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After ‘Batman and Robin’, George Clooney Decided to Try Doing Good Movies Instead

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George Clooney is basically some untouchable God who deigns to walk among us for some reason, sort of like Dr. Manhattan from The Watchmen but, I imagine, with a bigger (and less blue) hog. Look at the guy’s wife; she’s 20 years younger than him, drop-dead gorgeous and she’s a brilliant and internationally respected human rights lawyer. Look at his hair; I wish my hair looked like his and he does that with a Flowbee.

But George Clooney was not always a god among men, though. At one point, Clooney was just a hot TV doctor. Sure, he was in a lot of demand when ER was a massive hit, but when is the last time you saw Patrick Dempsey in an A-list film?

Clooney’s big break was playing Batman in Batman and Robin, or, it would have been had that movie not been a flaming pile of garbage. That movie was so bad (and Michael Keaton’s outings under the direction of Tim Burton were so good) that it could have completely torpedoed Clooney’s career. But George had an idea that really saved him and turned him into the figure of mild worship he is today: he decided to be in good movies.

Former Batman Clooney talked to former Catwoman Michelle Pfeiffer for Variety and mentioned how he learned from Batman and Robin.

After “Batman & Robin” came out, and it was a big bomb — you learn from your failures; you don’t learn from successes. So then I thought, I have to focus really on the script. It’s not just about my part; it’s about the whole movie. The next three films I did were “Out of Sight,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and “Three Kings,” which were really great screenplays. They didn’t all do very well financially, but they were all critically well received.

It became clear to me that you can make a bad film out of a good script, but you can’t make a good film out of a bad script. I gravitate toward pieces that interest me. They don’t always end up working, because there are so many things that can go wrong, including me.

O Brother, Where Art Thou is a standout there for me, that is an amazing movie. After that, Clooney booked a remake of a Rat Pack heist movie called Ocean’s 11 and that is what made him a superstar.

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