Clive Owen on The Night of the Iguana: 'I don't know why I left theatre for so long'

Clive Owen said his first West End role in almost 20 years has helped reawaken his love for theatre.

The actor, whose career has included critically acclaimed films such as Closer and Children Of Men, plays a lapsed priest in Tennessee Williams’s The Night Of The Iguana, pictured.

His last stage role in the capital was in A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg in 2001

Owen said: “I don’t know why I left theatre for so long. The whole film thing took off and then having left theatre for a while I felt like I really had to go back, so I’ve now done three plays in the last few years and I feel like that whole thing has been reawakened and I’m reminding myself why I do what I do.”

Owen said he was attracted by “the challenge” of playing Reverend Shannon, who ends up in a run-down hotel in Mexico having been thrown out of the church for “fornication and heresy”.

He said: “Characters in conflict or who are struggling are always attractive because there’s lots to do, they are broad characters.”

His co-star Lia Williams said it felt like Owen had never been away from the stage, adding: “He’s absolutely phenomenal. I think he’ll do more when the right roles come along. I just think he’s very discerning.”

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