THE character synopsis for the lead role of The Good German called for an actor who could portray intelligence, energy and be opinionated and fearless with it. Director Steven Soderbergh could only think of one man.

Throw in good-looking and charming, too, and you have a perfect description of George Clooney.

In conversation with the 45-year-old star, he displays all of those attributes, and shows just why he is the most eligible bachelor in Hollywood.

Let’s begin with intelligence. 

When George was busy saving lives as Dr Doug Ross in ER there were many who had him down as a one-dimensional actor who would only go on to play suave leading men.

George conformed to this ideal for a while in films such as One Fine Day and The Peacemaker and the truly awful Batman And Robin.

Now we know that this was all part of a clever plan which has been gradually revealed to us in recent years with far more sophisticated choices of film, culminating in his Oscar winning role in Syriana — a political movie which passed judgement on America’s lust for oil.

The strategy was a simple one when you look back on it. Get paid $10 million for Batman And Robin so you can afford to star in Syriana (for $350,000) and write, direct and star in Good Night, And Good Luck — another Oscar nominated role about the 1950s McCarthy witch-hunts — and pay yourself a dollar.

“Believe me, there’s nobody who’s encouraging us to make these films,” says George, referring to how the major studios would prefer it if he stuck to big box office movies. “It’s not like anyone is going to make a mint.

“I have lost a lot of money but this is not an ordinary day job. I’ve got some cash. I have a nice house in Italy. I do OK.

“When you start out as an actor you’re just trying to get a job. You audition and audition (George tried out five times for J.D. in Thelma & Louise, a role that famously went to Brad Pitt instead) and you finally get them. 

“You still consider yourself an auditioning actor until you get to the point where, if you decide to do it, then they’ll make the film. That becomes a different kind of responsibility, and then you have to actually pay attention to the kind of films that you’re making.

“You’ve got to start thinking of things at their worst, not at their best. Out Of Sight (a film he made with Jennifer Lopez in 1998) was the first time where I had a say, and it was the first good screenplay that I’d read where I just went, ‘that’s it’.

“Even though it didn’t do really well box office-wise, it was a really good film. I realised from that point on that it was strictly screenplay first. Then it becomes easier because you eliminate the idea of doing a vehicle and just relying on your name.”

To fund his political motives, George has sprinkled his recent career with the odd box office smash and in particular the Ocean’s franchise.

He has just completed work on Ocean’s 13, the third movie of the series in which he plays criminal mastermind Danny Ocean backed up by an all-star cast including his old audition rival Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Andy Garcia.

Filming a box office movie like Ocean’s 13 so he can have the money to fund his other projects — which at the moment include writing and directing Leatherheads, a romantic comedy (with former girlfriend Renee Zellweger) set in the 1920s — means working twice as hard.

This is where you have to have energy.

“Sometimes I feel like I want to take a couple of months off and I plan it that way but it doesn’t always work out the way I planned it,” says George.

“Things change, projects get pushed together, or something comes up, and all of a sudden, it’s jam-packed. After Good Night, And Good Luck I really wanted to direct again but I didn’t expect it to be a romantic comedy. 

“An acting career usually has a shelf life of about 10 years before people get sick of seeing you. It’s a good thing to have a job to fall back on and I really do enjoy directing. It’s more fun to be the painter than the paint.”

By the sounds of things we should enjoy George the actor while we still can, starting with The Good German.

In the film he plays Jake Geismer, a U.S. war correspondent who has arrived in Berlin at the war’s end to cover the upcoming Potsdam Peace Conference.

It’s not Jake’s first visit to Berlin. Before the war he managed a news bureau there and fell in love with the seductive Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett). On his return he finds Lena now courting a young corporal in the U.S. Army (played by Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire) but when he is found in the Russian zone of occupation with 100,000 marks in his pocket and a bullet in his back, Jake finds himself drawn to solving the murder and uncovering the bigger mystery of why both the American and Russian authorities are keen to look the other way.

Based on the novel by Joseph Kanon and directed by Steven Soderbergh (who has collaborated with George on many movies, including the trio of ‘Ocean’ films), The Good German aims to be a thriller in the classic film noir tradition, filmed in black and white and crafted in the film-making techniques of that era — a 1940s murder mystery for a modern-day audience.

But back to George and why he fitted the bill in the first place. If the role of Jake called for someone who is opinionated and fearless then George has got it in one. 

In 2003 he became an outspoken critic of U.S. policy in Iraq. He was one of the first public figures to voice an argument. It wasn’t something that everyone wanted to hear at the time but public opinion has gradually come around.
George was branded a traitor in some sections of the American media but remained fearless in giving his opinion.

“I believe that it’s your duty as a citizen of your country to speak out,” says the actor. “You can’t beat your enemy any more through wars; instead you create an entire generation of people seeking revenge.

“There are no such things as winnable wars any more. Our opponents are going to resort to car bombs and suicide attacks because they have no other way to win.

“I am political in nature but I didn’t really want to be seen as such. I just thought there weren’t many voices out there at the time, even in the Press, asking questions on the lead-up to it.

“I don’t think I helped shape the change in public opinion. I remember calling my father after seeing myself on the cover of a magazine calling me a traitor, and he said, ‘You’re on the right side of history, stop whining and be a man,’ and he was right.

“If you remember during the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam, Watergate, actors were welcome to talk about their political issues and now there’s this thing about the demonising of the word liberal, like that’s a bad word.

“I know liberal politicians who will say, ‘I’m not liberal’, and the saying ‘this is not some liberal thing’. When have liberals been on the wrong side of a social issue?”

Clearly impassioned when speaking on the subject, I ask George if a career in politics beckons. 

Warming to this theme, he tells me that he was a guest speaker at the United Nations headquarters in New York in September to talk about the continuing genocide in Sudan, which has so far claimed an estimated 200,000 lives and forced a further 2.5 million from their homes.

‘Clooney for President’ T-shirts have even been spotted in the U.S. and it wouldn’t be the first time an actor has made it to the White House, after all.

“I’m sure they were joking,” he smiles, referring to his T-shirted admirers. “I’ve slept with too many women, I’ve done too many drugs, and I’ve been to too many parties.

“Just because you can be politically involved doesn’t mean you necessarily should be. I think that I can bring attention to some things along the way, and I don’t have to make compromises — that are incredible — that you have to make. 

“My father ran for Congress two years ago, and just watching the way they worked and manoeuvred him over, and you can’t budge my dad, and watching what he had to go through, was a great lesson in why I wouldn’t enter personally into politics.

“I’d like to focus on things that I think are important and try to shine a light on them whenever I can. 

“I’ve been to Darfur (site of the massive refugee camp in Sudan) and I’ve been to Egypt to speak to the political leaders there about seeking a resolution.

“It is the first genocide of the 21st Century and if it continues unchecked, it will not be the last. What it really requires is some sort of political discussion with the government there and, since the U.S. don’t do business with them, we need help from China, Egypt and Russia.

“Since I’ve been trying to get attention on Darfur, I’ve been working with a lot of the Evangelicals. They couldn’t have hated me more three years ago (at the time of the Iraq war) so it’s an interesting time right now.”

So is this a happy ending to the troubles which George’s political opinions once got him into?

“I don’t believe in happy endings, but I do believe in happy travels, because ultimately you die at a very young age, or you live long enough to watch your friends die. It’s a mean thing, life.” And George intends to make every minute count.