George Clooney Once Lied About a Movie Role — and It Could Have Destroyed His Career

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George Clooney Once Lied About a Movie Role — and It Could Have Destroyed His Career

November 7, 2020

Actor George Clooney has been around for years, and as a result, he has become one of the most famous faces in all of Hollywood.
Many years ago, the long-time heartthrob was taking on small roles, and chances are, no one could have imagined that his career would take off the way it did. The talented actor has been able to take on a variety of roles, on both the big and small screens, and it somehow seems as if he is able to transform into just about any type of character that he chooses.

Fans have enjoyed him in countless films for decades, and hilariously, Clooney has even been known to be a bit of a prankster on movie sets and when he is spending time with his friends.

You’d be pretty hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t recognize him, but the truth of the matter is that George Clooney once lied about a movie role — and it could have destroyed his career. 

How did George Clooney get his start in acting?

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George Clooney | David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Channel 4 Television

Born in 1961, it appears that Clooney always had the desire to be one of the most top-rated actors ever, and it shows. It took a while for him to make a name for himself, and he started out taking small roles, such as his stint on the sitcom Roseanne.
He had parts in numerous projects before finally getting his big break in 1994, when he landed the part of Doug Ross on the popular medical drama, ER.

From the very beginning, Clooney captured the hearts of millions, and it turns out that his talents weren’t limited to medical acting. After 15 years of playing the role of a doctor, Clooney has continued to showcase his talents in a variety of roles.

Some of George Clooney’s most famous roles

From his small part in the ’80’s sitcom The Facts of Life to starring roles in blockbuster films, Clooney has appeared in so many movies and television shows that even his biggest fans likely have trouble keeping count. So, what are some of the most memorable things that he has done?

Some of his best work was in the Ocean’s Eleven films alongside other well-known celebrities including Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Julia Roberts. He gave one of the best performances ever in the 1998 film Out of Sight, which Clooney says was one of his favorites.

George Clooney once lied about a movie role, and it could have destroyed his career

It is hard to imagine that an actor as talented as Clooney would have to lie in order to get ahead, but that is exactly what happened. According to Vocal, there was a time when the actor was so anxious to get his Screen Actor’s Guild card, and he went so far as to be untruthful about a movie role. What happened?

Clooney was talking to a casting director, and he told her that he had been in the movieCat People, unaware that the person he was speaking to was the same one who had done the casting for that very film.

She didn’t remember him appearing in the film, but Clooney must have done something right, because the director helped him get his Screen Actor’s Guild card regardless of the lie, by putting him in a movie that was never made, and everything took off from there. 

[size=36]‘ER’: George Clooney Liked to Pull Pranks on Set With a Very Expensive Prop[/size]

ER burst through the swinging hospital doors of County General and into television history in 1994. While its fans were thrilled by the action, drama, and rapid-fire medical jargon, the cast — especially George Clooney — was also enjoying themselves.
They not only got to be a part of groundbreaking television, but they also had a lot of fun behind the scenes. One of the famous actors enjoyed a game with an important prop — and it looked a little scary at first.



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Actor George Clooney | Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic

Although it went on to become a blockbuster television sensation, E!Online reports that ER didn’t look like a sure thing at first. When they screened the first episode at NBC, executives were worried that it was too quick-paced, too bloody, and that the medical jargon would be overwhelming for viewers.

Clearly, these factors weren’t a hurdle for the audience, because the show became the number one TV drama and ran for a staggering 15 seasons. In fact, those elements turned out to be what made the show so unique and beloved. 

Of course, no matter how compelling a concept is for a program, if the cast isn’t talented enough to carry it off, it will never work. Fortunately, ER had an astonishing cast of skilled actors. And they were not only doing impressive work on the show, but they were also having a lot of fun at the same time. 

The actors blew off steam by laughing

One of the unusual things about the popular medical drama is how large the cast was. The show’s producers worried at first that viewers would struggle to remember such a large number of characters, but they not only did, they also seemed to connect with them all. And that huge cast also connected with each other.

After all, as EW reports, they really needed some comic relief after all the show’s drama. 

“That’s the best memory of ER is that we laughed so much,” Anthony Edwards, who played Dr. Greene, once said. “We were always laughing. I think because the subject material was so heavy that we were always looking for ways to laugh.”

Those laughs took the form of a number of different pranks, such as putting Vaseline on a phone before someone had to use it in a scene. And naturally, considering how many women in labor were featured on the show, many of the pranks involved babies. But not real ones. 

The best baby pranks

Edwards was known for using an alien doll as a stand-in for a baby during tense moments of filming. As you can imagine, that always got a strong reaction. But according to Mental Floss, it was County General’s famous heartthrob and rule-breaker, Dr. Ross, who really shook things up with a baby on-set. 

The show had a silicone model of a baby to use as a stand-in when chaotic scenes were being filmed. The baby was not only realistic looking, but it was also very expensive. George Clooney, who played Dr. Ross, didn’t let either fact stop him when he decided to have fun with the prop. 

Clooney liked to toss the pricey baby around the set, even playing football with it. You can imagine how shocking it would be to see him lob what looks like a newborn through the air. 

It’s probably a good thing that Dr. Ross’ many smitten fans couldn’t see him throwing around the fake baby. Although they were happy to forgive him a lot of bad behavior during his five years on the show, they may have drawn the line at baby football.