George Clooney has seen ups and down in his early days, even before his break breaking into Hollywood. Now, one of the most famous and sought-after actors, Clooney has always been candid about talking about his early memories in the industry.
The horror comedy-crime thriller From Dusk Till Dawn has shined the light upon him. Making his debut in Robert Rodriguez’s 1996 film the actor went on to achieve some of the most iconic titles in Hollywood leading him to win an Oscar for Stephen Gaghan’s 2005 thriller Syriana.
When Fans Thought George Clooney Was Tom Cruise’s Bodyguard
Tom Cruise has seen a continuous rise in his success since his debut in Hollywood. The actor has always been a successful mega star in the industry. When Cruise was married to Australian beauty Nicole Kidman, the couple shared quite a spotlight together while being one of Hollywood’s most talked about celebrity couples. When George Clooney was hanging out with the couple fans that the newcomer was the couple’s bodyguard. Recalling the moment, Clooney candidly joked that he wanted to charge Cruise’s obsessed fans looking for his autograph. “People thought I was Tom and Nicole’s bodyguard,” Clooney said.
“They’d come up and go, “Is it okay if I go up and ask for an autograph?’ It was good. I’d charge ’em three bucks a person. Yeah, you gotta make some money off of that.”
The 62-year-old actor said that he had to wait quite a long time to see a glimpse of success. “I didn’t become really successful until I was in my thirties,” Clooney said.
“I can still remember sitting on the closet floor of my buddy’s house, completely broke. My friends would want to go out to dinner, to get a hamburger, and I couldn’t afford to go. They had the money to pay, but I didn’t want them to pay. That happened a lot. At one point, I remember my buddy Brad loaning me a hundred dollars. He’s now running our production company. I’m still paying that debt off, you know?”
But those days are over now, the Ocean’s Eleven actor has all the success he can get earning loads of money as his estimated net worth has crossed the $500 million mark.
George Clooney Responded to Tom Cruise’s Controversy
During the promotion of his Netflix movie The Midnight Sky, Clooney responded to Tom Cruise’s COVID-19 controversy. Cruise was in controversy when audio of the star went viral where he treated his employees disrespectfully for breaching COVID-19 protocols on the set of Mission: Impossible 7. “We are not shutting this f*cking movie down! Is it understood? If I see it again, you’re fucking gone,” Cruise said on the audio.
Responding to the controversy, Clooney said that he would have taken a different approach if he were in the same position. “I wouldn’t have done it that big, I wouldn’t have pulled people out,” Clooney said. “You’re in a position of power. It’s tricky, you do have a responsibility for everyone and he’s absolutely right about that,” he added.
“If the production goes down a lot of people lose their jobs. People have to understand that and be responsible. It’s just not my style to take everybody to task that way.”
The American actor further said that such a rant does not help. “It doesn’t help necessarily, to point to specific people in that way,” he said adding “everybody has their own style.”
“The people who were on that shoot will tell us more about it. I understand why he did it, he’s not wrong at all, I just don’t know if I would have done it quite that personally. But I don’t know the circumstances, maybe he had it 10 or 15 times before.”
Clooney is set to direct The Boys in the Boat which is based on Daniel James Brown’s book of the same name. The movie stars Callum Turner and Joel Edgerton and is scheduled to release on 25 December 2023.
