Clive Owen: Being a Dad Comes First

Clive Owen is a Hollywood enigma, a reluctant star. Shedded the attention of life in LA, he prefers a quieter life in London -- dropping his kids off at school, lunching in a packed restaurant without drawing a single glance, and strolling through London's crowded streets unnoticed.

When the actor isn't making movies like "Children of Men" which opens on Christmas day, he's busy raisy two young daughters with his wife, Sarah-Jane Fenton. His new film takes place 21 years from now, when terrorism, environmental disaster and mass infertility threaten mankind with extinction. This dire message is important to the thoughtful actor who is already worried about the world that he will leave his daughters, Hannah, 9, and Eve, 7, who aren't even allowed to watch the news.

Owen says: "I shield them. That's not a bad thing."

The duel nature of making movies and raising a family means that he often spends months on location away from his family. The transition back to home life is not always easy. He credits his wife with making their lives as routine as possible while he is off gallivanting the world.

"There are periods of time, chunks and chunks of time, when I'm not there and she is like a single parent," Owen says. "She is on her own with two kids. And I'm blessed because she used to act, and she understands what the business is, and she's terribly supportive and terribly unimpressed. She's about the family, giving them a center. She's obsessed about them not being spoiled because of the privileges that we get. So I'll be off shooting, and she will be at some campsite somewhere with the kids, grounded, real, and I beyond appreciate the fact that she holds it together."

He realizes how lucky he is to have a wife that was willing to give up her own acting career to raise their family. The two met after he left his small English town at age 19 for drama school. At school he had the opportunity to play Romeo to Sarah-Jane's Juliet, and the two fell in love. The couple have been married since 1995. "There is nothing more schmaltzy than Romeo and Juliet," he says with . "They are the ultimate lovers. Weirdly, the guy who directed it did the play three times, and each time, the Romeo and Juliet got together. But I think we're the only ones who saw it through and are still together."

Source: USA Today Weekend