George Clooney: Leading Man

George Clooney might be celebrated

for his striking looks and effortless charisma,

but his legacy goes far beyond the allure of Hollywood.

As one of the most influential actors in the world,

Clooney has not only dominated the screen,

but has also proven his exceptional

talent behind the camera.

He was incredibly good looking,

which I think he's always very helpful for an actor,

but he also did have the talent to kind of back it up.

However, Clooney's contributions extend

beyond the realm of cinema.

He uses his platform to advocate

for causes he deeply believes in,

seamlessly blending his art with activism.

He's become a huge advocate for refugees

and for LGBTQ rights.

We see him a lot of times, really,

putting his money where his mouth is

and being one of the people who really does step up.

Together with his wife Amal,

he co-founded a charity that aims to tackle

some of the world's most challenging problems,

demonstrating his commitment to making a difference.

While some might assume that his path to stardom

was paved by his famous aunt,

the legendary Rosemary Clooney,

George's journey was far from easy.

Before achieving fame,

he endured years of struggle and hard work,

gradually building his career

through perseverance and determination.

This documentary delves into the life of George Clooney,

exploring his rise to fame, his impressive body of work,

and his unwavering dedication to activism and philanthropy.

Join us as we uncover the many layers of George Clooney,

a remarkable individual

whose impact transcends the silver screen.

In the small town of Lexington, Kentucky,

George Timothy Clooney was born on May 6th, 1961.

Raised in a family with strong connections

to the entertainment industry,

Clooney's early life was steeped in the world

of television and film.

So George Clooney comes from a showbiz background.

His father worked in television

and his aunt was the singer Rosemary Clooney.

So a very famous American singer

from the middle of the 20th century

who did the Great American Songbook.

So I think when he first hit the scene,

everyone was aware that George Clooney was related

to Rosemary Clooney 'cause she still had such a big name.

Despite his early exposure

to the entertainment industry,

George's initial passions laid elsewhere.

He was an avid sports enthusiast, particularly in baseball.

Growing up, he was a very good student

and wasn't really interested in acting at first.

He was very sporty and wanted to play baseball

and tried out, in fact,

for the Cincinnati Reds when he was about 17.

But unfortunately, he wasn't successful,

and instead decided to go to university

and become a journalist like his dad.

Two years later, George Clooney's life

took an unexpected turn when his uncle, Jose Ferrer

and cousin Miguel visited Kentucky for a nearby film shoot.

During this visit, Miguel offered George a job opportunity

as an extra on the film set.

This small break set off a chain reaction

prompting Clooney to question his journalism studies

and consider a different path.

Inspired by the experience, he began to wonder

if Los Angeles might hold the key to his future,

sparking a pivotal moment in his journey

towards Hollywood stardom.

After saving up enough money to buy a car,

George Clooney drove off to Los Angeles with dreams

of making it big in Hollywood.

The plan was to move in with his aunt, Rosemary

and his cousin, Miguel, while working as a driver

and auditioning for roles.

However, George and Miguel started partying frequently.

Seeing that George wasn't that focused on his career,

Rosemary eventually kicked him out.

He ended up moving in with his best friend,

sleeping on a mattress on the floor for a year,

struggling with little money and few auditions.

At that stage, he has so little charisma

and screen presence

and so it's really interesting to think about

what changes from that time in the early 1980s

when he's on screen, you're thinking,

"That guy's a little awkward-looking,"

to becoming this enormous screen presence

and this very mature and confident screen presence.

When he's younger, he has too much hair.

He doesn't have a particularly flattering haircut.

Despite having relatives who were actors

and kind of a father

who was a little bit connected in the industry,

he actually had to work quite hard to get his big break.

And he for a while, was starring in quite a lot of small,

low budget, quite bad films.

There's a very memorable one called "Grizzly II: Revenge",

which is about a killer bear

and is regarded for being quite terrible.

Despite the common perception

that George Clooney had an easy ride to fame

thanks to his famous aunt, Rosemary Clooney,

his journey was far from smooth.

He paid his dues in the industry,

taking on roles in notoriously questionable films like

"Return of the Killer Tomatoes".

These early gigs, far from glamorous,

were essential in shaping his resilience and determination.

So I think something like that is a fascinating relic

that proves that even someone like George Clooney

had to really start at the bottom of the barrel

when it came to his career.

Finally, in 1984,

George Clooney's first breakthrough arrived when he was cast

in a TV series set in a Chicago hospital called "E/R",

not to be confused with the later series "ER"

that would catapult him to stardom.

Although the show only ran for 22 episodes

before being canceled,

it marked his first significant step into the industry.

He had quite a few small roles around this time,

both on television and in film,

and he was doing kind of guest spots

on shows like "Golden Girls" and "Murder, She Wrote".

But he was really struggling to kind of break through

properly for a couple of years,

and it wouldn't be until the second "ER" in the '90s

that he really found his big break

and started getting noticed in Hollywood.

So George Clooney joined "ER" right at the beginning

when it was starting on NBC,

and it was kind of a cutting-edge show.

It was very grizzly and very realistic,

and took this groundbreaking documentary-style approach

where there were multiple cameras

and it was very, very fast-paced

and had a lot of very technical dialogue.

And George Clooney played Doug Ross, who was a pediatrician

and a notorious ladies man,

which I think is kind of where

his reputation as a ladies man maybe started out.

But the show was really a breath of fresh air

on the networks in America

and became incredibly successful almost overnight.

When it's working and you can feel when it isn't

or when it's mediocre,

the show is, in every sense of the word, a classy show,

and hits in general are our time slots,

and we have the best time slot NBC has to offer.

So we are a very good show in a very good time slot.

There is always a good sense that you will do well.

One of the reasons that "ER" was so popular was

that it really was like nothing else

that had been on television up until that point.

It was very much different from the kind of

scripted dramas that had come before,

and there was a real sense of urgency to it,

and it was incredibly dramatic, incredibly tense to watch,

and had this incredible cast of characters

who all felt very realistic and very lived-in.

And I think, particularly for Clooney,

it was a real showcase for him,

not only as a charismatic

and kind of charming presence on screen,

but also as someone with a real dramatic talent.

George Clooney, a name synonymous with

Hollywood charisma and versatility,

began his ascent to stardom in the mid '90s.

His first breakthrough in the movie world came in 1996

with the film "From Dusk Till Dawn",

where he co-starred with Quentin Tarantino.

So "From Dusk Till Dawn" was a vampire film

made in 1996 by Robert Rodriguez

from a script by Quentin Tarantino.

And this was a very different side to George Clooney

than had been seen in "ER".

He was playing a pretty nasty criminal

by the name of Seth Gecko, who was on the run

after a bank robbery with his little brother Richie,

played by Quentin Tarantino.

So it's a very fun concept, I think, for a film.

And I think that George Clooney really embraces

his role within the kind of chaos.

And it was the first time that he had found a role

where he was playing a kind of scummy character,

but still with this real kind of bad boy charm to him

that I think a lot of people found quite appealing.

But the film is also just really fun and really silly

and a little bit scandalous for the time.

I think that even by '90s standards,

it was still considered a little bit shocking.