an element of playing Hemingway that you’ve got to be on the front, with the situations he got into and the way he was. He was very much a part you have to attack. There’s a danger in any part that you [can] go over the top. But we had such a brilliantly written script, it was so smart and intelligent and sensitive and nuanced that it was a case of just trusting to the material and committing to that, really.”
The romance between Hemingway and Gellhorn ended when the same qualities that drew them together wound up pushing them apart. What kind of lasting impact does Owen think that Gellhorn had on Hemingway? “It was probably the serious love of his life,” Owen relates. “The relationship lasted about seven years and was incredibly intense. He met his match, really. And I think that when they came together, they were fiercely intelligent and fiercely passionate. They did, for that time, an enormous amount of traveling together. The thing about Hemingway that people forget is that all the stuff he did was at a time where people weren’t traveling that much. He travels to Italy. He goes to the Spanish Civil War. He goes to China. He goes to Africa. He was at the height of his powers. They were seeing the world. It was an incredible relationship and there’s something very special in the fact that it only lasted a certain amount of time. I think it was probably a huge regret to him that it did end.
“But the story of the film,” Owen continues, “is how [Gellhorn] does find her voice and becomes more passionate about what’s going on in the outside world. To a certain extent, they found that place in Cuba. He’s living a life of maybe just wanting to be Ernest Hemingway, and for her to live her life through [him] as well. And she was too independent, too fiercely intelligent to do that. And that’s kind of why it ended. But it was an incredible relationship for that time.”
Hemingway is the latest in a line of real-life people Owen has played. How would he feel if someone made a movie of his own life a few decades down the road? Owen looks appalled by the prospect. “I certainly wouldn’t want to see it.”
By Abbie Bernstien
Buzzy Mag Entertainment Reporter
