George Clooney: Clint Eastwood sets the Bar

THE SKINNY: While promoting his new film THE GOOD GERMAN directed by Steven Soderbergh, star George Clooney revealed the trick for him to be able to do his smaller, more personal films is to mix in a commercial film every now and again – something he learned from the master at this Clint Eastwood.

“Clint [Eastwood] set the bar,” admits Clooney. “He sort of understood exactly how to do that, and we have an office right next door to him. Literally, we’re right next door to him. For ten years I’ve seen him everyday, but he sort of gave a great pattern on how to do it, and I think that it’s a smart way of doing it. You do one that you hope can make some money commercially and maybe that buys two smaller ones along the way, and that seems to be what we’ve been able to successfully do along the way.”

As for how different OCEAN’S THIRTEEN will be, Clooney reveals there will be more character interaction this time out.  “It’s back to ELEVEN in terms of spending more time with the guys, but it’s about revenge which I think is just such a good motivator after you’ve had these guys make a lot of money,” says Clooney. “What are you going to do? Make even more money? So this one is about just getting someone who hurt one of our guys, and I always love films like that.” (IF Magazine)