Owen, Aniston bring right stuff to `Derailed'
By Stevenson Swanson
Tribune national correspondent

NEW YORK --
The man sitting next to Jennifer Aniston is her co-star, but he's not that co-star.

Sharing a sofa with Aniston is Clive Owen, a British version of the strong, silent type who also happens to be married with two young daughters. And, unlike "The Break Up," an upcoming comedy starring Vince Vaughn, the movie that Owen made with Aniston is no comedy. Both were shot in Chicago, and both feature the former "Friends" star. But that's where the similarities end.

Billed as a "sexy psychological thriller," "Derailed," which opens Friday, mixes the adultery-gone-wrong elements of "Fatal Attraction" with a Hitchcock-like sense that ordinary people can suddenly find themselves caught up in extraordinary circumstances.

Owen, whose previous movies include "Sin City" and "Closer," plays an advertising executive whose home life in Wilmette has become a suffocating trap. One particularly dispiriting morning, he realizes he's boarded a commuter train without enough money for a ticket. A stranger on the train, played by Aniston, pays his way, and a flirtation quickly develops into an illicit romance. But their liaison turns dangerous when a gunman bursts into their cheap hotel room, brutally beats Owen and rapes Aniston at gunpoint. Things go even more horribly awry from there.

"You can let things become stagnant and succumb to outside temptation and excitement," said Aniston, not betraying a hint that she might be referring to her now-ended marriage to actor Brad Pitt and his highly publicized, if ill-defined, relationship with actress Angelina Jolie. "And this is definitely a film about thinking twice before you do that."

Sitting in the living room of a hotel suite overlooking Central Park, Aniston and Owen appeared to be comfortable in each other's company, laughing easily between sips of frothy cappuccino. But the richly appointed setting occasionally took on the atmosphere of a dentist's waiting room as the businesslike Owen kept his comments to the point and Aniston awaited the inevitable personal questions about Vaughn and Pitt.

Owen was an inspired choice

At a recent press conference with the cast, director Mikael Hafstrom called "Derailed" "a psychological thriller for grown-ups, with grown-up themes," and that quality also attracted Owen, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in "Closer."

"He's a very inspired choice for a movie like this because he's very specific and precise and he's very psychologically clear," Owen said of Hafstrom. "And for a movie like this, which you could do very bombastically -- a big, crash-bang-wallop thriller -- you knew that he would pitch it so that everything would be very objective and clear."

"I love watching thrillers," said Aniston, 36, wearing a loose-weave capelet and skin-tight jeans that showed off a Hollywood-perfect physique, reportedly the result of a yoga regimen. "I didn't know it would be this well done, this well written. I read it from beginning to end and just had no clue where it was going next. I like to think I can usually figure out where a story is going."

Much of the movie's momentum springs from the hotel rape scene, and the power of that scene derives partly from the viewer's horror at the realization that the victim is being played by the actress who portrayed Rachel Green, Aniston's appealingly lovelorn character on "Friends."

But filming the scene, which took several days, was much easier than watching it later.

"It was so technical and choreographed, and there were stuntmen," Aniston said. "It was very safe. And filling in the dramatic part, that just came out of the situation, really, and Vincent's [gunman Cassel] menacing presence. It wasn't too hard to fake that."

Although Aniston's role is crucial, "Derailed" is told through the eyes of Charles Schine, Owen's character. Known for ensemble roles in "Closer" and "Gosford Park," Owen has to carry the story on his shoulders. To hear him tell it, that was not a heavy lift.

"It's very reactive," said the fashionably unshaven Owen, 41, who is married to actress Sarah-Jane Fenton. "You're not driving the story. It's coming at you, really. It's about finding different ways of demonstrating that level of stress, because otherwise it can get very boring. I just relished the challenge of putting people into the nightmare."

Chicago's appeal

Although James Siegel's novel on which the movie is based was set in New York, Chicago was an appealing locale for the $23 million production because of tax breaks offered by the Illinois and Chicago film offices. Also, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura had family in Chicago and knew the city was "film friendly," with the requisite big-city looks and a large pool of production talent.

"One of the things that we wanted to show was that the main character was coming from the safe neighborhood where he lived to the dark city," said di Bonaventura. "That contrast was important psychologically, and we could do that really well in Chicago. It turned out to be a great place to film."

The film is the first production for the Weinstein Company, the company formed by Miramax Film Corp. founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein after a bitter split with the Walt Disney Co. Working on a tight shooting schedule, Aniston spent only a week in Chicago after Thanksgiving last year; Owen was in the city for about two and a half weeks. Most of the interiors were shot in London.

For both stars, neither of whom had spent much time in Chicago, the city was a revelation.

"I had a great time there," Owen said. "It's a very lovely, cultural place. Great restaurants, great places to go. People were really lovely."

Aniston recalls a fun outing to the Underground Wonder Bar, a subterranean music club on East Walton Street, where she met pianist-owner Lonie Walker.

"It's just a little jazz hole-in-the-wall," Aniston said. "That was actually one of the most fun places."

She had a chance to get to know more of Chicago over the summer, when she was in the city to film "The Break Up," a romantic comedy due out early next year. A recent story in People magazine included a timeline and photographs of Aniston's cavortings around Chicago with co-star Vaughn, including cuddling under a blanket on a chilly evening at the Park Hyatt's NoMI restaurant, smooching at the Holiday Club, and even making a trip to Vaughn's childhood home in Lake Forest to meet his mother and stepfather.

But Aniston refuses to acknowledge a relationship. Her answers turn monosyllabic when Vaughn's name comes up.

Tension reliever

As if on cue, a room-service waiter arrives with cappuccinos for the two actors. To tease Aniston -- and to defuse the tension in the room -- Owen asks the waiter if he has a copy of People.

"No, but I can get one, if you'd like," the waiter replies.

Aniston howls in exasperation.

"I really don't want to talk about it," she says.

"Well, we do," Owen says, grinning broadly.

"They invade and speculate," Aniston finally says. "All I'll say is that I loved it, I had a great time in Chicago, that's it, that's all. I've learned my lesson, you know what I mean? I'm not going to throw that one up the flagpole and see if anybody salutes."

So much for Vince. But what about Brad? The couple's divorce became final on Oct. 2. Did that mark a psychological turning point in her effort to put her marriage behind her?

"Yes, yeah, sure," she says, her patience wearing thin. "Here's the sad thing. It's very peaceful. It's very peaceful. And this media is way out of control, trying to pit everybody against each other. It's really unfortunate because we're all really proud of ourselves and feel good about it."

In contrast to the media glare in Los Angeles and New York, she noted that her time in Chicago provided a welcome respite. That's one more thing in the city's favor, she said.