“They regret it now” – Deadline

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George Clooney talks about some of the Hollywood stars who turned down the lead role Ocean Eleven.

During the 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival, Clooney and director Steven Soderbergh celebrated the 2001 film. Clooney revealed that Mark Wahlberg and Johnny Depp were in talks to play Linus, the role that eventually went to Matt Damon.

Stephen just finished Optical fiber And passageClooney said at the via event Entertainment Weekly. “So, people really wanted to work with Stephen.”

Soderbergh added that some actors turned the offer down and Clooney added, “They did. Some very famous people told us that f**k right away. Mark Wahlberg, Johnny Depp. There were others. They regret it now. I regret doing the f***ing.” Batman. “

The director recalled that the idea of ​​making it Ocean Eleven It came while he was looking at combining the work he was doing with big-budget independent films and mainstream Hollywood films.

“It just felt like the next iteration of my desire to work in the mainstream film industry and make films that could be released in many theaters,” Soderbergh said.

Clooney added, “It’s also important to understand where we were at the time. Studios were making very big, large-scale, not very good films at the time. Stephen had the idea of ​​trying to air all these indie films that all the young filmmakers were learning back in Studio system. He would go back to the things they were doing from 1964 to 1975.”