Los Angeles, April 03: George Clooney may be one of the elite Hollywood stars to have earned Oscar nominations for acting and film-making, but the iconic heart-throb is still getting used to directing himself.
After missing out on a second Academy Award earlier this year for his performance in the legal drama "Michael Clayton", Clooney is back on screen this week with his gridiron comedy "Leatherheads."
The film, which opens in US theatres on Friday before release in international markets later this year, is a screwball comedy inspired by the raucous early years of professional American Football in the 1920s.
It marks a light-hearted change of tack for Clooney, who has earned acclaim for his performances in a string of recent weighty dramas such as "Michael Clayton", "Good Night and Good Luck" and "Syriana".
Clooney, 46, told reporters at a recent press event in Beverly Hills that he had been keen to make and star in "Leatherheads" in order to avoid being pigeon-holed as a politically-driven filmmaker.
"After 'Syriana' and 'Good Night and Good Luck', every project that came to me was 'issues' based. Everybody was happy to let me direct but it was always going to be something political," Clooney said.
"I had a great fear of being the 'issues' director' because the issues change. And I have much bigger interest in being a director. So I thought I want to do something completely different."
Clooney had been made aware of the "Leatherheads" project almost a decade earlier after being shown the script by long-time collaborator and Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh.
However bringing the film to the big screen went on the backburner, as Clooney focused on other movies, before revisiting the script in late 2006 and reworking the story ahead of filming in 2007 with a cast that includes Oscar-winner Renee Zellweger and Jonathan Pryce.
With Clooney's character required to feature in a number of physically demanding sequences, the star was also keenly aware of the march of time.
"I'm 46. I realised if I don't make this film now, I'm never going to do it," Clooney said. "I was also going to play football. And it hurt. The first day I got hit by a 21-year-old and it hurt."
Clooney said the experience of directing a film and starring in the lead role had been an eye-opener that he was unlikely to repeat.
"I wouldn't by design direct a film where I would play the lead ever again. It was a dumb move in some ways," he said, citing the awkwardness of having to direct co-stars while starring in the same scene as them.
"It's tricky because there's an enormous amount of narcissism that comes into play," Clooney said. "You're breaking the trust between two actors particularly when you're doing the lead and directing.
"If you and I are doing a scene together I'm not supposed to be judging you as an actor. While a lot of actors will suggest how to do something, in general it is the director who performs that role. So you're breaking that trust.
"As an actor it's easy because I know exactly what I need from a scene.
"But it's embarrassing when you're sitting across from Renee and she's doing a fantastic job, but you know that the camera has come in too close, too soon and you have to say 'Cut!'."
Bureau Report
