George Clooney is Dumb III

Clooney says he was also inspired by the Coen brothers, whom, he teases, “have changed since they won the Oscars”. “What Joel and Ethan did when I did O Brother, Where Art Thou? was to make fun of me and the movie star persona,” he explains. “I like that and I think it’s good to shake it up. It was especially good for me after the last couple of years.” Clooney is not returning any time soon to serious political drama. His next film as an actor, Burn After Reading - his third comedy with the Coens - opens in North America on September 12. “Joel and Ethan call it my trilogy of idiots,” he says, referring to O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Intolerable Cruelty. “The only thing that made me feel better was that Brad Pitt is as stupid as I am in this one. I get to play Tilda Swinton’s lover who hates me and is rotten to me throughout the whole thing. It’s a flat-out comedy. There’s not a message in it.”

Via Screendaily