Clive Owen knows "instinctively" if he wants to work on a film.

The 'Boys are Back' actor ? who plays widower Joe Warr as he struggles to cope with life as a single parent in the tear-jerker ? doesn't plan to work on different film genres and will only agree to a role if he is automatically drawn to it.

Speaking about his latest character, he said: "I don't set out to do something different each time I make a movie. I think at the end of the day, a career is made up of all the individual choices that I've made.

"It is literally an instinctive response. I respond to material instantly. I read shoot 'em up and I laughed all the way through and thought I wanted to do that film. I read this script, and I was interested in it for different reasons.

"I trained in the theatre, the theatre is all about playing lots of different parts. I enjoy different aspects of myself in the films. People have said to me this is like 'The Departure', but I never saw it as that ? but enough people have told me that I've got to start to listen."

The 45-year-old star ? who raises daughters Eve (10) and Hannah (12) with his wife Sarah-Jane Fenton ? used his own family life to help him portray the grieving character in 'The Boys are Back'.

He explained: "I'm a parent and parenting is a big part of my life. I recognised and felt I had similar experiences to a lot of things in this movie and so it felt reasonably familiar.

"I didn't go through the huge tragic loss that they have but in terms of all the ups and downs of parenting I feel I've experienced a few of them myself.

"At the end of the day it's all about your response to the material and if you want to work with the director ? that's what dictates whatever choices I make."

'The Boys are Back' is based on a book of memoirs written by Simon Carr.