SUBMITTED BY Timbo

October 3, 2003 — USA Today sits down to an entertaining interview with George Clooney, star of the upcoming movie Intolerable Cruelty, and the Coen Brothers.

George Clooney is somewhat in awe of these bookish Minnesota-reared fellows. Take the film's offhand mention of Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who led Edmund Hillary up Everest. That's a name that rarely crops up in movies, at least those made outside of Nepal.

Shrugs a modest Ethan, "We know a little bit about ..."

"Everything," the actor says, finishing the thought. "They know all kinds of weird crap."

He can offer no great insights into how the Coens split up the filming chores. Though Joel always is credited as director and Ethan as producer, it is well known that they share the workload. But Clooney insists: "There is no mystery. They don't really direct."

Says Ethan: "If you walked onto the set ... "

"You'd be astonished how little we do," Joel says, finishing his sentence as is their habit.

Meanwhile, the Coens admire their lead's fearless foolishness. Kentucky-born Clooney outdoes his goofy clog dance from O Brother with Cruelty's honest-to-goodness spit take, a Danny Thomas-class spurt of H20. "You ruin a suit that way, I tell you," Clooney says. Asked whether his co-stars had to wear plastic protective wear, he quips, "They usually do."

Read the rest at the link below.