George Clooney was shunned by Hollywood after 'Batman & Robin' flopped.
George Clooney
The 59-year-old actor starred alongside the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Uma Thurman in the 1997 superhero movie, and he's revealed that the much-maligned project nearly ruined his film career, as Hollywood directors refused to work with him.
George - who appeared in the TV drama 'ER' from 1994 to 1999 - thinks his fortunes changed when he teamed up with Steven Soderbergh to make the crime comedy 'Out Of Sight'.
He shared: "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.
"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 realised 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, 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.
"It all worked out. Steven directed the hell out of that movie - he did a beautiful job with it."
Despite his fame and success, George remains humble in his approach to his career.
He told The Sun on Sunday newspaper: "I cut tobacco for a living for three dollars and 33 cents an hour. And I knew one thing when I left Kentucky, which was I didn’t want to be a tobacco cutter - I was pretty sure of that. So everything on top of that has been gravy for me.
"That’s why I tend to find it silly when people are tortured by it. 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.
"I was a struggling actor for 15 years. 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.'"
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