One Of George Clooney's Most Embarrassing Acting Moments Happened In A Prison [Exclusive]
In Steven Soderbergh's sexy 1998 crime thriller, George Clooney plays the world's smoothest bank robber, Jack Foley, a man so charming that he manages to rob a bank using nothing more than a yellow highlighter (he presses it into a clerk's neck from behind, claiming it's the barrel of a gun). Foley begins "Out of Sight" in prison, having been busted after someone snitched on him. He bonds with imprisoned compatriots — notably, Albert Brooks — and the two of them arrange for Jack to get a job upon his release. When released, however, Jack is double-crossed by the Brooks character, and he is ejected from the building with no job. The rejection leads Jack, in a fit of resentment, to commit the above-mentioned robbery. He is caught, and put right back in prison.
Clooney, a handsome man sculpted out of hardened cologne, makes his yellow prison jumpsuits look downright dashing, while his silvering hair swoop and five o'clock shadow are impeccably maintained behind bars. Some of the prison scenes from "Out of Sight" were filmed in a very real prison — called the Angola Plantation — located in Louisiana. In recent years, various scandals have been revealed about inmate mistreatment at Angola, although in 1998, it was where Clooney and Soderbergh chose to shoot their movie ... with real prison inmates.
Clooney recalled shooting at Angola in a recent interview with /Film's own Ben Pearson. Clooney is a noted basketball fan and appears to be quite good at the game. Look around online and you'll find plenty of stories about him playing basketball with co-stars and crew members during production. But in "Out of Sight," wherein Jack Foley plays basketball with other inmates, he's not very good at it. Clooney revealed that having to act like he was bad at basketball in front of real prisoners was wholly humiliating.
Basketball with the general population
Clooney remembered the outfit he had to wear while playing with the general population to make sure the prison didn't mistake him for a real prisoner:
"I was doing 'Out of Sight' with Soderbergh, and they took us down to Angola prison, which is 10,000 capital offenders. They're all going to spend the rest of their lives in jail, and we're in general population. [...] And they give you a red vest. We're all wearing yellow jumpsuits like everybody else. They give you a red vest in case violence breaks out, so that the prisoners know who to grab and hold hostage, you know?"
This, of course, was a sarcastic remark. Although both Clooney and his co-interviewee Joel Edgerton noted that the men at Angola had nothing to lose, Clooney clearly felt safe enough to stage a basketball game in front of onlooking inmates who have been locked up for life. Clooney, however, was mortified when Soderbergh gave him a specific piece of direction: play worse. Clooney recalled:
"Soderbergh has me playing basketball. And I go out to play basketball and there's all these real prisoners hanging around. And I'm playing basketball and he comes over and he goes, 'You're playing too well.' And I'm like, 'Dude, I can't — all these f***ing guys are watching. You can't let me ...' He goes, 'You're playing too well.' So now I have to play and bounce a ball off my foot and stuff. And all these guys are laughing and giving me s***."
As far as those prisoners know, Clooney is naturally bad at basketball. It's possible some of them still think that to this day. Clooney, of course, dwelled on that.
'I hope you're f***ing happy, dude.'
Clooney is playful about the tension the "play worse" direction caused between him and Soderbergh. He said.
"And I'm telling you, it was — Soderbergh still says it was the worst moment for us as director and actor ever, because I walked over to him and I go, "I hope you're f***ing happy, dude.' [...] He made me mad."
Not so mad, it seems, for the actor and the director to stay apart. After "Out of Sight," Clooney would go on to star in five additional Steven Soderbergh films: "Ocean's Eleven," the remake of "Solaris," "Ocean's Twelve," "The Good German," and "Ocean's Thirteen." Soderbergh also served as executive producer on "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" and "Good Night and Good Luck," two films Clooney directed, and he executive produced "Syriana," the film that won Clooney a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award. The two have long been good collaborators and the basketball incident is either forgotten or, more likely, less serious than one might assume.
Meanwhile, there is no shortage of stories about Clooney's basketball habits, and he has gone on camera multiple times to show off his skills, or to just noodle around with any and all willing takers. A note to any interviewers who might have the opportunity to talk to Clooney in the future: bring up basketball. He'll likely have a good story or two.