George Clooney has said the story behind his new film The Boys in the Boat is so extraordinary that if it wasn’t true it could not have been produced.
Set in the 1930s, the movie follows the crew of the University of Washington rowing team that travelled to Berlin for the 1936 Olympic Games.
Based on a #1 New York Times bestselling non-fiction novel, Clooney said it was exactly the kind of story that appeals to him as a director.
“We like underdog stories, we always have,” he told Screentime with John Fardy.
“The fun part is it’s true, so when you see a film like this and you see all the ridiculous things - like the kid gets sick - they actually happened.
“[These] are the kind of films where if they weren’t true, you couldn’t do them.”
Actor Callum Turner said he was “in the worst shape of my life” when he began training for the film and Clooney concours he was a little nervous when he first saw his team pick up their oars.
“When we put those eight guys in the boat, I can’t explain [it] to you,” he said.
“It was horrifying and then they kept paddling and paddling away.
“They trained for three months because they were training while we were shooting too. So, they’d finish a day of shooting and then put on their short shorts and go out into the boat.”
The months of training paid off in the end and the current Washington team came out and were complimentary about their rowing skills, which Clooney said was “really nice” of them.
“It was… a real compliment to their athleticism but also their determination to make it look good,” he said.
The A List celebrity also said he still likes “working hard” but is unimpressed by some aspects of the modern workplace.
“I’m 62-years-old and I still get to do what I love and not everybody gets to do that,” he said.
“I don’t take that for granted; so, I’ve always believed in working hard and there seems to be a little bit of a mentality now coming out of the pandemic where everybody’s like, ‘Well, we don’t want to have meetings on Friday.’
“I kind of liked the other version [of work].”
The Boys in the Boat was released in cinemas today.
