Precisely twenty-five years after their memorable altercation during the filming of the 1999 picture “Three Kings,” George Clooney and David O. Russell are still at odds. In an exclusive interview with Brad Pitt for “Wolfs,” Clooney said to GQ UK that no movie is “worth” working on with a “miserable fuck like David O. Russell.” To put it briefly, don’t expect the actor and filmmaker to reunite for their “Three Kings” milestone.
“The older you get, time allotment is very different,” Clooney spoke about how he now chooses his assignments. Saying that giving up “five months of your life is a lot.” He added, “And so it’s not just like, ‘Oh, I’m going to go do a really good film, like “Three Kings,” and I’m going to have a miserable fuck like David O. Russell making my life hell. Making every person in the crew’s life hell.’ It’s not worth it. Not at this point in my life. Just to have a good product.”
Actor/director Clooney notably described the “Three Kings” production to Playboy in 2000, calling the confrontation “the worst experience of my life” after he and Russell reportedly got into a physical confrontation on set over Russell’s purported complaining of extras. In 2012, Clooney said to The Hollywood Reporter that he made an effort to put Russell’s feud behind him.
“I saw David a few weeks ago at a party… and I felt compelled to go over and go, ‘So, are we done?’ And he goes, ‘Please’. And I said, ‘OK,’” Clooney said at the time. “We made a really, really great film and we had a really tough time together, but it’s a case of us both getting older. I really do appreciate the work he continues to do, and I think he appreciates what I’m trying to do.”