‘The Butterscotch Stallion’

OWEN WILSON looks very skinny, almost frail when he walks through the corridor of Renaissance hotel in Hollywood, surrounded by his retinue of publicists and handlers.

It’s been quite a while since he’s done any interviews, in fact he’s kept himself out of the papers in lots of ways since his suicide attempt in 2007, prior to which he was frequently written up for which starlet he was associated with that week or the night before.

Older, sober and a recent first time father, Wilson (43) seems reflective and introspective today, according to the best definitions of those words. His voice is low and slightly nasally and still carries a lot of Texas in it, along with the southern gentility and good manners that often comes with that distinct accent.

“People always say they see me as the laid-back, surfer, stoner type. I guess it’s just being from Texas and talking in a deliberate — I would say thoughtful way — but other people say it’s slow. Maybe I’m a victim of my hair colour,” he says smirking.

That would be a rich strawberry blond he’s talking about, which is cut in that slightly floppy, rakish style, which earned him the sobriquet “The Butterscotch Stallion” in his more rampant bachelor days. A founding member of Hollywood’s comedy Frat Pack, which included his brother Luke, Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd, Wilson has starred in some of the most successful comedies of the 21st century, including “The Wedding Crashers” “You, Me and Dupree” and of course “Cars”.

“There are lots of things that you don’t anticipate when you’re starting out and one of those things if becoming recognisable. I think of someone like Gene Hackman, who’s been in lots of stuff, who doesn’t change his voice or appearance too much. Maybe I could do stuff like that, make it believable, while still dealing with my limitations.”

Wilson is more than just an unconventionally pretty face with a twice broken nose. He was nominated for a screenwriting Oscar and several other prestigious awards for his screenplay for The Royal Tenembaums, which he co-wrote with his long time Texas buddy Wes Anderson. He was also a producer on the Oscar nominated James L Brooks movie As Good As It Gets.

Born in Dallas, Texas, to a photographer mother and a dad who worked in advertising, Wilson studied literature at the University of Texas, where he shared a room with Wes Anderson.

“I grew up in a family where ideas are important and where there were always a lot of books and my life is still a lot like that. Meeting Wes Anderson in college has meant so much to me in my life creatively, but he’s also someone you can call anytime and who always supports you. I think friendship is one of the greatest things about life.”

The days of his high profile, high maintenance romances with Kate Hudson, Sheryl Crowe, Demi Moore and the like appear to be behind Wilson now and he has been in a very low key relationship with Jade Duell for nearly two years. Little is known about her. She’s never been seen with him at a premiere or anywhere near a red carpet and she spends most of her time in Hawaii, where Wilson also owns property. She gave birth to their first child, a son, in January of this year. Apart from saying he hopes his infant son won’t be embarrassed by his Dad’s voice on Cars, he resolutely but very politely refuses to be drawn on his current relationship.

“Going out with someone who’s doing the same thing as you, who’s in the public eye, can be a problem. You want a break when you come home. You don’t want someone with the same issues as you maybe reminding you of stuff you don’t like in yourself. That being said, I don’t think being in the spotlight had anything to do with me and Sheryl not working out. The story of our relationship is the same story I’ve had with most of my relationships. I was lucky enough to find a great girl and, because of my lack of focus, the relationship went south,” he says, shrugging.

In addition to Cars, Wilson is also starring in Woody Allen’s latest hit movie Midnight in Paris in which he plays a version of Allen, a frustrated writer in an unhappy relationship in Paris. Working with Allen and the name dropping list of actors that included First Lady Carla Bruni and Marion Cotillard was a pretty special experience for lots of reasons.

“It was all very unusual. I received a very polite letter in the mail from Woody Allen, which said he wondered if I would be interested in making a movie with him and if so, if I’d be ok with spending six weeks in Paris,” he recalls. “I mean, what a terrific job for an actor and what a way to spend a summer! I didn’t meet Woody until three days before shooting and then all he did was ask me how my flight was and didn’t say a word about the movie. He was very polite and gentle, but there was very little direction from him.

“President Sarkozy came to the set one day and I got my photo taken with him, which was a nice thing to be able to send home to my mother. I loved bike riding around Paris. I spend a lot of time in Shakespeare and Company, which has to be one of the best book shops in the world. I also loved stopping in at all these great pastry shops and cheese places.”

Like the good eco-friendly resident of Southern California that he is, Wilson tries to bike as often as he can in LA and when he drives, it’s in a six-year-old Toyota Prius.

Despite all that has gone right for him as an actor, Wilson still sees himself as a better writer than actor. He wrote three of Wes Anderson’s movies in addition to his Oscar nominated Royal Tenenbaums and he continues to look at many movies and roles with the sensibility and eye of a writer.

“I can’t think of a movie I wish I’d acted in, but I can think of many that I wish I’d written. Acting is fun, but writing is a lot harder, like doing a term paper.”

His struggles with depression have been written about before and I wonder how close he is to happiness these days, as a new father.

“I’m loving the relationship with my little son, I can tell you that. People talk about nostalgia, but to me that’s like a wound. There’s a common syndrome where many people think that happiness is never right now, that it was back in the past or that it’s someplace right ahead. People tend to think that other times are the golden times and that although we want to be, we should be happy right now. Woody Allen really examines that in Midnight in Paris, but not in a heavy way.

“I’m definitely an up and down person. I don’t like caring what other people think, but I do. There’s a freedom when you meet someone who doesn’t care, who is just themselves in all situations. I had the way I was with my friends, and then my personality with adults, and that’s continued a little bit. To just be yourself, and not try to sell anything, or make a good impression, that’s something worth striving towards.”