Clooney Lost 25-Plus Pounds for Film, Ended Up in Hospital

George Clooney takes his acting and directing seriously, but he may have taken the former too seriously while preparing for his latest role in The Midnight Sky, coming out on Netflix Dec. 23. To play a cancer-riddled scientist left on Earth after an apocalyptic nuclear event, Clooney dropped nearly 30 pounds—and ended up in the hospital just four days before filming started on the sci-fi movie, which he also directed. "I think I was trying too hard to lose the weight quickly and probably wasn't taking care of myself," Clooney tells the Mirror. The 59-year-old was diagnosed with pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas that can be life-threatening.

"It took a few weeks to get better, and as a director, it's not so easy, because you need energy," he notes. Today reports this is the second time Clooney has ended up in the hospital while filming: In 2018, he was shooting Catch-22 for Hulu on the island of Sardinia when his scooter crashed into a car. He suffered just minor injuries in that incident. If you're fretting over Clooney's condition now after his most recent bout, don't: His publicist says he's doing just fine. "He has fully recovered," Stan Rosenfield tells Yahoo Entertainment. The Midnight Sky is also out now in select theaters. (More George Clooney stories.)