If Clive Owen has yet to join the ranks of Hollywood’s top leading men, it’s fair to say he’s well on his way.

In 20 years as an actor, the 41-year-old Briton has drawn critical praise and popular acclaim while moving from walk-on parts in little-seen British TV dramas to starring roles in intense action-thrillers such as Derailed (2005), Sin City (2005) and Inside Man, a heist film that opens in Singapore on Thursday.

Still, even after two-dozen movies, countless TV shows, the starring role as “The Driver” in a popular series of BMW adverts and a flirtation with the title role in the James Bond movies, Owen’s two biggest fans have yet to see even one of his films.

Which is understandable considering the two fans in question — daughters Hannah and Eve — are just nine and six years old, respectively.

“They’re getting a bit annoyed with me because they can’t see any of my movies,” a smiling and relaxed-looking Owen told a roomful of reporters recently in New York.

“I’m doing this lunatic action film at the moment and they say: ‘What are you doing, dad?’ And I find it really difficult trying to explain away all the guns.”

The actor will have less explaining to do when it comes to Inside Man — in which guns take a backseat to a tense cat-andmouse game between an enigmatic bank robber (Owen) and a wise-cracking hostage negotiator (Denzel Washington) —though, in light of the fact his character spends most of the movie behind a mask and dark glasses, he’d be lucky if his daughters even knew it was him onscreen.

While Owen admitted to having initial concerns about the role — saying with a sly smile that he had told director Spike Lee to “get someone else to play it and I’ll do a voiceover for you” — he soon came to terms with the idea thanks to his desire to work with Lee and the fact that he “didn’t have to spend much time in make-up”.

Witty in person, though not known for comic roles — aside from a clever cameo as Agent 006 in the recent Pink Panther remake — Owen said his fondest wish was to appear in a romantic comedy.

Not that it’s likely to be a conventional one if his dream comes true.

“Mikael Hafstrom, who I did Derailed with, said we should do a comedy together,” the actor said with obvious glee.

“He came up with the idea of finding a really bad thriller script and just doing it for laughs. Start with something that has very serious intentions and then just twist it beyond all recognition.”

While Owen’s fans might have a long wait ahead of them before that movie arrives, they can take solace in the fact his next project — the “lunatic action film” mentioned above — sounds as eccentric as they come.

“It’s a crazy, crazy WAS it mass support that prevented Campus SuperStar finalist Renfred Ng from winning the MediaCorp TV Channel U singing quest on Sunday? After all, his family was rumoured to be trying very hard to generate votes for him.

Such speculation intensified when Renfred managed to remain in the competition even as other arguably better-performing ones were eliminated.

Last week, TODAY even received an email from someone claiming to be an acquaintance of Renfred’s family who had helped in the voting.

She wanted to “confirm the speculation” as she “felt very bad that Renfred will be the Campus SuperStar because we decided that he should be there.”

And until the end of the second round of the guys’ finals, it was indeed Renfred who led in the number of phone votes, despite the fact the judges’ nod had gone to competitor Ng Chee Yang.

But Chee Yang eventually emerged as the guys’ champ, taking 53.7 per cent of the vote. He then went on to trump female champ Teresa Tseng with an even bigger margin of 61 per cent.

When asked about the speculation and how much he had spent on voting through action movie where a guy’s in an alleyway delivering a baby in the opening scene and everyone’s shooting at him,” he said.

“And she gets it and he ends up with a baby that everybody’s after. “Paul Giamatti is the chief baddie on my case and Monica Bellucci” — Owen paused while vainly attempting to suppress laughter — “is a lactating hooker that I hook up with along the way.”

Will Owen’s daughters be getting a look at that one? “Not a chance,” he said with a wry smile.