Clive Owen was pretty much meant to pick up the mantle of Sam Spade, the private investigator famously played by Humphrey Bogart in 1941’s "The Maltese Falcon."
Owen stars and executive produces the new AMC series "Monsieur Spade," which follows Sam Spade in the South of France in the 1960s as he investigates the murder of several nuns.
"It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done," the "Children of Men" star told the Los Angeles Times. "I’m a crazy Bogart fan. I have an original poster from ‘The Maltese Falcon.’ When Scott [Frank, the series co-creator] called me, I sent him a picture of my poster and said, ‘You’ve come to the right guy.’"
Frank, the series co-creator, told the outlet, "Clive was pretty much the only person we could see playing him.
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"When you start writing, you always say, ‘Well, let’s make a list.’ As I recall, our list never went beyond Clive."
On "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," Owen explained his unique approach to getting into character and giving due respect to Bogart.
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"I’m supposed to go in and go, ‘I’m going to do my interpretation.’ But because we were shooting in France with a lot of French actors, I needed a grounding. And although we’re playing a later Sam Spade, he has to come … from that '40s private detective. So, I kinda drowned in Bogart. I went and watched everything again."
Owen ended up pulling all of Bogart’s dialogue from "The Maltese Falcon" and the actor’s other classic movie, "Casablanca," and listened to it to "get into his cadence, his rhythm."
"It’s surprising because what you learn is you think he’s laconic, laid back. When you actually listen to him, he’s super fast with his dialogue. He just makes it look easy and breezy. But, actually, he’s super nimble, super quick," he said.
"The thing about Humphrey Bogart and that style of acting is they didn’t overindulge. They didn’t over explain. It was all about trusting the rhythm of the piece, letting the words do the work."
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Owen also told the LA Times he had a meal with Frank while he was writing the scripts and informed him he was listening and listening again to Bogart’s dialogue.
"And I said to him, ‘Don’t freak out. But I’m listening a lot to Bogart, and I want to base my voice on him. I’m not going to do a bad impersonation of Bogart. It’s just the rhythm, the intonation.’ And he said, ‘That’s so weird because as I’ve been writing this, I have to hear Bogart say the dialogue.’"
Bogart played Sam Spade in the noir classic "The Maltese Falcon," directed by John Huston and based on Dashiell Hammett’s novel of the same name.
The movie co-stars Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, who were all in pursuit of the bejeweled falcon statuette as Bogart’s private investigator deals with the twists and turns of their intentions and identities.
According to the American Film Institute, Bogart was not the first choice for the role. It was originally offered to actor George Raft. Raft reportedly turned it down over hesitancy working with first-time director Huston and an unwillingness to star in remakes. "The Maltese Falcon" had been adapted twice in the 1930s.
Bogart’s interpretation of the character was an instant classic, set the standard for the noir private detective archetype and helped launched him to stardom. According to Jeffrey Meyers' book, "Bogart: A Life in Hollywood," the actor said of the movie, "It is practically a masterpiece. I don't have many things I'm proud of ... but that's one."
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The film was one of the first 25 movies selected by the Library of Congress to be included in the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
For "Monsieur Spade," the goal was to both honor and update Bogart’s character at the same time.
"We’ve taken Sam Spade, we’ve jumped 20 years ahead. He’s now living in the South of France, trying to live a quiet life," Owen explained to "CBS Mornings."
"The thing about noir is everyone feels like they’ve seen it before. As soon as you do all those tropes, like we go, ‘Oh we know what that is, we know what noir is.’ But I think it’s a very clever idea to take an iconic, ‘40s private detective, throw him 20 years later in the south of France. Already it’s a new version of it, but still, the heart of it, the essence of it, it still has that kind of ’40s P.I. vibe."
"Monsieur Spade" is now streaming on AMC+.
