George Clooney

by Chris Roberts

George Clooney makes his debut as a director (and co-stars) in Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind, the bizarre tale of a Seventies TV impresario, Chuck Barris, who foresaw trash-telly's dominance and may or may not have been a C.I.A. hitman in his spare time. Gorgeous George discusses the pros and cons of fame with Chris Roberts

Chuck's celebrity drove him a tad delusional. How do you cope with fame?
'There's no fame school, y'know. There should be, though. Oh, right, Fame Academy - that didn't go too well, did it? Imagine the losers - you went to that and you still didn't get famous? Oh buddy, now you're really screwed.

'I'm certainly the last person to give advice on...well, anything. But one trick is you can't spend time trying to correct all the inaccuracies said about you. I'd love to say I didn't give a damn about them. But I do. Things do matter to you. You get a bad review or whatever, sometimes it's healthy and good, but as an actor you can tend to obsess over it. Let it go.

'The best advice I got from my aunt, the great singer Rosemary Clooney, and from my dad, who was a game show host and news anchor, was: don't wake up at seventy years old sighing over what you should have tried. Just do it, be willing to fail, and at least you gave it a shot. That's echoed for me all through the last few years."

What's the best thing about your celebrity status?
'Being able to make films that otherwise wouldn't get made. Walking into a room and knowing that if you say you'll do it, it'll get done. Like Three Kings, or O Brother, Where Art Thou, or Solaris. Films that'll transcend the opening weekend. The worst thing about it is when guys stake out airports with video cameras and try not to catch me doing something stupid but to make me do something stupid. Like, they push my assistant, or insult her, hoping I'll react. If I'm stupid off my own bat, I'll take the rap, but that other stuff's just rotten."

You've called in a few of the Ocean's Eleven gang for Confessions?
'Yeah but I had to pay Brad (Pitt) and Matt (Damon) twenty million each for their three-second cameos. That was rough. Kidding. I found out that Burt Reynolds and Tom Selleck were both on The Dating Game in the Seventies, and didn't get picked, so I thought it'd be funny if these two guys came out. The guy that beats them was actually our story-board artist, but even so I had to change his name from "Fat Bachelor" to 'Stud Bachelor' before he'd take the part.

'As for Julia (Roberts) and Drew (Barrymore) - you have to understand that when this film got green-lit, every A-List actress in town called me. Not because I was directing: they had no idea what that'd be like. But because it was a Kaufman script, and these were great parts. I called Julia and she said she'd do it before I asked her.'

What were the most awkward moments of being in charge?
'Heh heh, oh I like telling people to get it on. I just sit back and watch 'em at it. Love scenes are always weird. I know everyone says that, but they are. Like: hey guys, hop in the sack now, would you? At least Sam and Drew had snogged before, on Charlie's Angels, so they were comfortable. My worst bit was when we were shooting a scene with Sam-as-Chuck masturbating in the shower. We had to cut it out, sadly. Anyway Sam's going at it, we're all feeling kinda embarrassed, when Chuck taps me on the shoulder and yells: "Tell him, faster! It should be faster!" That was way too much information.'

Although Chuck's no household name here, this movie's staggeringly prescient about current British TV. Do you love trash or hate it?
'I grew up in the world of bad television, on my dad's sets and then as a young schmuck on dating shows and so on. I know what it looks, feels, smells like: that's why I thought I'd make this story work. In a way Chuck's held responsible for the Jerry Springers. That's fair, but it was more innocent then, less cruel. Still, he feels guilty - it was the beginnings of entertainment at someone else's expense. The first time I read the script I thought it was insane, ridiculous - then I realised it was what we know as society. Chuck has this theory that ten years from now there'll be three homeless people up on stage, and we'll vote for two to get a million and one to get killed. Seems far-fetched? So did Network, in '76, and it all came true. So you never know.'

Can you confirm Ocean's Twelve is revving up?
'I can't tell you the storyline, that'd be cheating, but yes, most of the guys have locked it into their schedules, to shoot next spring, and it should be fun. Steven Soderbergh and I, or our company, had three projects planned. We were going to do The Good German, a kind of Chinatown set in post-WW2 Germany, with me starring. Then The Informant, with Matt Damon, and then Ocean's Twelve. But then Solaris bombed, cos audiences are even dumber than me. So we've moved Ocean's up a bit, as we couldn't budget the other two films otherwise. I can tell you that everyone dies in it in the end: does that ruin it? Just a little bit?'

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is out now on DVD.

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George Clooney