Owen tips hat to Crudup

Clive Owen has great respect for Blood Ties co-star Billy Crudup.

The English actor features alongside the Almost Famous star in the new Guillaume Canet crime drama about two brothers in 1970s New York, one a cop and one a released from prison after serving time for murder.

Billy plays straight arrow brother Frank in the film. And Clive admits his co-star was nothing but a pro.

“He’s such a great actor. In some ways, his character is the one who’s stuck with me, and I’m a loose canon, endlessly getting into trouble and having problems,” he told Collider.

Clive couldn’t help but to compare his own family to the dealings he has with his on-screen sibling.

He hopes audiences will be open to exploring what it means to not be able to choose your family members.

“When you’ve got a brother like that, who is difficult, you have your instinct and know everything you want to do,” he said. “If I wasn’t a brother, it would be simple. You’d just cut him off and say, ‘This can’t happen.’ But these families are complicated. There are emotions involved. There are ties that you can’t ignore.”

Clive and Billy also share the screen with several other A-listers, including Marion Cotillard, Mila Kunis, Zoe Saldana and James Caan.

But Clive admits the project peaked his interest after Gravity director Alfonso Cuarón reached out.

“That was before Guillaume [Canet] even sent me the script. I just got a call,” Clive remembered.

“I think Guillaume had rung Alfonso. He knew Alfonso and talked to him about me, and Alfonso called and said, ‘Look, he’s sending you this script. It sounds really cool and he’s a great guy, and I think you guys would get on.’ So, I read that script knowing that, and I liked the script. And then, I met Guillaume and liked him. That’s how it started,” he said.