George Clooney reveals Mark Wahlberg, Johnny Depp turned down Ocean's Eleven

George Clooney recently opened up about  Hollywood actors who turned down starring in 2011 film Ocean's Eleven. He recently attended the 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival. He shared that Mark Wahlberg and Johnny Depp were in talks about starring in the film. 

They were supposed to play the role of Linus, which eventually went to Matt Damon. At the event, Ocean's Eleven director Steven Soderbergh was also in attendance. While interacting with the media, Clooney said, "Some actors turned down the offer. Some very famous told us to f*k right off. Mask Wahlberg, Johnny Depp. There were others. They regret it now. I regret doing f**g Batman".

George Clooney, Steven Soderbergh on the idea of making Ocean's Eleven

At the event, George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh said that the idea of making Ocean's Eleven came while he was thinking of combining his work with "Indies with mainstream big-budget Hollywood films." Soderbergh said that he had the desire to work in the mainstream Hollywood film business and to make films that could be released in a lot of theatres. "The studios were making very big, broad, not very good films at that time." He further said that Steven had this idea of trying to infuse all of this independent film stuff that all of these young filmmakers were learning back into the studio system. "It was going to get back to the things that they were doing from like 1964 to 1975," Clooney added. 

About Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven

Steven Soderbergh's directorial Ocean's Eleven was released in 2001. The storyline of the film revolves around a gangster named Danny Ocean, who assembles a group of 11 people in an attempt to steal money from three casinos owned by his rival Terry Benedict in Las Vegas. The film starred  George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy García, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Elliott Gould, Bernie Mac, Qin Shaobo, and Carl Reiner among others.