The two worst performances of George Clooney’s career: “I wasn’t particularly good”
I don’t mean this to sound rude, but someone needs to clue me in on what George Clooney did to become one of the most well-known actors of our time, because it actually takes me a minute to be able to recall a single project he’s been in.
It’s only really when looking at his résumé that things come flooding back. I remember liking him a lot in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, he’s obviously good in the Oceans movies, and in Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr Fox, his voice acting was so great that it seemed to challenge all other stars to do better in that particular craft, but all that still doesn’t quite feel like his looming reputation matches up to his accolades and accomplishments.
The actor himself seems to feel that too, and he seems to understand where it’s coming from. In an interview with Time Out, the journalist addressed the elephant in the room as he said, “Descriptions of your roles are often prefaced with, ‘In a departure from his usual heartthrob roles…’, but it’s rare that you actually play a heartthrob”. Overwhelmingly, Clooney’s reputation is that of one of Hollywood’s most attractive men, and that seems to outshine whatever he’s actually doing on screen, which is why the actor responded, “It’s the funniest thing!”
Being handsome seems to be both a blessing and a curse for him. “I get people saying, ‘He’s surprisingly not bad in this film…’,” he said as people seem to consistently doubt his acting skills, leaving him to ask, “When are you gonna stop being so surprised?”
But on the flipside, his reputation does also cover up all manner of sins from the times when Clooney himself can admit that he has actually been genuinely awful in projects. In particular, two stick out as films that haunt him, keeping him up at night because he knows without a shadow of a doubt that he didn’t do well there.
“I’ve been bad in films. I was bad in Batman & Robin. It wasn’t a good film, but I was bad in it,” he said, admitting that he made a rough situation even worse by delivering a toe-curlingly poor performance as Batman in the 1997 superhero movie, perhaps accounting for why he was never brought back into that cinematic universe.
The film was so bad that it was nominated for 11 Razzie awards, including being in the running for ‘Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property’, losing out to Con Air, but still, the insult is there.
Another movie he has to feel ashamed about more comes down to his lack of experience rather than poor source material. In the same year as Batman & Robin, Clooney also starred in a political action movie, admitting, “I wasn’t particularly good in The Peacemaker,” before he held his hands up and added, ”I didn’t understand certain things. I hadn’t done many films. I didn’t really understand what I was trying to do”.
However, it’s not like this was his first project. This was his tenth feature film, and he was well over a decade into his career as a professional actor, so I’m not sure how well that excuse covers his back. Either way, the shame is there as Clooney himself is willing to admit where he failed.
