Clooney and Soderbergh Q&A Comparison

MOVIES — George Clooney has trust issues
By HOWIE RUMBERG

When Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney started a production company together in 2000 called Section Eight, they seemed like an odd pair, to say the least.

On the one hand, there’s Soderbergh: a heady director famous for jump-starting the U.S. independent film scene in 1989 with “Sex, Lies and Videotape.” Until he directed Clooney in the 1998 hit “Out of Sight,” Soderbergh was known for smaller intellectual fare such as “Schizopolis” and “Kafka.”

And then there’s Clooney: at the time he was on track to be the next hunky TV star who couldn’t make the leap to the big screen. Clooney’s best work off the set of “ER” might have been as Sparky the Dog on “South Park” had he not made the stellar script for “Out of Sight” sparkle. His pre-Soderbergh filmography: “The Peacemaker,” “One Fine Day” and “Batman and Robin.”

“Out of Sight” came along at the right time for both of them, but if every successful director-actor tandem opened their own shop, you’d see a lot of failed companies.  Soderbergh and Clooney made their company a force in the biz. Section Eight has produced one of the most diverse slates of films and television shows in the new century — a testament to the pair’s shared devotion to telling stories in original ways. “Syriana,” “Far From Heaven,” “K Street” “Good Night, and Good Luck” all made it to the screen with some form of Soderbergh-Clooney participation. Even the “Ocean’s” series — “Ocean’s Thirteen” opens next year — is more satisfying than most big action movies.

Their latest, and one of their last as producing partners — Section Eight is closing shop — is made in the style of the 1940s studio system. “The Good German” is yet another example of the duo’s commitment to telling compelling tales using unique techniques. Who else could get the greenlight on a black and white murder mystery-political thriller that mostly takes place in Berlin during the postwar Potsdam Peace Conference? (Shameless self-promotion: Clooney plays a former AP Berlin bureau chief in the film.)

asap wanted to see how much the partners really were in sync, as they both have insisted they are, so we asked each the same questions in separate interviews.

asap: What did you learn from working with (Steven/George)?

Clooney: There’s a bunch of jokes in there, but the truth is that everything I do from writing to directing to producing to acting for that matter have been informed by things I’ve learned from Steven. (laughing) I mean learned or stolen. One of the two. I mean he’s — he and Joel and Ethan (Coen) have been the biggest influence on my career creatively. I watch how they do it and what they do and try and pick things that I can do and use a lot of the same methods they use. But Steven, especially because he’s a good friend, he’s a big part of my life and has been a great influence on everything.

Soderbergh: Well it’s tempting to say nothing because we’re so similar in our attitudes about work, and so similar in terms of our likes that I don’t know that we learned anything so much as had certain ideas confirmed about how to do things. We both have a certain belief in how you should conduct yourself and what kind of things you should do creatively if you’re given the opportunity and the freedom. And part of the reason it was such a good partnership was that we were in sync about that kind of stuff. I think what we learned is that we had solid idea about how to navigate our careers.

asap: What was the turning point in your career, where you went from struggling to having the ability to green light projects?

Clooney: After “Batman and Robin” I figured if I am going to get beat up, it’s going to be on my say. So I waited for a while until I found the script for “Out of Sight” and when that came around I really fought to get it and Steven fought to get it. Steven was coming off the “Underneath” so it wasn’t his best time, and from that point on — and that film was nominated for best screenplay and it’s a really good film and it might easily be the best film I’ve been in — that movie all the way through the decision has been we’ll base it on screenplay first.

Soderbergh: There’s always a line. “Out of Sight” made it possible for me to get access to things that I couldn’t get access to before and to be considered for things that I wouldn’t be considered for prior. But probably in terms of having as many opportunities as you can, not imagine, but to feel like the playing field was really large, the peak had to be after the first “Ocean’s.” You know, Coming off “Erin (Brockovich),” “Traffic” and “Ocean’s (Eleven),” at that point I was in a terrific position and there are days when I think I should have just quit right after “Ocean’s”: I made 11 movies and it’s all down from here.

asap: What’s it like working in the old style?

Clooney: It’s hard…the trust issues that are required to go in and say we’re going to drop any sort of internal work as an actor and everything is going to be external and everything is going to be out front. You’re going to see everything at sort of a heightened reality is so beyond both Kate and my comfort zone that we’d finish a take and Steven would go, ‘That’s the right place to be, that’s how high it should be because this what the music’s going to be like and this is what the …’ And when he would say that and we’d finish a take, we’d so many times sit there with our head in our hands, rubbing our head going, ‘God, are you sure?’ And he’s like, ‘I’m telling you it has to be up like this.’ So it required a huge amount of trust, which is not something I give away easily.

Soderbergh: It was fun. It was really fun. I would’ve been very happy back then. Going to work. Making a couple of different movies a year. Working with the best technicians. I love shooting on the lot. I would’ve functioned very, very well as a director under that system. That would’ve been great with me. But it’s different now. Except if I got sick then, I would want to be teleported into future. Medicine in the ’40s? No. Getting an operation? No. (Austin360)