Clive Owen thinks actors should not chase top roles to get their big break

And the 61-year-old star ultimately thinks actors should just focus on being good at their job.

Clive told The Observer newspaper: "The one piece of advice I'd give to actors is that you can get the biggest break in your career from a tiny film that nobody thought would do anything. Mine was Croupier, which introduced me to America.

"The reality is that the best career move is just to be good. Don't worry about chasing the big one. Just do the thing that sets you alight."

Throughout his career, Clive has appeared in many big blockbusters, including the 2005 crime-action movie Sin City and the 2006 thriller-action film Children of Men.

But his ultimate career high came in 2020 when he landed a cameo role in the HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm as an ultra-sensitive version of himself.

In the season 10 episode Insufficient Praise, Clive starred in a one-man show called Kon-Tiki and was insulted by 78-year-old comic Larry David's lack of praise for his performance.

Recalling the moment he got the phone call to star in the show, Clive - who is married to actress Sarah-Jane Fenton - said: "People think I'm joking when I said this, but I came downstairs after they phoned me to offer me the part, and said to my wife, 'I've just had the call of my career.'

"They pitched me the whole plot, but they could have said absolutely anything and I'd have said yes!"

However, Clive struggled to cope when he worked on the show, but he ended up enjoying the experience.

He explained: "I felt totally out of my depth when I was on it as the actors are all so in the groove of how to do what they do, but it was brilliant."

Clive and Sarah-Jane have two daughters - Hannah, 28, a film editor, and Eve, 26, who is a singer - and he is delighted they want to enter the showbiz world.

Clive said: "We're very close as a family and see each other all the time, and that's been great. Both our kids have gone into the arts - Eve's a singer and Hannah's a film editor.

"When people say, 'Do you really want to let your children go into the arts?', I felt, 'Well, [the arts] have always been so good to me.'"

And Clive was pleased that Hannah wanted to become a film editor despite the job being male-dominated.

He added: "When Hannah went to film school, I was thrilled she leaned into editing because it's still a fundamental area that's pretty underrepresented by women."