Clooney Contemplates Career Mistakes

By C. Young

Wednesday December 12, 2001 01:10 PM EST

There are certainly worse problems in life than how to make the transition from hugely popular television actor to internationally famous movie actor. George Clooney has obviously made that transition, but it didn't stop him from making mistakes, some of them twice, the "Ocean's Eleven" star told the Associated Press. After missing out on an important film role early in his career, he decided, "You know what? I am a television actor. That's where I've succeeded, and there's nothing wrong with that. So I decided I had to do better television," Clooney said. And he did -- namely "ER," which vaulted him to household-name status and jumpstarted his movie career by the mid-1990s. "Then I started doing sort of the same mistakes in film, which is I'd just take a job, a job and a job," said Clooney, 40. That policy produced the likes of 1997's "Batman & Robin." "There was a time, which was after 'Batman & Robin,' which was the right time to go, 'OK, now if you're going to be a film actor, do better films,' " Clooney said. "It's mostly about working with better people, working with better scripts. That's usually the difference, I think." Since then he has made such films as "Three Kings," "O Brother Where Art Thou?" and "The Perfect Storm," which enjoyed more critical success.