Wednesday, January 8, 1997
FILM:
Busy actor ready for rest, recreation after heavy schedule
subsidesBy Michael Horowitz
Daily Bruin Staff
George Clooney flashes one of his quick smiles and sees the
light at the end of the tunnel. After portraying a journalist in
"One Fine Day," a military expert in "The Peacemaker" and the Caped
Crusader in the fourth "Batman" the man who plays a pediatrician on
television’s "ER," has just figured out how to rest a little.
"I’ll tell you what I’m going to do," he says. "I’m going to
finish this gig (‘Batman and Robin’) mid-February, then I finish
off ‘ER’ mid-April, I owe Warner Brothers a film this summer,
which’ll be fun, don’t know what I’m going to do quite yet, but
there’s some fun stuff on the table and we’ll figure that out,
start up ‘ER’ again, finish that up, but not doing any more of this
7 day a week thing, I’ll take a break from features for a little
bit, and then when my contract is up," Clooney says, "I’ll take a
break."
He takes a breath and it all makes sense. At least for a
whirlwind paragraph he’s been able to see his way out of the maze
of projects for which he’s signed up.
Clooney hasn’t always had these numerous opportunities, so he’s
getting while the getting’s good.
"When you get an opportunity to do some good projects, you try
and do as many as you can. And try to cover all your bases, because
it doesn’t last."
Film audiences, though, haven’t seen much of Clooney on the big
screen yet. Besides his first starring role in the blood-soaked
"From Dusk Til Dawn," the current "One Fine Day" provides him with
a showcase to do what he does best. Opposite Michelle Pfeiffer in
the now-playing romantic comedy, he’s got charisma, humor,
excitement  the complete package. He’s a movie star.
His director and co-stars are all naming him with icons of
Hollywood’s past he emulates, and he says that the screwball
comedies of old were very much on people’s minds while shooting
"One Fine Day."
"When we sat down I said, ‘You know what? This is "Adam’s Rib."
These are the guys I loved. This is Tracy and Hepburn.’ There were
scenes in this that reminded me of Tracy and Hepburn classics," he
says.
"One of the reasons romantic comedies don’t work now is that a
lot of those elements are now missing: very strong characters who
are very opinionated. There’s no question when you see this movie
of what the outcome is going to be; I don’t think any of us are
surprised in any way by it. So you’ve got to enjoy the
journey."
In the interest of recapturing that old school spirit, director
Michael Hoffman used split screens and other tricks of old to speed
up the pace. Clooney and Pfeiffer picked up the pace of the
patter.
Just as the chemistry in the classic romantic comedies was
dependent on the evenly-matched nature of the duo, Clooney was
pleased to see in the finished product that the much more
experienced Pfeiffer didn’t make him look bad. "My main concern the
whole time was to see if I could hold my own with someone of her
caliber," he laughs.
That means Clooney has a lot to be concerned about, because
everyone at his new plateau is going to be of high caliber. After
many years in the business, he’s on the Hollywood A-list.
He’s not an overnight success, but he certainly doesn’t describe
his past as "struggling."
"Sometimes people are a little nicer to me than they should be
and they’ll say I’ve struggled for years," he says. "The struggle
was to get better television, but as an actor I’ve been working for
13-14 years straight, so I’ve made a living in an industry that you
don’t make a living in."
There’s no debating the show that made the difference. "’ER’ was
it," he says. "I’ve said this before, and this is in no way false
modesty: whoever played these roles on this show would be
successful. This show is that good. And the star of the show is the
show."
The show’s continuing quality is one of the reasons why Clooney
is determined to stick to his promise to continue the program. Even
if that means many seven-day work weeks.
For Clooney, it’s all about opportunity, and he’s determined not
to get carried away in the hype. A long time ago he realized that
even when he was doing bad TV, he wasn’t all that bad. And now that
he’s got a chance to do quality films, it’s not because he’s all
that much better.
"One simple lesson that I’ve used all along is that you’re never
as good as they say you are when things are good, and you’re never
as bad as they say you are when they say you’re bad. It’s that
simple," he says. "When things go well for you, everyone
compliments you, everyone tells you you’re great. And when things
aren’t going so well, it’s your fault and you’re an idiot."