George Clooney plays "an idiot" well because he has "no vanity".
George Clooney
Clooney stars in the Coen brother's latest comedy offering 'Hail, Caesar!' as a dim-witted but beloved Hollywood actor, Baird Whitlock, who is kidnapped whilst in Roman costume.
And he delighted the directors when he accepted the role because they didn't know anyone else who was modest enough to go the whole hog and play a fool.
Joel - whose brother Ethan is his life-long collaborator - explained: "George is like an old fashioned movie star. And we love it when he's playing an idiot for us, which George is so great at. First of all, it's difficult to do that unless you're good, and George lets it all hang out there. He's got no vanity when it comes to that stuff. But then we need you to believe he's a movie star too. Not everyone can do that."
However, the film might never have been made if it wasn't for George, who begged the movie-makers to write the script after they told him about the idea when he worked with them on 'O Brother, Where Art Though?'.
Joel added to Timeout magazine: "We told George the idea for the film many years ago, probably on the first ever movie we did with him, 'O Brother, Where Art Though?'. George was taken with it and he did this thing over the years where whenever he was asked what he was doing next he would say, 'Hail, Caesar!'. After a while, we thought, maybe we should just write it."
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