George Clooney struggled to land any Hollywood roles after his 1997 movie Batman & Robin flopped.
The 59-year-old actor starred alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alicia Silverstone, Chris O’Donnell, and Uma Thurman in the superhero movie, which took just $238 million worldwide despite having a production budget of $125 million.
Following the poor reception to the film, George found it hard to be taken seriously for further roles – until Steven Soderbergh came along with his 1998 crime comedy Out of Sight.
“Steven was coming off a couple of flops and I was coming off Batman & Robin and we both needed a success,” George explained during a Zoom interview with Britain’s The Sun on Sunday newspaper.
“Our backs were against the wall, in a way. I was still doing ER at the time and there were always these conversations about whether you can go from television to film. It was a big deal – and I was losing that argument.
“After Batman & Robin I realized I was going to be held responsible for the movie, not just for the performance. And so we waited, and when I found that movie (Out of Sight), we chased Steven down to direct it. There was a director attached and he walked away because he said I wasn’t a movie actor.”
George starred opposite Jennifer Lopez in Out of Sight, and credited Steven for “directing the hell out of” the film.
“He did a beautiful job with it,” he added.
George went on to star in films including Ocean’s Eleven, Solaris and Syriana – for which he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
