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“I did not attend a private boys’
school, I worked in tobacco
fields and in stock rooms, and
construction sites.”
George Timothy Clooney needs
no introduction. This suave, devilishly
handsome actor, director, producer and
screenwriter has been a regular on TV,
movie screens and GQ magazine covers
for over two decades now. Since his
big screen debut in 1996 in From Dusk
Till Dawn, Clooney has assembled an
extensive and diverse body of work both
before and behind the camera, winning
Oscars for acting and producing. But what’s
interesting when evaluating his filmography
as a whole is the discovery that Clooney’s
movies – with the exception of the Ocean’s
trilogy and Gravity – don’t make loads of
money at the box office, a fact he readily
acknowledges. “It’s not about an opening
weekend. It’s about a career, building a set
of films you’re proud of. Period.” Clooney
admits to being a “hybrid”, as comfortable
in the occasional blockbuster as he is in
small, indie and arthouse films directed by
Steven Soderbergh, the Coen Brothers,
and sometimes himself. “If the movie
makes money, I make money,” he says. “If
I don’t, I’ve still made the movie I wanted
to make.”
The ‘80s
“See, the first thing about actors is, you’re
just trying to get a job; and you audition
and audition and you finally get them.”
Clooney was busy with regular television gigs
during the ‘80s when he began to land bit parts in
horror B-movies like Return to Horror High (1987), in
which he played an actor who learns he’s landed a role
in a big TV series (!) prior to being killed off, Grizzly
II:The Predator (1987) and Return of the Killer
Tomatoes! (1988). During this period he also scored
a leading role in the LA-set thriller Red Surf (1989),
which went straight to video.
The ‘90s
“I know what my limitations are as an
actor, but my strength is putting myself
into a well-written part.”
Clooney was already a regular on ER when Quentin
Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez cast him as bank
robber and vampire slayer Seth Gecko in From Dusk
Till Dawn (1996), a character far removed from his
TV persona Dr. Doug Ross. QT appreciated the irony
that Clooney was now sending people to the ER!
His movie star qualities were immediately apparent,
ensuring he got noticed amongst all the bloody
mayhem. “George Clooney, making his big screen
debut, shows admirable restraint in going along with
the craziness without seeming overwhelmed by it,”
noted critic Roger Ebert.
His potential as a romantic lead saw him cast as a
divorced dad alongside Michelle Pfeiffer (as a divorced
mum) in One Fine Day (1996), where he drew upon
his TV sitcom experience to make the most of a
predictable and formulaic plot.
Clooney’s first big blockbuster was also his biggest
turkey. As the Dark Knight in Joel Schumacher’s
franchise-killing Batman & Robin (1997), Clooney
remained admirably straight-faced and square-jawed
throughout the whole debacle. “I watch Batman &
Robin from time to time,” he admits. “It’s the worst
movie I ever made, so it’s a good lesson in humility.”
The fact that he reportedly peed in the batsuit
because it was too difficult to take off says it all really!
Next he was chasing stolen nuclear weapons
with Nicole Kidman in The Peacemaker (1997), a
competent but forgettable action-thriller that’s notable
as being the first release from then newly-formed
studio DreamWorks.
One of Clooney’s best roles and best movies is
GEORGE CLOONEYThe world’s most charming movie star.
undoubtedly Out of Sight (1998), his first of many
collaborations with director Steven Soderbergh.
“Clooney has never been better, “ agreed Roger
Ebert, “at last [he] looks like a big screen star.” The
film is also one of the actor’s personal favourites:
“It was the first time where I had a say, and it was
the first good screenplay I’d read where I just went,
‘That’s it!’ And I realised from that point on that it was
strictly screenplay first.”
A who’s-who of Hollywood actors were lining up
to work with legendary filmmaker Terrence Malick on
TheThin Red Line (1998), and Clooney was lucky
enough to land a glorified cameo in the World War II
epic. Then it was off to war again – this time in Iraq –
in Three Kings (1999), the film that has since achieved
notoriety for the very physical clash that occurred
between Clooney and director David O. Russell on
the set. “I would not stand for him humiliating and
screaming at crew members, who weren’t allowed to
defend themselves,” Clooney explained to Vanity Fair
in a 2003 interview. “I don’t believe in it and it makes
me crazy.”
A big supporter of South Park from its very
beginning, Clooney rounded out the decade with a
vocal contribution to the feature-length South Park:
Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999). He had previously
voiced gay dog Sparky in a season one episode.
The ‘00s
“Directing is really exciting. In the end, it’s
more fun to be the painter than the paint.”
In O Brother,Where ArtThou? (2000), the first of
three films he would make with the Coen Brothers,
Clooney was the Ulysses of Joel and Ethan’s comic
Odyssey. As for the musical numbers, the scenes
requiring his character to break into song were dubbed
by country blues singer Dan Tyminski.
He next played real-life Captain Billy Tyne, who
went down with his boat, the Andrea Gail, during The
Perfect Storm (2000).
Clooney’s single-scene cameo in Robert
Rodriguez’s Spy Kids (2001) was filmed at the actor’s
home, whilst he was still clad in pyjama bottoms – and
shot from the waist up. His Spy boss, Devlin, would
return – equally briefly – in Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
(2003).
As the suave Danny Ocean, Clooney would lead a
modern day Rat Pack through a trilogy of blockbuster
heist movies: Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven
(2001), Ocean’sTwelve (2004), and Ocean’sThirteen
046 MAY 2015 JB HI-FI
George Clooney: filmmaker