The star-studded cast George Clooney called “unprecedented”
For many years George Clooney lay hiding in the TV medical drama series ER, waiting for his moment to announce himself as a movie star. Before long, Clooney’s chance arrived and he finished off the 1990s with a flourish of film performances that set him on the way to becoming one of Hollywood’s all-time greats.
The likes of From Dusk till Dawn, Out of Sight and O Brother, Where Art Thou helped establish Clooney in the American cinema ranks, which undoubtedly led to some of his best-ever performances in Syriana, Michael Clayton and The Descendents. In addition, Clooney has significantly contributed to the cinematic medium as both a director and a producer, proving his overall worth to the world of film.
Naturally, throughout his career, Clooney has featured alongside some of the biggest names in Hollywood. However, there were few moments from his glittering history in the limelight where a cast was assembled with as much quality as Steven Soderbergh’s 2001 heist comedy movie Ocean’s Eleven.
Having previously worked with Soderbergh on Out of Sight, the director sought out Clooney for his foray into blockbuster filmmaking, a remake of the 1960 Rat Pack movie of the same name. The original film saw a brilliant cast of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop all feature, but Soderbergh’s modern remake was perhaps an even better showing of acting talent.
Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Casey Affleck and Elliot Gould, amongst others, joined Clooney. Featuring a heist of $160million from a casino owner and the ex-wife of Clooney’s character, Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven boasts one of the greatest ensemble casts ever put together, something that Clooney himself wasn’t afraid of admitting.
In an interview with the BBC, Clooney once spoke of the cast of Ocean’s Eleven, explaining that he had played a key hand in putting it together. “I was kind of the ringleader,” the actor admitted. “We went and got the cast in a similar way to the way the movie unfolds. Steven and I went about recruiting the biggest names in show business.”
What followed was a showing of pure on-set camaraderie, with Clooney pointing out that “No one went to their trailers. We just sat around the set and laughed and told stories.” In fact, Clooney went as far to say that regardless of who he acts with in the future, being in Ocean’s Eleven with Pitt, Garcia and co., “will never be better”.
The most impressive thing for Clooney, though, was the fact that such notable stars were all able to come together in a big-budget movie, which he called “unprecedented”. The actor explained, “You can get a small, independent film with a lot of stars in it, but you can’t do it with a studio film.”
In fact, Clooney admitted that the only way that such a great cast was ever going to be able to be assembled was for each individual to reconsider the kind of fee that they would normally ask for. He said, “The only way to do this was for all of us to sit down and go, ‘Look, if this is ever going to work, we all have to cut our salaries and make the film we want to make.'” Thankfully, Clooney, Pitt and Roberts all took that very cut and set about making a classic of early 2000s cinema.
