A film’s success often depends on its closeness to reality. However, when there are more practical effects and less CGI, chances are that actors would have to perform stunts on their own. And that poses a perpetual risk of injury. On-set accidents are more common than you think, and sometimes they can be quite grave. George Clooney’s path to greatness has been littered with films both good and bad, from Batman & Robin to Ocean’s Eleven.
However, his best work yet in the critically acclaimed 2005 movie Syriana almost cost him his life. The $94 million film did get him an Oscar, but it nearly caused him a brain injury, and the effects are felt by him to this day. Was the Academy Award really worth it?
George Clooney’s Bittersweet Memory With His Oscar-Winning Role
It is not uncommon for actors to push the boundaries of their physical and mental limits to embody their characters convincingly. However, what George Clooney experienced during the filming of Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana was beyond the ordinary.
The actor suffered a head injury after tripping during the filming of a scene in which his character was tortured. But it was not just any normal bump—Clooney started to leak spinal fluid out of his nose. Following his return from Morocco, he checked himself into a hospital right away to have his injury examined. The extent of the damage surpassed his imagination.
About the incident and its aftermath, Clooney talked with The Hollywood Reporter. He said:
“I knew immediately [how serious it was]. I thought I’d had a stroke. It was like a train horn going off in your head, and you can’t see, and you can’t stand.”
Following the entire ordeal, the actor, 62, began to experience severe depression and began to fear for his life. He stated:
“Talk to any doctor about a CSF — a cerebral/spinal fluid leak — and they’ll tell you it’s way up there on the pain scale. There was this whole coming to terms with [mortality].”
In a Rolling Stone interview, Clooney emphasized the value of maintaining his mental health, stating:
“I was at a point where I thought, I can’t exist like this. I can’t actually live.’ I was lying in a hospital bed with an IV in my arm, unable to move, having these headaches where it feels like you’re having a stroke, and for a short three-week period.”
The film received positive reviews from critics, and Clooney’s performance was so well received that it earned him both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award.
Winning an Academy Award is the pinnacle of any actor’s career and an unparalleled feeling of achievement. For the Confessions of a Dangerous Mind director, though, winning the Oscar for Syriana was a costly endeavor.
A Head Injury Led George Clooney To Contemplate Suicide?
After sustaining a brain injury in an accident while filming a scene for Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana, George Clooney has disclosed how he considered suicide as a way to end the excruciating pain he was going through. The Warner Brothers film featured a scene where the actor was “taped” to a chair, as he explained to The Guardian:
“There was this scene where I was taped to a chair and getting beaten up. The chair was kicked over and I hit my head. I tore my dura, which is the wrap around my spine that holds in the spinal fluid. But it’s not my back; it’s my brain. I basically bruised my brain. It’s bouncing around my head because it’s not supported by the spinal fluid.”
He suffered from splitting headaches and “unbearable pain”. Because of this, the actor continues to have excruciating migraines. Through counseling, he learned to mentally prepare himself by learning to ignore his suffering. He told the outlet:
“Before the surgery it was the most unbearable pain I’ve ever been through, literally where you’d go, ‘well, you’ll have to kill yourself at some point, you can’t live like this’.”
Clooney’s journey has reaffirmed that pursuing perfection in the field of acting can be costly. AFI Life Achievement Award (2018), Cecil B. DeMille Award (2015), Kennedy Center Honors (2022), and Honorary César Award (2017) are just a few of the many honors he has been bestowed with.
Syriana is available to rent on Apple TV.
