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Features
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GC and his Twelve Disciples
Although a main commandment of George Clooney and his posse is ‘Thou Shall Not Work (Too Hard),’ it sadly does not apply to those seeking to worship at their press conference dais.
Wednesday, December 8, 2004
By Todd Gilchrist
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Jeff Vespa/Wireimage.com
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Handling fame with a smile
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It seemed like the perfect crime: steal out into the desert for a recent Saturday afternoon of interviews with some of Hollywood’s heaviest hitters, soak up some swag, and enjoy a languorous ride courtesy of the good folks at Warner Brothers. But somewhere between getting stuck in Las Vegas-bound traffic and discovering that journalists would be competing with not ten or 20 but as many as 200 questioning competitors, the PR for Ocean’s Twelve began to feel like, well, work.
I know, I know, it seems inconceivable; what other job allows you to hang out with Lake Como’s new favorite son and his pals, live to tell the tale and get paid to do so? Alas, there are those occasions when what we do in our estimable profession falls into the category of forlorn – the junket for Hilary Duff’s Raise Your Voice comes immediately to mind - but I never expected that the feeling would arise while queuing up to ask George Clooney and company about Hollywood’s hottest holiday heist.
Just as I prepared to write off the whole day as an expense of time and energy I frankly could not afford, none other than Danny Ocean himself stepped into the room. Since one of his prized commandments besides Thou Shall Not Work (Too Hard) is Thou Shall Not Bore, he quickly parried jokes back and forth with Don Cheadle and Matt Damon.
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Jeffrey Mayer/Wireimage.com
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A fellow Mr. Movie Star
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These were generally about GC’s advancing age, but what slowly emerged from the trio’s repartee is the stuff of Tinseltown legend. Namely, that you have to be one of the biggest and best actors in the business to hold the attention of a roomful of journalists while scarcely addressing more than a single frame of your latest film.
“There was no camaraderie at all on the set on this one,” jokes Clooney, before then adding quasi-seriously, “we had a great time.” Then, it’s back to the Danny Ocean demeanor: “Always fun people, except for Julia. We don't like her, or her twins.”
Even when Clooney addresses the idea of any pitfalls presented by the presence of so many A-list movie stars in the cast, he does so with unique aplomb. “With all these egos involved, you could imagine that's a problem,” he says. “The secret was [that] we didn't start the first one with the idea of doing a second, so the second one came about organically. We were literally in Rome, sitting in a restaurant, and Stephen looked up and said, ‘I've got an idea for a sequel.’”
Ah yes, hanging out in Rome with your director, shooting the breeze. Funny thing was, at the time, of Soderbergh’s inspiration, the first film hadn’t even opened. “Or maybe it had just opened,” Clooney suggests. “But the truth of the matter is we wouldn't have shown up if Steven hadn't had an idea, a different way of telling the story.”
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Jeffrey Mayer/Wireimage.com
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Clooney's director, partner
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“The problem with sequels, as we all agree, is that it's usually just a sort of rehash of the film before it, and Steven had a way of saying, well, let's mix up what just happened in the first one and really throw these guys off,” the actor maintains. “The only danger in it is to repeat yourself.”
Then, for just a moment, Clooney gets serious. “We had it all together in the first one and you were never really in doubt that we were going to pull it off, and then suddenly we get thrown by this next one and we're bumbling idiots,” he reveals. “It's sort of the natural progression where in the first one, we really planned it out. We decided to do it. We weren't forced into the situation where we had to do it.”
“All of a sudden when we’re on the defensive, it was a completely different set of rules, and that was what I think was the most fun: the audience and we all felt that we may not pull this off.”
Ironically, Clooney suggests that the first film, Ocean’s Eleven, was shot with a lot less care than people might like to remember and features copious amounts of that Soderbergh staple, the handheld camera. “Steven’s always been trying to bring the things he learned from independent films, foreign films, back into studio pictures,” Clooney says. “I think this is another step towards that; it’s a little grittier, but it’s still high end entertainment.”
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Jeffrey Mayer/Wireimage.com
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He's now got two franchises
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In addition to being partnered in the production firm Section Eight Films, Clooney and Soderbergh can now rely on the shorthand that comes from having done multiple cinematic collaborations. “This isn’t a group of guys who just got together for one movie before this,” Clooney maintains. “We did Out of Sight together, we did Fail Safe together, we’ve worked on a lot of projects together. This whole group of people, it’s a group we really enjoy not just working with but being around. So when you all get together in a room, it is really fun.”
“There is a good sense of camaraderie not just because you like the guys, but because you get to work with them a lot.”
Of course, no Clooney endeavor would be complete without a requisite dose of practical jokes, both on the grounds of his Italian villa hideaway and elsewhere. “Brad had done some dastardly things to me,” he remembers of Pitt who, in the current HBO First Look special on Ocean’s Twelve, matches Clooney’s deadpan. “When we first got to Italy, Brad had a memo put out in Italian that said to all the Italian crew that Mr. Clooney would appreciate it if you would only engage him as Danny Ocean or Mr Ocean, and don't look at him in the eyes.”
Clooney says it was almost a month before he discovered Pitt’s ruse. “Everywhere I went, it was like, ‘okay Mr. Ocean,’ until I finally said ‘what the hell?’”
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Lester Cohen/Wireimage.com
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Producer Jerry Weintraub
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It took Clooney some time to come up with an appropriate plan for revenge, crude though it may have been. “When it got into the paper that I was like this diva that made all the crew call me Mr Ocean, I felt like I had to get him,” Clooney says. “So I just put a bumper sticker on the back of his car, ‘I'm gay and I vote.’ Then it was ‘Small Penis on Board.’”
And in the wonderful world of George Clooney, this kind of tomfoolery is but a footnote to the actual fun he has when he works for a living. “There were a few pranks and antics, [but] the fun part I think for us there in Rome at the top of the Derussi Hotel. [Producer] Jerry [Weintraub] built basically a restaurant bar on top of this hotel so we didn't have to go anywhere, so every night after work there would be, I don't know, 40 or 50 of us just sitting up there.”
It would certainly appear that, like Clooney, Weintraub believes that camaraderie is far more important to any good caper movie than the actual details of the caper itself. “You want to have a good story and you want to have a good fun caper, but I think the mistake that filmmakers make is when they decide that the caper's the most important thing in the film,” Clooney concurs.
“It's like everybody failed for so long in making [these movies],” he continues. “Until Get Shorty, they failed at making Elmore Leonard films because instead of focussing on the characters, they were focusing on the capers. The capers, in Elmore Leonard books, aren’t particularly good but the characters were amazing.”
And so, as Ocean’s Twelve gets ready to obliterate all box office comers this holiday season weekend, the question has to be asked. Have Clooney and Soderbergh chatted lakeside in northern Italy yet about the possibility of Ocean’s Thirteen?
“We came up with the musical, Ocean’s Five, Six, Seven, Eight,” replies Clooney, before adding, “look, we're not even thinking about it. Honestly, we really aren't.”
“The only reason we did this second one was because Steven said here's a great idea, and Jerry said let's put it together. Let’s face it, this is a great gig. That’s why we continue to do it. We really like it at this level because we get to be more creative. You get to have some input in what you’re making as opposed to just relying on what they want to do. It’s an exciting place to be for me.”
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