George Clooney , Sexiest Man Alive

Spotlight By: Michael Dance
MichaelDance@TheCinemaSource.com

George Clooney is the classic man's man, a liberal activist, and one of the select few in Hollywood's true elite. So it's nice when he takes some time off from all that and actually makes a movie. This month he's out with Ocean's Thirteen, the third (and supposedly final) installment of the hit starpowered franchise.



Actually, Clooney keeps quite busy with films. "I've been working nonstop. I just wrapped a film on Friday, Friday night in North Carolina, that I wrote and directed and all of that, and acted in, so I'm pretty whipped." (He's referring to the upcoming 1920s football drama Leatherheads, which co-stars John Krasinski and Renee Zellweger.)

Late last year he starred in Steven Soderbergh's The Good German, a black-and-white post-World War II drama that evoked strong memories of Casablanca. He and Soderbergh, who has also directed all three Ocean's movies, often team up on projects. One imagines, however, that there could hardly be fewer similarities between The Good German and Ocean's Thirteen.

For one thing, he didn't get asked too many questions about gambling on the press junkets for that last one. Surprisingly, he says he's not into it that much. "I'm not a big poker player, these guys [his castmates] love the poker. I'm not a big gambler; I gamble in other ways in Vegas (laughs). I love casinos, but I go in, play a little bit for a minute, then get sort of worn out on it."

And don't even talk to him about Blackjack: "I had never won in my life."

At this point his co-star Matt Damon jumps in: "That's true. During Ocean's 11, I watched him lose, I helped finance him to lose, 25 straight blackjack hands in a row. Which I think was a record. And it happened. I saw it happen. I would never have believed it unless I saw it happen."

Clooney adds: "It got to the point where even the dealer was laughing at me."

The camaraderie on set is one of the things that effortlessly comes across with these guys in interviews. And during the periods of time when they weren't on massive losing streaks in a casino, the bond was still there. Over the course of the three films, many of the stars have gotten married, and had kids.

"I have a different perspective than the rest of them," says the still-single Clooney. "Because I get to watch all these guys grow up, becoming dads, having kids, and it's fun to watch them grow."

Even though this flick may be the last we see of Danny Ocean and his gang, one gets the impression that shooting the film was, though enjoyagble, also business as usual.

"The funniest thing about movies is, you're really excited to start them, you like doing them, and you're also really happy

when they're finished. Because you sort of need to move on at some point," he says. "This is a great group of guys, and we felt that this was probably it...[but] it wasn't hard when we wrapped it."