Inspired form a thread in the pit.
I feel I shouldn’t like George Clooney. He’s a pretty boy, my Mum fancies him and I didn’t like ER.
However, he has been in some of my favourite movies. (From Dusk till Dawn, Three Kings) and he’s done quite well as an actor in them. I haven’t see ‘O brother…’ yet (should I?).
I feel a kind of grudging respect for him.
So, what do other Dopers think of him? and do I like him?
Yeah, I know what you mean, I keep wanting to hate him too. But I saw him interviewed on Charlie Rose and he was hysterically funny at times. And bright. And not particularly engrossed with himself.
I think it’s ER that you hate, and that character. It’s ok to like George Clooney. He’s not a great actor, but he’s clearly trying, and he’s not a bad person.
Bruce Willis is the one I struggle with - because I’m pretty sure he’s a bad person, and I’m pretty sure I hate everything he stands for, but he’s so damn likable.
Yes, you should definitely see O Brother, Where Art Thou!
My feelings about George “The Second Replacement Batman” Clooney ranged from indifference to mild dislike until I saw this flick…I think he was terrific in it, funny as hell.
Anyone who can twist his face up like that and deliver lines like “But I’m the PATERFAMILIAS!” and “I’m a Dapper Dan man!” and “It’s a fool that looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart!” is all right in my book.
I second the vote for seeing O Brother Where Art Thou. Truly a modern classic… Mr. Winnie & I watched it last night. Beautiful soundtrack. One of Clooney’s very best.
According to my show-biz friends (actors, writers, journalists) George Clooney is a genuinely nice guy. Never heard a bad word about him as a person. I don’t know anything about his private life, except that he’s had a pet pig (Max) for more than ten years, who sleeps with him. Maybe THAT’S why he’s never married . . .
O Brother Where Art Thou is a wonderful movie with superb dialogue, acting, cinematography and high hilarity. George Clooney shines in this movie.
I have not seen some of the movies you mentioned in the OP, but I do like ER. I was never a big George Clooney fan, though. All the “Sexiest Man Alive” hype seemed a bit much. Also, I hated his patented mischevous little boy look --you know the one where he tilts his head slightly downwards and then looks up through his lashes. It was cute at first but seemed a bit overused. I actually avoided many of his movies for fear of him being just a big screen Dr. Ross. When I saw O Brother though, it makes me think that I had perhaps underestimated him. I think I may go back and rent those movies.
Interviews I’ve heard and read about him also make him sound like a genuinely nice, likable and down to earth guy.
And let’s not forget his terrific cameo in South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut as the ER doctor.
To Kenny: " . . . we’ve accidentally replaced your heart with a baked potato, you have about six seconds to live.
(Kenny dies)
(pounding and sobbing) “It! Never! Gets! Any! Easier!!” (strolls off, whistling gaily)
Clooney was always a run of the mill actor to me. Nothing special, and no reason alone for me to see a film. I like ER and he did help it along pretty good, but in everything else I found him good, but nothing over the top. Also, he seemed to always play the same character no matter what he was in. Until O Brother… He was very impressive in that one. It was fun watching him do a comedy, and he did it very well. “I’m a Dapper Dan Man” slays me each time I see it, along with most of his other lines. Awesome movie in all respects, and he did a lot to make it such a good film. Do yourself a favor and go rent the movie. I easily put it in the top 5 movies I’ve ever seen. We ran out right afterwards and bought the movie as well as the soundtrack, which is superb.
Or his terrific cameo as Sparky, Stan’s gay dog, in the first season of South Park. IIRC, an interview I saw with Parker and Stone gave a decent amount of credit to getting SP on the telly. So if you’re a SP fan, then you almost have to like Clooney.
I can’t believe we’ve gotten this far without mentioning the terrific Out of Sight, where Clooney is tough, sexy and funny in a very casual, laidback sort of way. Given the trajectory of his career compared to Ms. Lopez since then, I think there’s little doubt which one contributed the most to that very electric pairing.
Actually, I believe Clooney was a huge fan of *The Spirit of Christmas* and did a lot to circulate it around Hollywood, thus bringing Parker & Stone to the attention of a lot of people in the industry.
More Clooney/Brother quotes: “You two are dumber than a bag of hammers”, “Whacha riding there, Tommy?”, “Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin’?”, and of course: “Damn! We’re in a tight spot!”
Not to take anything away from the “Brother” screenwriters, but “MST3K” has been using the line “dumber than a bagful of hammers” for YEARS . . .
Just to be nit-pickey, I believe Clooney was married about 10 minutes when he was younger, before he left for hollywood.
And has no one mentioned his moving work as the handyman on the final season of “Give me a Break?”
And just because I never miss a chance to post the George Clooney Interactive Strip Tease:
And of course, by “Give me a Break,” I mean “The Facts of Life.” Duh.
And who could forget his fabulous performance in the immortal “Return of the Killer Tomatoes?”
I wonder why it’s usually not mentioned in his bios, hmm?
Oh course you like George Clooney! As a matter of fact, you often have fantasies of being in a meadow with him. Having a romatic picnic. He’ll gently brush the stray hair from your eye and tuck it behind your ear. Then he’ll smile that winning smile and melt your heart. He grabs you, and kisses you slowly, gently. And then as you slide into his arms and lie down you…
<cold water>
Oops, that’s my fantasy. Yea, I think you kinda dig him too. If you like that type.
<wipes the sweat from her brow>
mmmm…George Clooney. I’ll admit I never saw ER, but I’ve seen many of his movies. That man is HOT! I can’t wait to see Ocean’s Eleven…
I think Clooney is a great actor in the Harrison Ford tradition–when he’s on the screen, he owns it. I thought his acting was really good on ER, a show that has often had better acting than it had any right to.
If Clooney had lucked into a few high-visibility action pictures early on, rather than coming up through television, I think he would even be a much bigger star than he is today.
And hell, he grew up in Kentucky. There’s hope for us after all.
Dr. J
Clooney was also the foreman for awhile at the plastic plant on Roseanne. I also think that he was a on a short lived sitcom called Baby Blues, or Baby something.
Thanks for clearing that up for me monster. 
Minor hijack: I’ve always felt the same way about Tim Robbins. I find him to be be an insufferable bore AND and an insufferable boor in his off-screen, oh-so-politically-correct life, but there is no denying his talent.
I really REALLY want to hate the guy, but he’s just too good at what he does.
Now, if he would just SHUT UP…