She catches his eye. He follows her. She stops. He confronts her, "Remember me?!" She smiles ... rebuffs him -- then soon laughs. And so begins the sly cat-and-mouse game entangling Julia Roberts with her suave Duplicity co-star Clive Owen, as both play a sexy game of espionage, former agents gone rogue for their own gain. However, gaming with precision, chemistry and fierceness is not something most actors can pull off; but don't include Julia in that pack. She'll laugh at you. Then stare you down. Then it's all done. Just ask Clive.
Sizzling Julia gives us the scoop on Southern beats, pushy paps and doing it twice with her ex-Closer co-star ...
Your white hot chemistry with Clive -- some backstory?
"I think it's just our friendship; we’re really fortunate that we came into this movie with years already; as opposed to coming in with some stranger ... It definitely lends itself to more of a creative ease."
Roberts 'n' Owen in Closer vs. Owen 'n' Roberts in Duplicity.
"Well, Closer is pretty ferocious [smiles] at times, you know. But the great thing about that is that we came from a piece led by the master, Mike Nichols; and he really forced us to get in there and play those scenes -- no matter how raw or ugly. And I think that within that kind of acting, you either become good friends and really have a trust for each other … [awkwardly smiles] or you never talk to each other again ...
Yup, the downside of mistrust.
" ...You know, you kind of always feel uncomfortable around that person. And fortunately we were the former. And so I think that that idea of trust and safety with a person could just be more fun and playful, which a lot of these scenes called for -- just that little bit of, you know, sparkle … of subtext."
Inspired banter with Clive -- a lesson in art and speed.
"I just love that kind of stuff though, you know; those are the kind of movies I grew up on: that sort of Katharine Hepburn, that Spencer Tracy, His Girl Friday -- that [snapping] ‘rat-a-tat-tat’ ... It just had that cadence and that rhythm ... it comes really natural to Tony's [Gilroy's, the director's] style of writing this ... You almost can’t do anything else with the language, but speak it that way."
Speed-chatting comes natural to you.
"It does -- well, I’m Southern. [Knowingly grins] So I can talk real-l-l-l-l-l-l-y fast!"
Your character Claire: not likable, yet still magnetic.
"As the movie unravels -- her armor falls away. Her drive shifts a little bit; unexpectedly, for her … The great thing about her is, like her or not -- or whatever her motivation is -- she’s perfectly happy with who she is and what she’s doing; how she’s accomplishing it. She’s kind of ruthless that way."
Indeed!
"... As this relationship unfolds with [Clive's] Ray, for better or worse, it really does change her focus ... I just LOVE that scene in the airport -- it’s masterful. Tony is such a really smart guy ... I mean, how do you convince the best liar you know that you’re not ... lying?! [Laughs] It’s kind of really a super idea."
Duplicity -- not an immediate match.
"I had read about half of it when I realized I was not keeping up -- and I was not going to be able to do the movie anyway, because I was gonna have a baby. So I was like, 'OK, I just need to call and say I can’t do the movie anyway.' ... I had seen Michael Clayton ... when I sat down to read it again after my son was born -- it was a little bit easier for me to just pick it up and go with it."
Multiple plot twists. Multiple locations. Must've been hard to keep track.
"Yeah. There had to be that one [internal, "Where am I?"] conversation ... We were [shooting] in SO many hotels to the point where we were like ... [Laughs with hands]: 'OK, where are we?? And have we ever been to this place before? Have we not gone there?' So for me, I had to get up to speed as far as what had come before -- or not."
KEEP READING: Why she, like anybody, wants to see nice pics of Clive!