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The
mind behind the eyes
Hot off the blockbuster The
Perfect Storm and soon to hit screens in the Coen brothers' O Brother,
Where Art Thou?, George Clooney explains why even his supposed failures
were actually lucky breaks, reveals who is "absolute hero" is,
and disses the agent who once sent him to read for one line in Guardian
Tess.
BY
Michael Fleming
In
Joel and Ethan Coens upcoming film O Broiher, Where Art Thou? George
Clooney plays a Depression-era, Deep-South version of Homer's U'ysses.
As the leader of a motley chain gang, his odyssey is foretold to him by
a narneless, old blind man as follows: 'You seek a great fortune and you
will find a fortune though it will not be the fortune you seek.
But first you must travel a long and difflcult road, ftaught with
peril, pregnant with adventure... and though the road may wind and
yea your hearts grow weary; still shall ye foller the way, even unto
salvation." The prophesy could easily apply to Clooney's professional
journey in Hollywood and to the salvation he seems now to finally have
arrived at. With the hig box office success of The Perfect Storm"a
the debate about Clooney's movie-star status can at last be laid to rest.
His "long and diffieult road" has led from TV fame to
membership in an elite group of leading screen idols.
When
I meet Clooney, he looks -- for an actor so handsome he gets away with
not wearing makeup while working -- like hell. Turns out he was up
partying till around four a.m. While he may have matured as a leading
mari, at 39 Clooney is still farnously Peter Pan-ish. Bur the world knows
all of this already -- the string of beautiful women, the bachelor pad,
the pet pig, the life-uf-the-party rep. What the world might not know is
that Clooney has as savvy an understanding of show business as anyone in
the husiness. He's exercised the wisdom of sacrificing a big salary
in order to get a film made. He's had the nerve to deliberately keep his
fees low in order to get the opportunities that the Travoltas and Fords
of the world cost too much to get. He's had the taste and the insight,
especially lately, to select provocative, memorable material (think Out
of Sight; Three Kings and O Brother) that he can shine in.
But
as much as know-how has played a role in Clooney's success, his tale is
also one of sheet perseverance. Only after 15 other pilots failed did
"ER" prove the charm. And only after meeting with mediocre
results (The Peacemaker Batman & Robin, One Fine Day) and
ruinuos marketing (Out of Sight) did Clooney fully succeed with
his plan to leave behind the security of "ER." Right up to the
very weekend when The Perfect Storm hit like a, well, perfect
storm, naysayers were openly wondering if Clooney could survive another
disappointment. Now, though, George Clooney is looking just about as
smart as he actually is.
MICHAEL
FLEMING: As
The Perfect Storm was being released, the press seemed to be
suggesting that if it didn't succeed, you'd be proving yourself just
another TV star who didn't make it on the big screen.
GEORGE CLOONEY:
Everv
time l've done a movie, they've said, "Well, if this one doesn't
hit, the great experiment is over." At the premiere of The
Perfect Storm one uf the top Warner Bros. executives leans
over and says, "Evervbody here really wants this fur you, wants a hit fur
you."
The truth is that l've only had one movie that didn't make money --
and
that movie, Out of Sight, is, in my estimation, by far the best
film l've ever done. I look at it this way. I just keep going tu work. I
might have shortcomings, because I'm not a method actor -- I don't
"become" the guy -- but I go to work, treat people nicely and
they treat me nicely, and I do my job as best I can, keeping in mind
Spencer Tracy's maxim, "Never let them catch you acting." Then
I get off work arid have a life.
Q: So none of this commentary bothered you? A: You have to
realize you can't control what people think of you. I came out of sales
-- I sold ladies' shoes. One thing you learn is, you put out a good
product and advertise it as best you can, and sooner or later, people will
find their way tu you. You may never become a giant franchise store, but
you'll be able to make a good living.
Q:
It must be difficult, though, when you put out a terrific product like
Out of Sight and they seII it wrong. A: Marketing can
be frustrating. They kept marketing Out of Sight as an action
film, and then they put it in the summer because Meet Joe Black wasn't
ready. I used to get calls from Casey Silver while he still ran the studio,
saying, Look, what do you want me to tell you, we blew it.
Q:
Even though Out of sight failed at the box office, many people
took it as clear evidence that no matter how long it took, you were
obviously going to be a huge movie star. When you watched the film, were
you surprised you were as good as you were? A: I'd thought everybody
was going to be good, because the script was well-written. Our problem
was that we had so much fun making this film. One day, Scott Frank, the
writer, and [coproducer] Danny De Vito and I were laughing after a take,
arid I said, "We're having a really great time -- I just hope we
don't
screw this damn thing up." What we didn't really understand was how
brilliantly Steven Soderbergh was going to put it together. If you just
told it in a straight way, it was a good story~ Steven told it in a way
that made it an exceptional movie.
Q:
That love scene with Jennifer Lopez was innovative, two adults taking
their time. A: Thoze freeze-frames are like photographs, moments in
time you remember in an exceptionally erotic way. In the script, that
scene was written in three different locations, and we said dialogue in
three different Iocations. Steven told us to do all the dialogue in the
bar, and we said, all right, whatever dude. And he overlapped it all
brilliantly.
Q:
You obviously have a high opinion of Soderbergh's talent as a diriector.
A: Steven Soderbergh
is my favorite director to work with, bar none. I loved Wolfgang
Petersen, the Coen brothers, I think they're geniuses arid want to work
with both again. But Steven and I, we work great together, we enjoy each
other's company. He understands how I work best, of anybody.
Q:
Your experierice with Soderbergh seemed to be a turning point with
respect to choosing better projects. A: I decided I'd rather make movies
that last the test of time than do lousv movies that make a lot of
money. The reason you work with the Coen brothers is that you say to
yourself, "It'd sure be nice to do one of their movies and have it
sit around awhile." Even movies of theirs that evervbody else
hates, The Hudsucker Proxy and The Big Lebowski, I
just love. When they hit -- Blood
Simple, Fargo, Raising Arizona -- they're shockingly
good.
Q:
O Brother; Where Art Thou? is an unusual film even
for them. A:
I was
working un Three Kings in Arizona when I got a call to see if l'd
meet the Coens in Phoenix. So I drive to Phoenix. They
throw a script on the table:
We wrote this and we want you to do it. As soon as I read the title, I
said, "This is the movie that Joel McCrea's character wanted to make
in Preston Sturges's [1941] movie Sullivans Travels.
I'm a huge fan of Sturges and Sullivans' Travels." So I
said, Yeah, sure, I'd read it. I checked into the hotel room because I
didn't feel like driving back and read the script. First page it says
it's based on Homer's The Odyssey and I realize I'm playing
Ulysses. And it's a musical, and it has a little sex in it. I couldn't
believe my luck. The whole thing made me laugh. It took a couple weeks
to set up the movie and we were off and running.
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