Taking a king-size gamble - BY NICK PAPPS

Choosing a little-known actor to play King Arthur was a bold move, but will it work? Nick Papps in Los Angeles reports.

Clive Owen certainly doesn't have the demeanour of a man with a $130 million movie resting on his shoulders.

The star of the new Jerry Bruckheimer blockbuster, King Arthur, glides into the luxury suite at LA's St Regis hotel in a cool, beige linen suit and crisp, white cotton shirt.

With his manicured nails, sexy sideburns and gold chain, the good-looking Englishman is relaxed, indeed.

But Owen is in the hot seat -- he is King Arthur in a new take on the mythical character. It's his face that's peering down from the billboards and posters across the world.

As the 39 year-old is the first to admit, he's no A-list actor and he represents quite a punt for the Disney studio, which well knows box-office takings are generally directly linked to the pulling power of stars in the cast.

"Usually, you would assume on a film of this scale and size that the first thing you would do is secure a couple of A-list Hollywood actors -- and they didn't," Owen says.

Following in the steps of Gladiator and Troy, King Arthur is another epic sword-and-sandals action movie, but Owen is nowhere near as well-known as Russell Crowe or Brad Pitt -- the stars of those films.

Owen's recent screen credits are a little more modest, including last year's Beyond Borders with Angelina Jolie, 1998's Croupier and a minor role in The Bourne Identity -- and, as the King Arthur promotional material notes, "In the past three years, he has played The Driver in a series of high-concept BMW advertisements."

It's hardly the pedigree for such a big movie. Just how Owen was chosen is due to King Arthur's producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, and the film's director, Antoine Fuqua.

Fuqua, who directed Training Day, co-starring a then virtually unknown Ethan Hawke, wanted lesser-known actors to anchor King Arthur. Bruckheimer backed his wish.

As Fuqua would later explain, the casting of lower-profile actors was to put the film's focus on characters, not stars.

It's a risky tactic, but one that Owen says turned out rather well for him.

"All that I know is I got sent the script, they called me up, and I shot out here to Los Angeles," Owen laughs. "I met Jerry and Antoine, and then Jerry offered me the part -- and I think that's all credit to Jerry that he didn't put that pressure on Antoine.

"He said, 'Just make the movie you want to make, with the people you want to make it, and don't feel that there is any pressure to cast."'

And with the film just days from release, Owen says he is still not feeling any pressure, despite such a massive investment resting on the hope that the public won't care that they don't recognise the character playing King Arthur.

"It can only be good for me. There's a world of people who are employed to sweat about that," he says. "I can't go and take on a part and be worrying about the commercial side.
"Of course, if a film does very, very well and makes a lot of money, an actor is more bankable and the opportunities become more open."

Director Fuqua concedes "absolutely it's a risk" casting a movie without a well-known male actor.
He said the story of King Arthur was set in Britain and he wanted a largely British cast.
And with a lower-profile cast, which also includes Horatio Hornblower's Ioan Gruffudd as Lancelot and Australia's Joel Edgerton as the knight Gawain, Fuqua maintains that the public will not have an expectation of whether the characters live or die.

"I think it's great. I don't want any movie stars -- I don't want anybody famous," Fuqua says.
The exception, of course, is Keira Knightley, the star of Pirates Of The Caribbean who, in King Arthur plays Guinevere, a warrior and love interest for Lancelot and Arthur.

She mixes it with the knights in a series of stunning battle scenes that Owen admits required months of training -- not least of which was a two-month stint learning how to ride a horse, and several weeks in a medieval boot camp with the rest of the cast.

"You can see very clearly in the movie, a lot of the time when there's horses galloping at speed, wielding weapons into crowds, that was us doing it," Knightley says. "At the end I just thoroughly enjoyed it."

While Owen was happy to learn some of the skills his mythical character had, the almost reluctant male lead baulks at any comparisons to Arthur and certainly doesn't see himself as a leader.

"It's all acting. I just conned them," he grins.

"You read a part, you take it on and you play the part. As regards to how close it is to me -- I just play the part."

Whether that part is convincing enough for movie-goers will soon become clear when the film opens across Australia.

* King Arthur opens on July 15

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Clive Owen: the facts
* Born: 1965 in Coventry, Warwickshire, England.
* His father, a country and western singer, left the family when Clive was three; stepfather, a British Rail ticket clerk; fourth of five brothers.
* Married actress Sarah Jane Fenton, 1995; children, Hannah and Eve.
* First stage appearance: Artful Dodger in Oliver at Binley Park Comprehensive School.
* Graduated from RADA in 1987; fellow students included Ralph
Fiennes and Jane Horrocks.
* Film debut: Vroom (1988).
* Biggest TV hit: Playing Stephen Crane in Chancer.
* Film breakthrough: Croupier (1998) then Gosford Park (2001); Beyond Borders, with Angelina Jolie (2002); The Bourne Identity (2002).
* Coincidence: Had a recurring role on a series of BMW commercials as the mystery driver; played a valet in Gosford Park and a character driving a BMW in The Bourne Identity.