George Clooney thinks that Johnny Depp and Mark Wahlberg "regret" turning down 'Ocean's Eleven'.
George Clooney says that the cast of 'Ocean's Eleven' could have been very different
The 61-year-old actor revealed that the stars turned down the chance to feature in the 2001 heist comedy film during an appearance with director Steven Soderbergh at the TCM Classic Film Festival.
George, who played Danny Ocean in the movie, said: "Steven had just done 'Erin Brockovich' and 'Traffic', and he was nominated for (an Oscar) directing both films. So, people really wanted to work with Steven."
Soderbergh interjected: "That said, some people did say no to us."
Clooney added: "They did. Some very famous people told us to f*** right off: Mark Wahlberg, Johnny Depp. There were others. They regret it now. I regret doing f****** Batman."
The 'Ticket to Paradise' star also praised Soderbergh for including 1970s cinematic traits in 'Ocean's Eleven'.
George recalled: "It's also important to understand where we were at the time. The studios were making very big, broad, not very good films at that time.
"Steven had this idea of trying to infuse all of this independent film stuff that all of these young filmmakers were learning back into the studio system. It was going to get back to the things that they were doing from like 1964 to 1975."
The director explained how he saw the film as a chance to combine his indie techniques with big-budget Hollywood filmmaking.
Soderbergh said: "It felt like the next iteration in my desire to work in the mainstream film business and make movies that could be released in a lot of theatres.
"I grew up watching movies made by great filmmakers that were commercially successful, distinctive movies. And I wanted to be part of that tradition."
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