Clive Owen looks seriously sexy for the March issue of Esquire. He's been making the rounds promoting The International with Naomi Watts and up next, Clive will start working on Duplicity press with Julia Roberts. In the magazine, he talks about his family yet again while Julia reveals what she thinks makes her costar so lovable. Here are some highlights:

  • On why he likes soccer: "Outside of being home with my family, I prefer a crowd. At a soccer match, the big crowd, the singing, rocking around, it's urgent as hell. There's a ritual to it. I want to be in that mess. And no one bothers me. At a soccer game, everyone's eyes are on the pitch, aren't they? They don't care about some f***ing movie star. They have their eyes on the right thing. They watch the battle."
  • On preparing for a role: "I do a lot better if I sit around and think about a character for a couple of months. Before I climb into him for a run, I've just sat on my a** thinking about him, just reading, plodding around my house, driving my girls to school, fixing eggs. Like that. There's not a lot of transformation in it. I'm still just a driver to my children."
  • Julia Roberts on Clive: "George Clooney is obsessed with Clive. Every good-guy actor talks about Clive as one of their very favorites. Because he's English, because his successes have stood on the shoulders of his talents alone, because he hasn't just been carried away by popular culture. He's almost the most free of all of those guys. [...] The only surprise about Clive was how absolutely ferocious he could be on camera. When we shot Closer, he used to make me cry. He's a kind of emotional terrorist, so vicious. The thing about Clive is the happiness and security he has in real life is what allows him to go into a room and grab everyone's attention effortlessly. The secret is, everyone is really attracted to contentment."

Clive may prefer to blend in as a doting dad than to stand out as a movie star, but it has to be at least a little flattering to know he's raising the bar for his fellow A-listers like Clooney.

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