Hard to imagine that anyone would want to shun George Clooney but that is what the actor said Hollywood did after the flop of “Batman & Robin”.
The 1997 take of the caped crusader also starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alicia Silverstone, Chris O’Donnell, and Uma Thurman.
Speaking to the Sun on Sunday, Clooney said things only improved in the aftermath of the film when he was cast in Steven Soderbergh’s “Out Of Sight”.
“Steven was coming off a couple of flops and I was coming off ‘Batman & Robin’ and we both needed a success. Our backs were against the wall, in a way,” Clooney recalled.
“I was still doing ‘ER’ at the time and there were always these conversations about whether you can go from television to film,” he added. “It was a big deal — and I was losing that argument.”
Clooney said that he knew he was “going to be held responsible” for the failure of “Out Of Sight” after “Batman & Robin”.
“And so we waited, and when I found that movie (‘Out Of Sight’), we chased Steven down to direct it,” he continued. “There was a director attached and he walked away because he said I wasn’t a movie actor. It all worked out. Steven directed the hell out of that movie — he did a beautiful job with it.”
Clooney also admitted that he doesn’t understand those who are “tortured” by fame.
“It doesn’t mean they don’t have rough times and something doesn’t make somebody mad, but the general overall spirit should be exciting,” he said, pointing out that he was a “struggling actor for 15 years.”
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“Any job you got, it was, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ And you’d show up and some guy is a jerk and you’re like, ‘I don’t care. I got a job. I’m getting paid and paying the rent. I’m thrilled to be here. I’m lucky.'”
In the same interview, Clooney revealed that he almost starred in “The Notebook” with Paul Newman.
