Passion pairing

Citing some recent disastrous on-screen pairings by real-life lovers like Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, the 32-year-old Dubliner said he and his Oscar-winning bride-to-be were initially cautious in considering their joint offers, but admitted they leaped at the chance to work with “Sirens” and “Flirting” filmmaker John Duigan after reading his screenplay for this sweeping romance.
“We thought, ‘If we are going to work together, we should do something that we really love,’ ” Townsend said. “And we just really loved this script and I think you have to or else you’re going to end up in ‘Gigli 2’ and if you are a couple, then you’re under more scrutiny, so you better get it right.”
In the film, Townsend plays Guy, an Irish schoolteacher in love with Gilda, a bohemian French-American actress/photographer (portrayed by Theron.) Torn apart by their vastly different feelings regarding the Spanish Civil War and World War II, their paths cross several times over the years, sparking numerous passionate reunions, followed by more sad goodbyes. Spanish actress Penelope Cruz — best-known in the United States for her role as Tom Cruise’s ex-girlfriend — plays Mia, the couple’s close friend, a model whose hatred of fascism causes her to grow even closer to the freedom-loving Guy.
“I thought it was a really great love story,” Townsend said. “I felt that it was a really kind of modern love story, but it was set in a very old-fashioned, very period time. . . . It deals with love in all of its various aspects: brotherly/sisterly love, romantic love, jealousy, the choices that we make, and love that lasts, as well as being torn apart from each other.”
Townsend said he had talked to Duigan years ago about playing Guy, but was initially passed over for the role because he was too old to play opposite Natalie Portman, the young actress originally hired to portray Gilda. After Portman dropped out of the project, however, Cruz recommended her friend Theron for the part, which eventually led to Townsend’s return to the film.
In addition to giving them the opportunity to play meaty roles in a story they found fascinating, the film also offered Townsend and Theron the rare opportunity and excellent acting exercise of aging on screen.
“One of the challenges and one of the joys was that we grow up during the movie,” Townsend said. “We had to use makeup and acting to be young — to be 20 and innocent and idealistic and then later on to be older and a little more weary.”
Although the couple met and started dating on the set of the 2002 thriller “Trapped,” they did not really work with one another much on that film, making “Head in the Clouds” the first time they have ever acted together in a movie.
“We kept it all under wraps,” Townsend said. “Nobody on the film set actually knew we were together.”
Of course, spending all day with your sweetheart on a film set, then going home together at night, has distractions and drawbacks of its own, he confessed.
“I was surprised by how intense it was,” Townsend said. “I’d heard some acting couples stay in separate hotels when they worked together and I could never understand that. But after this experience, I realized it is very intense to work together and then to live together. . . . It’s a mad job as it is already, so part of me was surprised. She left for 10 days and went to London and I stayed in Montreal and, you know, we were like, ‘Whew. Bye! See you in 10 days!’ And it was nice to have that break. Every relationship, you need those moments to breathe.”
While Townsend had the further pleasure of sharing their collaboration with an enthusiastic audience at the recent Toronto Film Festival, Theron was unable to make the premiere, having been sidelined earlier this month after slipping a disc in her back while doing her own stunts on the set of her new sci-fi flick, “Aeon Flux,” in Germany.
“She’s fine,” Townsend said. “She’s going to be out [of work] for about six weeks, which she?’s not happy about because she’s a very active girl and she’s suddenly house bound,”
Just as Townsend is finishing up his promotional tour for “Head in the Clouds,” he is getting ready to start a new big-screen comedy, “The Best Man,” due to start filming soon in London. For the actor, the job presents a chance to visit his family and friends–something the new Los Angeles resident said is essential to him.
“[Filming in the UK] is great because I’ll get to bring my family over or I’ll get to go over there.”
The actor also said that although he is proud of his Irish heritage, he does not go out of his way to flaunt his Irishness in his adopted home.
“It’s not something that I really even think about,” he said. “I’m not a very patriotic person, to be honest with you. I’m very proud of where I?m from, but I love being in different cultures and absorbing what they have to offer. I don’t walk around going, ‘I’m Irish. How’s it going?’
“I always wanted to get out and leave Ireland and see what’s going on. But I love Ireland. I’m very secure in my Irishness, I guess, and, therefore, I don’t have to throw it around the place.”