George Clooney Shocker: "I Contemplated Suicide"

Actor reveals even more of his past in the new issue of Rolling Stone, saying he once considered ending his own life

By Marianne Garvey Nov 11, 2011 4:22 PMTags
George ClooneyClint Brewer / Splash News

It seems impossible to imagine that Oscar-winning, lady-loving movie star George Clooney would ever think of offing himself.

But he has. He even worked out how he would do it. Shockingly, the man who seems to have an impossibly charmed life really did contemplate suicide at one point—and it wasn't from depression, regret over some horrible act or a romance gone bad.

So why would he ever dream of doing such a thing?

After sustaining a spinal injury during a stunt mishap while filming Syriana in 2005, the Cloonster was in such intense pain he thought suicide may be the only way to end it.

"I was at a point where I thought, 'I can't exist like this. I can't actually live,' " the actor says in the new issue of Rolling Stone.

Clooney, 50, was bedridden, suffering from severe headaches and spinal fluid leaks through his nose when the thoughts began to creep in.

 

"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 shirt three-week period, I started to think, 'I may have to do something drastic about this'...but I never thought I'd get there," he continues. "See, I was in a place where I was trying to figure out how to survive."

Clooney says that he even planned the method, but didn't think he'd actually carry it through, so he began to drink heavily to numb the pain.

He's since had surgery to help him with the spinal problems, but Clooney says he still gets headaches connected to the accident.

Glad you hung tough, George. Hollywood is better with you in it.