George Clooney was featured on Inside the Actor's Studio with James Lipton Tuesday night. The local hero talked about growing up in Kentucky, making it in Los Angeles and many of his famed performances on the oft-spoofed show.
There were plenty of local mentions throughout the interview. Clooney briefly talked about his time at Augusta High School, where he played basketball (he claimed that the team was 1-25 his senior year) and was generally a great student. Just like myself growing up, every student who got As at his school received Reds tickets. Gotta love that Carl Lindner.—-
"They only reason we got As," he said, "was to see the Reds." When asked where he originally went to college, George replied "Northern Kentucky University," and mimicked a roar from the audience. He also spent some time at the University of Cincinnati, but didn't graduate. During this time he worked in tobacco fields in Kentucky for $3.30/hour to make money to get to L.A.
Clooney went on to offer humorous and interesting tidbits about his major films. He joked about his experience as Batman, saying the bodysuit's nipples were surprising.
According to Clooney, many themes in The Ides of March, shot locally last year, were based off things he learned from his father, who ran for congress in 2004. Though the film had a $12.5 million budget, Clooney humbly admitted that because he does commercials overseas he never has to worry about profiting off the movies he loves to make.
Lipton also asked Clooney about his extensive humanitarian work, specifically in Sudan. Clooney asked, "Why can I Google Earth my house but not where people are getting killed?" Thanks to $3 million/year from George, there are now satellites in Sudan. With the help of this surveillance, proof of assault preparations, mass graves, war criminals and more evidence against war criminals have been discovered. All this and he's super hot.
It wouldn't be Actor's Studio without Lipton's standard quick-fire questions. When asked what profession he'd like to attempt, Clooney said journalism. What job would he least want to learn? Proctology.
Clooney is nominated for an Oscar for his performance in The Descendants and for his adapted screenplay for The Ides of March. The Descendants is also nominated for Best Picture. The Awards show is Sunday, Feb. 26. Go here to check out clips from the interview.