> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Cast of ‘Closer’ gets their take
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/cast-of-closer-gets-their-take/
- Published: 2004-12-03T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T05:46:35.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

Jude Law, Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen star in acclaimed director Mike Nichols’ adaptation of Brit scribe Patrick Marber’s play, “Closer.” The film, which hits theaters Friday, is an acerbically witty, brutally honest portrait of the intertwining relationships between two couples and the cost of love and betrayal. The actors, sans Roberts (who was busy delivering twins at junket time), sat down recently to chat up a roomful of reporters.

QUESTION: Because the subject matter is so intense, was “Closer” a difficult movie to make?

CLIVE OWEN: The unusual thing about doing a piece like this one is that the scenes are so long, because it’s adapted from a play. So it requires a lot of concentration. In terms of the emotional thing, you absorb the piece, you talk about the piece, you work the piece, and then at the end of the day you perform the piece and try to go to the places you must go. I found it quite fun.

Q: Fun, eh? Jude, Natalie, do you agree? JUDE LAW: A lot of fun, yeah. NATALIE PORTMAN: Some of the things were hard to do to each other, especially because we all liked each other. To be really awful was very difficult at times.

Q: Why do these characters behave so viciously? JL: I don’t think they’re vicious. What you mustn’t underestimate is what you don’t see. It’s a condensed version of four years in these people’s lives. In between these moments of falling in love and splitting up, there’s presumably a lot of happiness and enjoyment of the sort we all experience. To accuse them of being vicious and nothing else is … they’re not just vicious, but there are vicious acts in (the movie).

Q: What attracted you to the project? JL: I liked the words. They walk a very fine line of being very dramatic, and at other times unbelievably realistic. To me that’s what it’s all about — great words. I like great writing.

Q: What was it like working with Mike Nichols. JL: He has a great kind of impish humor and outlook on life. He also has a deep, sensitive understanding of life. And he’s fun to be around, and also inspiring. It’s a great mix.

CO: Working with someone so smart and so lovely, you feel in very good hands, so that you’ll do pretty much anything. I feel like that’s probably why actors love him so much, because you just feel terribly secure. You trust him implicitly.

Q: Natalie, the press notes hail your performance as an “arrival” to adulthood. Is that a fair assessment?

NP: I disagree. I don’t really feel like an adult yet, so I don’t think I can play adults. It’s an arbitrary distinction between adult and child anyway.

Q: But you play a stripper, and pull off a pretty impressive split. Did that hurt?

NP: Did it hurt to do the split? No, I’m extraordinarily flexible.

CO: (laughs) Now there’s a headline! JL: She means, “As an actor!” (all laugh) Q: Natalie, how are you feeling now that you’ve completed your commitment to the “Star Wars” series?

NP: It was a big chunk of my life. We’re talking about 10 years from the time I signed on until the time the next film comes out. It’s sad because I’m not going to go back and see those same people, and then exciting because of what’s ahead.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 3, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/120304.pdf?ref=smdp.com)