George Clooney Was Reportedly Hospitalized While Filming New Netflix Movie ‘The Midnight Sky’

George Clooney went through extreme weight loss for his role in Netflix‘s The Midnight Sky, and ended up hospitalized as a result, according to a new report by British news outlet The Mirror. Clooney reportedly dropped nearly 30 pounds for the movie, where he plays an astronomer with life-threatening cancer. He was then diagnosed with pancreatitis just days before he was scheduled to begin filming the movie.

Clooney directed and starred in The Midnight Sky, a new sci-fi drama premiering on Netflix on Dec. 23. He told The Mirror that his dramatic weight loss may have contributed to his sudden pancreatitis, which forced him to spend several days in the hospital. He said that he lost the weight with an extremely restrictive diet. “I think I was trying too hard to lose the weight quickly and probably wasn’t taking care of myself,” the 59-year-old actor said.

“It took a few weeks to get better and as a director it’s not so easy because you need energy,” Clooney went on. “We were out on this glacier in Finland, which made it a lot harder work. But it certainly helped with the character. This is bigger than anything I’ve done before and it was like herding cats to get it done. But, you know, it was fun.”

Fans may have already seen Clooney looking gaunt in the trailer for The Midnight Sky, which has been playing on TV in a rare advertising campaign by Netflix. He also sports a think beard in the movie, which he said was not very popular with his wife, Amal.

“I grew a big ugly beard and my son loved it because he’d hide things in it which I wouldn’t know about until I got to work and I’d be like, ‘Oh, there’s a popsicle stuck in my beard,’” he said. “But my wife and daughter were really happy when it came off because it was very hard to find a face underneath all that mess.”

The Midnight Sky wrapped filming in February of 2020 — shortly before the coronavirus pandemic put travel on hold all around the world. In it, Clooney plays a scientist living alone in the Arctic, tracking a mysterious global catastrophe. At the same time, other astronauts are nearing Earth to return home, and Clooney’s character must rush to signal them and drive them away before they are swept up in the cataclysm.

Other stars include Felicity Jones, Ethan Peck, David Oyelowo, Tiffany Boon, Demián Bichir and Kyle Chandler. The movie will begin a limited theatrical release on Dec. 11, then premiere on Netflix on Wednesday, Dec. 23.