George Clooney ended up in hospital after losing almost 2 stone for film role

Four days before he was due to start work on his new movie, George Clooney was rushed to hospital with excruciating stomach pains.

Diagnosed with pancreatitis, which can be life-threatening, the actor had to spend days in hospital.

The 59-year-old had lost nearly 2st for his upcoming role as a survivor of a global catastrophe and believes his diet may have contributed to his illness.

He says: “I think I was trying too hard to lose the weight quickly and probably wasn’t taking care of myself.”

George had been due to fly to the Arctic to direct and star in The Midnight Sky, alongside Brit actors Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo.

In it, he plays a cancer-riddled astronomer who battles the elements at his remote snow-swept station to contact the crew of a returning spaceship.

The star, who has directed six other films, said this was his biggest project yet – and he needed to be in peak condition to see it through.

He says: “It took a few weeks to get better and as a director it’s not so easy because you need energy.

“We were out on this glacier in Finland, which made it a lot harder work. But it certainly helped with the character. This is bigger than anything I’ve done before and it was like herding cats to get it done. But, you know, it was fun.”

As well as losing weight for the role, he had to stop shaving – which was not very popular with wife Amal, 42.

He says: “I grew a big ugly beard and my son loved it because he’d hide things in it which I wouldn’t know about until I got to work and I’d be like, ‘Oh, there’s a popsicle stuck in my beard’.

“But my wife and daughter were really happy when it came off because it was very hard to find a face underneath all that mess.”

George was talking via Zoom from his home in the Hollywood Hills where he, Amal and their three-year-old twins Alexander and Ella have spent the past 10 months since the pandemic struck, rather than at their homes in England or Italy.

“We really haven’t moved since February,” he says.

“It’s easier in Los Angeles because it’s not raining and snowing, so it’s a lot easier to walk out in the street. These drug companies have done an amazing job and we’re almost there so it would be really stupid to blow it now. So we’re staying here and we’ll do Christmas here.

“There’s nothing more fun than sitting there in the morning with my kids singing in Italian and us making breakfast for them. I picked right when I picked Amal. It’s just the two of us having dinner together every night and we never run out of conversation. We couldn’t be happier with our lives and we couldn’t feel luckier.”

While at home he has re-discovered the domestic and handyman skills he had before he became famous.

“I was a broke bachelor for a long time and I did all the things I’m doing now,” he says.

“I did my own laundry and washed dishes and mopped, and I painted the entire interior and exterior of my house. And now it’s just the four of us here and so I’m back to doing all of that.

“I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for the four of us, I wood-stained all the wood furniture outside and the walls. And I did all the things that I haven’t done in a bit, which was a good reminder that I can still do them all. It’s fun.”

George grew up in a small town in Kentucky, US, the son of a beauty queen mum and TV personality dad, and moved to LA aged 21 to stay with his aunt, singer Rosemary Clooney.

During a decade struggling for roles he appeared in 15 pilots for TV series that never made it to the screen, and had small parts in little-seen films such as Return Of The Killer Tomatoes and Grizzly II: The Predator.

Then in 1994 he landed the regular role of Dr Doug Ross in ER, which launched him as a heartthrob and made him a star.

He has now appeared in nearly 50 films and over 20 TV series, won two Oscars – for best supporting actor in 2005’s Syriana and as producer of 2013 winner Argo – and become an accomplished director.

On top of all that is the Casamigos tequila firm he founded with businessman Rande Gerber, which they sold for a billion dollars three years ago.

“We’re still deeply involved in it,” he says. “We’re still the only people in charge of the product itself and still on the payroll. It’s been incredibly fun. We didn’t do it as a business. We did it for ourselves and for Christmas presents for our friends, so it’s worked out very well.”

George has a charitable foundation that donates millions to a variety of good causes and, closer to home, he once gave 14 friends $1million each. He says: “Most of my friends don’t have a lot of money and they’ve got to put their kids in college and stuff.

“I was making out my will and looking at who I was going to give money to, and I realised we’re waiting until we’ll all be old. I thought ‘Well, they need it now so why don’t we get it over with now?’ And right after, the movie Gravity came out and we were paid in percentages, so I made the money back almost immediately.”

But his children must fend for themselves when they grow up.

“They’re going to have to make their own living,” he says. “The idea should always be that you’re there as a backstop but you’re not there to just funnel money. My hope is that if they want to, they will help run the foundation because we have a great interest in it lasting long after we’re gone. I’d hope I’d be able to instil into our children the importance of making your own way and looking out for others.

“From the time I was very young, every Christmas morning we’d have to go to some stranger’s house and take the whole family presents. That’s an element we will instil in our children as well – that we’re responsible for one another and not just in the family.”

In the meantime, George turns 60 in May.

He says: “That’s a number that is always surprising to say but I feel that if you’re living a good life you don’t really look at it like that.

“It isn’t worth counting and worrying about the days and age because the truth is there’s nothing we can do about it.

“So you try to attack life as much as you can and enjoy it and stay as healthy as you possibly can for as long as you can.”

More On

Felicity JonesGeorge Clooney