LOS ANGELES — Money drives Hollywood, but it does not drive Clive Owen, or so he says. The British star has an uneasy relationship to the fame game and whether he has the marquee ability to open a blockbuster.

“I never, ever take a film thinking this is going to be a big success,” he tells Sun Media.

“I wouldn’t have done Children of Men,” he says of what would happen to his off-beat choices if he worried about box office. “There is a whole world of films I wouldn’t have done.”

Among them is Mike Nichols’ harrowing Closer, the drama that earned Owen his only Oscar nomination.“I have been offered films where I’ve gone: ‘That will be a big success!’ And it has been and I have absolutely no regret (about turning down the role). But there is no question that it helps if your films do well, for a whole number of reasons, including for your own personal opportunities.

“So, every now and again, to have one that does well at the box office is a good thing. But I would never go and look for it. I just hope that one of the ones I really want to do hits.”

Owen took the lead role in The International because he respects German director Tom Tykwer (of Run Lola Run fame). And because the new movie reminds him of the great paranoid thrillers Europe and Hollywood made in the 1960s and 1970s, titles such as All the President’s Men. And because of the new film’s commentary on corruption in the banking industry, which suddenly smacks of reality: “It’s incredible how timely it is!”

Now Owen is hoping that The International is one of the ones that hits. “It would be good for everyone involved.”