Clooney’s painful awakening

George Clooney is acutely aware of his own mortality, said Tim Teeman in the London Times. While shooting Syriana, in 2005, the actor suffered a serious injury to the base of his neck, which left him in agony, with spinal fluid leaking out of his nose. Lying in a hospital bed, he considered suicide. “I was in real trouble,” says Clooney, 50. “For the first time, I contemplated whether I had accomplished all I wanted. I felt I was going to die or have to die; I felt I couldn’t live with so much pain.” He had three operations, but the pain is still with him. “I know when I wake up it will always feel like a hangover, but I can’t mourn what I used to be.” His health aside, Clooney is also aware that the clock is ticking on his Hollywood career. “There’s only a certain amount of time”—about 10 years, he thinks—“when you get the keys to the kingdom. I’m terrified of the moment when you’re the guy who goes to the studio and says, ‘I’ve got this idea’, and they’re like, ‘Thanks for stopping by,’ and you walk out and they roll their eyes.”

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