Bring me that shattered body of George Clooney

In the movie Michael Clayton, Clooney plays the title character, a Mr Clean-Up Man at a big city law firm in the States, who uncovers some deadly white-collar crimes.

Clayton's on the cusp of crisis in both his personal and professional life, and Clooney, amazingly, takes on the full weight of Clayton's weariness in the film, scripted by Tony Gilroy, who until now had written only for movies such as the two Bourne thrillers with Matt Damon and the Devil's Advocate.

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"All that stuff's really in him,' said Gilroy, who also directed the movie (his debut), when we discussed how Clooney had managed to somehow inhabit Clayton and expose the maverick lawyer's ragged nerve endings.

"There's a sadness in George and he's n faking it there [in the movie].

"There's a limit to what you can act," Gilroy added.

"George is 46 and he didn't hit it right there out of the box. I mean he didn't make it when he was 22.

"There's a road not taken where it's not difficult for George to imagine a life that hadn't worked out for him. Some people hit it in their early 20s; George had to wait," Gilroy explained.

Gilroy added that for all Clooney's success now, from ER to Ocean's Eleven (let's not acknowledge 12 and 13), he still bears the scars of being an actor who was on the lowest rung of the ladder for a long time.

"That awareness is what informs him," said Gilroy.

In the movie, Clooney's character has had all the puff taken out of him.

A bar he ran as a side venture has collapsed, he's unable to fully connect with his young son and his marriage has crumbled.

He then becomes embroiled in a mammoth corporate legal case where his nemesis is a canny counsel, played with venom by Tilda Swinton.

Clooney arrived on Gilroy's set straight from shooting The Good German and filming and promoting Syriana and Good Night, And Good Luck.

"He was exhausted - and that's how I wanted him," Gilroy confessed.

"He came to us very, very tired and I used that. I wanted him to be uncomfortable every day. There was little rehearsal. came on set and I threw great actors him like Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton."

The movie, one of the best of the year, will run at the Venice Film Festival August and open in the UK in September.

It will surely be an important Oscar Bafta contender, possibly garnering nominations for Clooney as best actor.

Clooney initially turned the part down. "Two years before filming, I tried to hold of George and the message came back that he wouldn't mind directing himself — he didn't want to work with first-time director," Gilroy chuckled.

I guess Clooney can recount his part the conversation when he's handed of those golden statuettes.