Celebrity Parade With Jeanne Wolf

Apr. 4, 2008 — -- George Clooney

Even though George Clooney directs as well as stars in "Leatherheads," he didn't cut himself any slack. Clooney took plenty of hard tackles and vicious blocks in this story of the beginning of pro-football in 1925. Getting hit hurt more back then because players didn't wear pads. George told Parade, "There's just no way you could prepare for getting smacked down by a 21-year-old football player. It was just, 'Ow, that really hurt.'"

Clooney was surprised to discover that in the beginning, the rule book for pro-football was pretty small. But, he thinks approaching a sport with an "anything goes" attitude isn't all bad. "We used to play pick up games, football and it was more fun because you're smacking each other in the head and holding players down," he says. "You do have to have a structure of rules in life and sports. But, I think that some of them are made to be broken. And, some of them are more fun to push right up against."

As for directing himself, Clooney says, "You give yourself less takes because you would look awful if you were to do more for yourself than you do for other actors. That doesn't fly very well. But, I've gone through the movie a thousand times before we start shooting, so I know pretty much what I need in the scene."

John Krasinski

John Krasinski took a break from "The Office" for a juicy role as a football star in "Leatherheads." John didn't mind getting tackled in the mud. He thought his co-star and director George Clooney was impressed with his style on the gridiron. John told Parade, "I was like, 'You're lucky to have me because I'm so fast.' Then I realized that Clooney had told the other players to run slower than me."

John admits he was surprised to learn that pro-football in the 20's didn't have many rules to keep players from doing serious damage to each other. But, he reveals that it fits his own philosophy. "I agree with that old saying, 'Rules are meant to be broken,'" he says. "I think it's true. I think it's good to get to test whether rules are deserving to be rules or not. I think the ones that are broken we're better off without. I hope there aren't rules out there disallowing a lot of good stuff to happen."