George Clooney Once Shelved His Political Movie Because of Barack Obama’s Election
George Clooney was once supposed to star in a political film that also featured Ryan Gosling. But the project would later be delayed because of Barack Obama.
George Clooney and Ryan Gosling starred in ‘The Ides of March’
In 2011, both Clooney and Gosling led the political drama The Ides of March. The film would follow a political candidate played by Clooney who’s competing in the Democratic Presidential Primary. But circumstances involving people in Clooney’s political team threaten his chances for election. It was adapted from the Farragut North play of the same name.
Clooney originally got involved with the project while he was working on another movie.
“The play had come to Warner Bros, and [my writing partner ] Grant Heslov and I had been working on a morality tale more along the lines of Wall Street, and we thought there was a way to tie the two projects together. I liked the idea of the questions the play was raising,” he once said according to Movies.
The Batman and Robin actor originally took interest in the movie because of his fascination with politics. It was a fascination that influenced much of his filmography.
“I’m interested in making films that ask questions that don’t particularly provide answers. I grew up in that era – the 1960s and 70s – when there was a tremendous amount going on in my country,” he continued. “You had civil rights, the anti-war and women’s rights movement, and the drug counterculture, and they were reflected later in film. I think there are a lot of things going on in the world right now that are [starting] to be reflected in film too.”
George Clooney originally shelved ‘The Ides of March’ because of Barack Obama
Clooney had been sitting on the film for quite some time before its release in 2011. He was originally scheduled to do the film several years earlier, but Barack Obama’s presidential election changed plans.
“We were in pre-production on this film in 2007, before the Obama election. And then we realized that a good portion of the country was elated with what happened in that election, so we had to shelve the movie until people were cynical again,” he once told Parade (via Today).
The Ocean’s 11 star also shared that he was surprised he didn’t have to wait long for the cynicism to return.
“I didn’t think it would be quite this quick,” he added.
George Clooney once explained why he wouldn’t want to run for office
Clooney was once asked if he considered following in the footsteps of his father and run for office. His father Nick Clooney pursued a seat in the House of Representatives for Kentucky in 2004.
‘I looked into my heart and decided that it was time for me to give back to my home state and my hometown,” Nick Clooney once said according to the LA Times.
But speaking to BBC’s Andrew Marr, the ER alum didn’t mince words when answering whether or not he wanted to pursue politics.
“No, because I would actually like to have a nice life,” he said simply.
