Three years ago George Clooney was in a motorbike crash that could have killed him. “I was waiting for my switch to turn off,” he says. He was in Sardinia, going at 75mph, when a car turned in front of him and he flew over the handlebars. Groggy, lying on the ground and screaming, he realized a crowd was gathering — he was being filmed by people on their phones.
“I’m fine now,” he smiles, beaming and relaxing on a hotel terrace in London lit with winter sun. He turned 60 in May and his trademark salt-and-pepper hair and beard are now mainly salt. Hollywood’s most charismatic superstar is over to discuss his eighth film as a director, The Tender Bar. But that narrow squeak in Italy, when he lay stricken while people filmed him like it was just another movie set, has left its mark.
