One of the nicest things about being very rich and very famous is that it gives you the freedom to choose any role you want, regardless of the payroll, George Clooney tells Steve Pratt

IN a business where the talk is often about the size of an actor's pay cheque, George Clooney stands out from the rest. He did his latest film, the conspiracy thriller Michael Clayton, more or less for nothing. "I didn't take any money, but will make money if it becomes a success," he says. "You win some, you lose some. I lost out on The Good German, for example. But I've made a lot of money from films in the past and now have a choice.

"Do I do a film like Michael Clayton, which I really believe in?

Or do I get bored and well-paid by big studios for those I don't? I'm lucky to have a choice."

In the movie Clooney stars as Michael Clayton, a fixer at one of the largest corporate law firms in New York. That means taking care of the dirty work for key clients. Burnt out and discontented in his job, Clayton's conscience is pricked over a case involving an agrichemical company. The cast also includes British actors Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton, and director Sydney Pollack in an acting role.

Clooney has always had a good relationship with the press despite what some might see as intrusions in his private life and the constant gossip surrounding him. He's honest enough to own up to getting annoyed by being famous at times.

"There are things which are irritating, like a journalist who asked about why I do coffee advertisements in Europe for a big multi-national company like Nestle," he explains. "I told her, to earn some money. I'm doing the best I can to bring attention to issues like Darfur, war and starvation. There are certain moments you want to ask, what are you doing to help the world?'."

He's well aware of the contradictions in his behaviour that might get picked on by the media. He drives an electric car because he thinks we're going to have to find a way to get away from oil. "I can't be the spokesman for the environment because I will still fly on a private jet. That makes a big hole that someone can point towards and go, Really? How is the jet ride over here?'.

So I have to be careful how I handle that situation," he says.

But he's not afraid to get involved in politics. Before this summer's fluffy crime caper Ocean's 13, his previous two movies were Good Night and Good Luck and Syriana. Both had political points to make. "I did those because I was p***ed off," he says. "I was portrayed in a magazine, on the cover, as a traitor to my country, for saying that we should ask some questions before we send in 150,000 people to be shot at in Iraq."

Clooney knows about fame because he grew up around it. His father was a top TV journalist and his aunt, Rosemary Clooney, was a famous singer. "I saw how little fame has to do with you. It's all about luck. I got lucky with the TV show ER. If that hadn't happened, then I would still be on television - or not."

He knows that some, hearing his political stance and talking about world issues, might well feel, "he's just an actor, shut up".

Clooney recognises that could happen. "There was a period of time in the 60s and 70s when actors were leading the charge in the civil rights movement, the women's rights movements and the Vietnam War movement. And then it got to this place where it probably wasn't a good idea.

"You know, I couldn't campaign for my father when he ran for Congress because it was Hollywood versus the heartland'. Kerry tried to get me to ride on his train after he won the nomination and I wrote him a note saying, I'd hurt you, I'd harm you'."

What the 46-year-old actor seems unlikely or unable to shrug off is the Sexiest Man Alive tag that has been placed upon him. "Well, the news will come back to it but I still get to make those movies, so it never really gets in the way," he says.

"It just becomes a selling tool for a studio or a talking point for somebody. If you think back to the movies I've been able to do, they're certainly not glamorous. I feel like I'm getting away with it.

"And the truth is, I'm the son of a journalist, I know all about it.

I learned long ago that you can't control the lead and the minute you try, usually you get punished for it. So my feeling is, if they're being nice to you, I don't care."

If women find him attractive, that's something he's prepared to live with. The only thing that's tiresome is people in mass, he says.

He'll walk down a corridor, across a lobby and suddenly there are 150 people beginning to act differently than they normally would.

"Suddenly something is going on. I remember going to the Cannes film festival once and people were throwing themselves on the car, ten deep piled on top of the car. They're screaming and pounding on the car. It was really sort of nerve-racking, and I remember the image of this one person's face, screaming like a madman, and he goes, Who are you?', and you realise it has nothing to do with you, it was simply the event."

He owes his break to his doctoring on the TV hit series ER, which he's constantly reminded of because his office is next to the sound stage at Warner Bros where the series is made. "When we were there it was really exciting. People keep forgetting, they talk about American Idol which is a big hit with 22 million people watching. You know our reruns - of ER - were getting 35 million,"

he says.

"We had 44 million people watching, and that was with 150 channels. It was one of those things where it was such a juggernaut. We got on this rocket and we didn't know how to ride it, we were hanging on. So incredibly exciting."

As for rumours of an ER reunion, he says that's just a myth.

"You read a lot of things in different places. Isn't it funny? I'm of the generation that still believes if it's written down, there's still some element of truth.

"But you know the internet - it's just some guy tapping on a keyboard and then it's suddenly passed back and forth, and then it's fact."