George Clooney Calls out 'Miserable F—' Movie Director David O. Russell

The feud between the two is nearly three decades old now.

By Michael Hein

George Clooney is not a fan of director David O. Russell – and he is not afraid to say it. In an interview published last week by GQ, Clooney referred to Russell as "a miserable f-," and said that he had a terrible time working for with the director on the movie Three Kings. These days, Clooney said it is "not worth it" to work with someone like Russell "just to have a good product."

Clooney spoke to GQ in a joint interview with his friend and frequent collaborator Brad Pitt. They discussed their shifting perspectives as middle-aged movie stars, and they both agreed that these days, they're not willing to be miserable on set in exchange for making a great movie. For Clooney, Russell was the first example to come to mind.

"The older you get, time allotment is very different," the 63-year-old actor said. "Five months out of your life is a lot. 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 f- 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."

Three Kings was Russell's third feature film as a writer and director, and it starred Clooney along with Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube and Spike Jonze. It is about four American soldiers carrying out a heist in Iraq in 1991, taking advantage of the chaos following the First Gulf War and the uprisings against Saddam Hussein. The movie got generally positive reviews for lacing political commentary into a genre-bending adventure, yet it was the only one of Russell's movies that Clooney appeared in.

The enmity between Clooney and Russell is nothing new – Clooney spoke about it in a 2000 interview with Playboy. He described a confrontation with Russell on the set of Three Kings, saying they "almost" got into a fist fight. However, Sharon Waxman's book Rebels on the Backlot claims that they actually did exchange blows, with Russell headbutting Clooney and Clooney grabbing Russell by the throat. Clooney said this was "without exception, the worst experience of my life," and when asked if he would work with Russell again, he responded: "Life's too short."

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Clooney is not the only one to feel this way about Russell, either. The director has a reputation for being combative and abusive with the casts and crews of his movies – notably Lily Tomlin while filming I Heart Huckabees and Amy Adams while filming American Hustle. He even got into a physical altercation with director Christopher Nolan at a 2003 party in Hollywood, putting Nolan into a headlock.

Russell has not responded to this latest dig from Clooney, and he does not use social media or other platforms where he might issue a comment. Russell has four projects in the works right now, and may be working with Keke Palmer, Sacha Baron Cohen, Nicolas Cage, Selena Gomez and John Mulaney. It's unclear which movie will go into production first.

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