Publicly, Clooney enjoys an image as a happily married woman’s just-once fantasy, an unfairly handsome man who rides motorcycles cross-country–the same swagger he shows off as natty ex-con Danny Ocean in the just-released “Ocean’s Eleven.” But during a recent visit with Clooney over a frigid weekend in Canada, where he is directing his first film, a more down-to-earth persona emerges: the working actor and budding filmmaker, more interested in activism than Hollywood gossip, willing to make professional and financial sacrifices to get his pet projects off the ground. “I’ve got enough money to live on,” he says, a declaration bordering on Hollywood heresy. Indeed, Clooney has gone so far as to contribute a free acting job and his executive-producer paycheck to help get one small movie made, and he’s doing two different jobs on another film for the equivalent of what studios give John Travolta for jet fuel and a personal chef. Says “Ocean’s” director Steven Soderbergh, with whom Clooney recently formed a producing partnership to make more adventurous fare: “He is putting his money where his mouth is, and he is working his a– off.”
Quite literally. In a meeting with the costume designer of his next film, his pet project “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” Clooney tells Renee April that he isn’t yet ready to be measured for wardrobe. He plans on losing 15 pounds in the next month (over the holidays, no less) to make his character look less buff. Clooney now wants to play the part thin, and instead of being a ladies’ man, the character will ambiguously flirt with guys. “It would be really stupid to do something middle of the road,” Clooney says of the film.
While Clooney will continue to make overtly commercial movies like “Ocean’s Eleven,” he’s not turning out the forgettable fluff like “Batman & Robin” he once did. Clooney realized that if he wanted to be in distinguished films, he had to work with distinguished filmmakers–and for less money. So he made “Three Kings” with David O. Russell and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” with art-house darlings Joel and Ethan Coen. Neither of those rolls of the dice compares with Clooney’s latest gambit. He is costarring in “Confessions,” an outlandish movie about game shows and assassins, directed by a guy who has never put a foot of film through a camera: Clooney himself.
“Confessions” has been one of Hollywood’s most alluring vehicles to a whole slew of actors ever since producer Andrew Lazar bought film rights to the 1984 memoir by “The Newlywed Game” creator Chuck Barris, who purports to have led a double life as a CIA hit man. Mike Myers, Russell Crowe, Sean Penn, Johnny Depp and Ben Stiller all expressed interest in playing Barris, thanks in part to a script by “Being John Malkovich” scribe Charlie Kaufman. But it wasn’t until Clooney agreed to direct and costar for a modest $500,000 in the financially risky project that “Confessions” moved forward. To keep costs down, Clooney is filming in the dead of winter in Canada, which will somehow double for New York, Philadelphia, Berlin and Helsinki. For the lead role of Barris, Clooney decided to forgo marquee names. Miramax repeatedly gonged his choice of the unfamiliar Sam Rockwell (“Galaxy Quest”), but Clooney was wowed by the actor’s dead-ringer Barris audition and prevailed after four months of haggling with the studio. He had to promise Miramax an acting cameo in “Spy Kids II” and rights to several future films in exchange for casting Rockwell.
Miramax had better not be expecting Clooney to deliver an “Ocean’s Twelve.” In their newfound producing partnership, Clooney and Soderbergh are using their clout to help emerging directors make their first big studio movies and try to shield them from executives’ second-guessing. Among their slate of movies is “Insomnia,” a $50 million thriller remake by “Memento’s” Christopher Nolan, and “Far From Heaven,” a Julianne Moore drama directed by “Velvet Goldmine’s” Todd Haynes. “We’re trying not to put movies through the terrible process that studios put movies through,” Clooney says. The actor knows his leverage will last only as long as his fame. “We won’t be able to do this forever. But we can do it now,” he says. “The only thing you can try to do is make good movies as long as you can–and stick your neck out.”
Of course, betting on a star-packed cinematic lounge act like “Ocean’s Eleven” isn’t exactly sticking your neck out (review follows). Nevertheless, the movie, a remake of the campy 1960 Rat Pack vehicle, didn’t make itself. The Las Vegas heist story sat idle at Warner Bros. for more than a decade for lack of a good script (the studio once contemplated an update with Frank Sinatra’s and Dean Martin’s lead roles played by the young rappers Kid ’n’ Play). As soon as writer Ted Griffin (“Ravenous”) penned a smart retelling of the vehicle, Clooney and Soderbergh signed up. With “Erin Brockovich” director Soderbergh behind the camera, and Clooney filling Sinatra’s shoes in the lead role, what could have been an absurd rehash was instantly transformed into a far more elusive entity: something cool.
Soderbergh and Clooney cut their fees dramatically to help attract an ensemble the likes of which hasn’t been seen since “The Towering Inferno.” The total tab for Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt and the rest of the cast, as well as the director, writer and producer: $35 million, pocket change given the wattage. Clooney, Soderbergh and producer Jerry Weintraub dedicated the rest of the $90 million budget to the production itself. Says Warner’s production chief Lorenzo di Bonaventura: “Their philosophy is to put the money on screen.”
A more apt description of Clooney’s personal philosophy might be another Sinatraism: “I did it my way.” Unafraid to speak his mind, the actor recently took on Fox’s Bill O’Reilly after the abrasive talk-show host criticized the pace of charitable distributions from the Sept. 14 “A Tribute to Heroes” telethon, which Clooney helped organize. That was just the latest in a long series of Clooney causes. After Paramount’s “Hard Copy” repeatedly broadcast furtive videotapes of stars (including Clooney) in public, the actor led a 1996 boycott of the studio’s sister show, “Entertainment Tonight.” When “ER” costar Eriq La Salle complained to TV Guide in 1997 that the magazine didn’t put many blacks on its cover, Clooney penned the protest letter signed by the cast. And when the Screen Actors Guild recently expelled three unknown members for crossing picket lines during last year’s commercial strike, Clooney criticized the union for not meting out such punishments to Tiger Woods, Elizabeth Hurley and Shaquille O’Neal, all of whom SAG says committed similar infractions. Clooney credits his outspokenness and activism to his father, Cincinnati journalist Nick Clooney. “He says, ‘Don’t look me in the eye until you have done the right thing’.” He seems to be following Dad’s advice.
