Otherwise known as Batman and Sexiest Man Alive in "People Magazine," George Clooney spoke with the Daily earlier last week concerning his newfound attraction to politically-charged films as well as his weight gain - ever so disappointing to the ladies.
In his latest film, "Syriana," Clooney plays the role of Robert Barnes, an agent for the CIA involved in the web of deceit concerning the United States' oil business and its relationship with Middle Eastern powers. Falling in line with his other recent film, "Good Night, and Good Luck," "Syriana" demonstrates Clooney's willingness to relinquish his suave image and a few drops of spinal fluid in order to produce meaningful, politically relevant films.
Question: You had to gain approximately 30 pounds in 30 days to play the role of Robert Barnes. How difficult was it for you to transform into this character?
George Clooney: The truth is it's not nearly as fun as it sounds - the idea of putting on that kind of weight - but at the end of the day, in general, that's what we do for a living. So my job was just to eat as fast as I could, as much as I could, because we had wrapped "Ocean's Twelve" I think in early August, and in early September we started shooting the movie. So I didn't have a whole lot of time. But mostly you just ate until you wanted to throw up, and made sure you didn't throw up. So that was my job for a month: eating.
Q: You got a spinal cord injury on the set. How exactly did that occur?
GC: It was my own dumb fault. I was taped to a chair and a guy was pretending to hit me. It's all fake - you're not really getting punched - and I flipped myself over on the chair and cracked my head and tore what's called my dura, which is the wrapping around your spine, and ended up with what they call CSF leak, which is a cranial spinal fluid leak - good fun. I highly recommend it for everybody out there.
Q: How was it making the transition from your previous characters, who are sort of charming and charismatic - like Danny Ocean - to the semi-under-appreciated Bob Barnes?
GC: Well, it wasn't so hard. I'm fairly familiar with the guy. I spent a lot of time with Bob Baer, the real CIA guy. So the transition was mostly about making sure that there weren't any elements of Danny Ocean in this character. The way you do that, first of all, you do it changing physically, and then you spend a lot of time with the real guy to understand why he's so disenchanted with his role at the CIA and how he feels deserted, and then you sort of toss that into the mix. So it's a little bit of everything, a lot of information and a little bit of shaving your hair back.
Q: What political message is being conveyed in "Syriana"?
GC: I think it's sort of important, although I've certainly been outspoken at times politically, I thought it was important between "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "Syriana" - both films - that the idea was not to be political necessarily. Obviously it's a political film, but we showed this to a lot of neo-cons who liked it and agreed with it. Our argument, of course, is to raise a debate, not to tell people what the answers are, because clearly we don't have any answers for this, the issues or the problems...
In terms of politically, this is going after 50 or 60 years of flawed policies in the Middle East. This isn't something that happened in the last four and a half years. So in general, we certainly weren't making this as a go get Bush thing. It was much more of a let's talk about some real problems, some fundamental problems with our addiction to oil.
Q: In "Syriana," you acted, and in "Good Night, and Good Luck," not only did you act, but you also directed. Which tickled your fancy more, directing or acting?
GC: I'll tell you, directing you get to be the boss all the time. In acting, you have to listen to the director. So it's fun to be the boss. By the way, directing is something you can do when you get old and fat. So, believe me, directing is the way to go. It's actually much more creative. All kidding aside, it's actually a very creative place to be... [but] I think it would be really miserable to be directing something you hated, because it takes a long time. It's a year and a half out of your life, no matter what you do.
Q: Many of the films that you've made like "Syriana," "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "Three Kings" all have politically-charged plotlines, with various different stylistic executions. When you are choosing your projects, are you more interested in the style or the politics of the movie?
GC: I don't really look at politics necessarily. I don't look at it per se for politics, and style, you're just trying to find the proper style for the story you're telling... Those aren't nearly the elements. What I look for as an actor - or a director for that matter - is the script first. That's what you need more than anything: a good script, whether it's a comedy or whatever it is, because you can make a really bad movie out of a good script. But you just cannot make a good movie out of a bad script, period. So it's the script first, and that's what I usually look for.
Q: With films like "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "Syriana," there seems to be a new wave of socially conscious filmmaking, like the films that were being made in the '70s. Do you feel there's going to be a backlash from that in the political community or in Hollywood?
GC: I think the backlash has long since passed. The backlash was coming a couple years ago, when anyone who said anything that was against the idea of going to war was suddenly un-American. That wasn't just actors; there were a lot of people: the Pope, Bob Novak. There were a lot of people that were actually talking about that.
What it will come down to is whether or not these films make money, because ultimately, in Hollywood, that's the only answer... If you make a lot of movies that don't make any money and nobody wants to go see them, then Hollywood changes its ways and does something different.
My feeling is [that] Hollywood has had sort of a tougher time of it lately, because they haven't done very challenging films. My thought is that if you make some challenging films, then maybe some people will show up.
Q: Have you had any significant or moving or shocking personal anecdotes that you could share with us while coming in contact with some of the non-American cultures during the making of the film?
GC: I wouldn't say shocking, but I would say it's always eye-opening, because it's important, I think, for everyone to travel, to get points of view of the rest of the world. It is always eye-opening to understand how many people are mad at us over some of our actions.
I remember sitting there on the roof of a building in Casablanca. It was during Ramadan. A siren would go off and everyone would get out of their cars and face Mecca and would pray in the middle of the street. There were hundreds of people, as far as your eye could see.
I remember sitting there watching that and thinking anyone who thinks that they have the religious hierarchy over anyone else should be standing here looking at these people and understand that they have a very strong belief in what they are doing as well.
