Callum Turner calls it 'funny' to have the 'Ocean's Twelve' actor direct him and other stars from home as George was 'really sick' after testing positive for the virus following a group dinner with the cast members.
- December 11, 2023
AceShowbiz - George Clooney was "really sick" when he contracted COVID-19. The 62-year-old star was forced to direct "The Boys in the Boat", which was filmed last year but is due for release later this month, from his bed via an iPad after he fell ill with the virus, with producing partner Grant Heslov lending a hand from the set.
He told PEOPLE magazine, "I was really sick. It was my first time getting COVID. I'm on an iPad hacking away from my bedroom. Grant was sitting on the camera and they'd hold up the iPad to Cal and I'd go, 'Ah, go fast.' I'd rasp out 'Faster' whatever that was." He recounted, "We only had to do it for a week."
A number of other people working on the movie, including actor Joel Edgerton, also contracted the virus. George quipped, "He went down first, by the way, in fairness. So if we're looking for ground zero..."
George believes an intimate dinner with cast members from the movie, which chronicles the story of the University of Washington's underdog rowing team making it to the 1936 Olympics, helped spread the virus, even though they were all "tested and vaccinated."
He said, "We all landed in London. We're going to shoot the next day. And so we have a tiny dinner for the crew. Meaning the rowers, our kids, and [co-stars] Hadley [Robinson] and Courtney [Henggeler] and [Edgerton] and me. That's it. A tiny room. And out of that tiny room, let's say there were 18 people there, 17 people got COVID."
Star Callum Turner managed to avoid getting the virus. He told PEOPLE, "Yeah, everyone one by one went down around me. It was only me and Grant that didn't get it for some reason. It was funny. George on his iPhone directing in his dressing gown from somewhere."
