George Clooney, Christopher Abbott and Kyle Chandler talk about new TV mini series, ‘Catch 22’

Los Angeles — It is not unusual that actor-turned-director George Clooney would take on projects that mean a lot to him.

So when he grabbed on the project to direct, produce, and act on the new TV mini- series, “Catch 22,” the satirical dark comedy based on the novel of the same name by Joseph Heller, we were not surprised.

“The absurdity of war and of politics is always a relevant story,” the award-winning filmmaker said. “And I am the kind of person who always gets involved in things that I am interested in. I grew up like that,” he added.

The TV mini-series also marks the return of George to television who made his acting debut on television in 1978, later gaining recognition and two Primetime Emmy Award nominations as Dr. Doug Ross on the medical drama “ER” from 1994 to 1999.

Aside from George who portrays Lieutenant Scheisskopf, other members of the cast include Christopher Abbott as John Yossarian and Kyle Chandler as Colonel Cathcart.

Below are excerpts of our conversations with them when we talked to them on the set in Sardinia, Italy and then again in Los Angeles, California.

George Clooney

All photos courtesy of Janet Susan R. Nepales/HFPA

You’ve been away from television for some years. What made you come back with this show?

The script, because you know when they called and said, “Do you want to do Catch-22?” I said, “No.” It's a beloved novel as we know, and you don't really like messing with those kinds of things.

Then they sent us three of the six scripts to (producer-actor) Grant (Heslov) and I. We read them overnight and we called and said, “If there are three more of these, we will do it” and they had three more.  I just thought it's a spectacular take on a classic story and we were really excited to do it.

So, you know I don't fixate on the delivery systems of the kind of work we do. I just like to be able to tell stories and there's some really good storytelling going on in television right now. So that's good. It's a good time to do it.

Can you talk about the decision to veer away from the book and the things you thought were important to keep the original? How connected is it to the original?

The funny thing is, I read the book in high school, which was nine years ago.  (laughs) So I hadn’t read it in a long time but I remember it being a classic novel and all of that.  So when I got a call and they said do you want to do it, I said no, I don’t want to do “Catch-22.”

Then I read these scripts and I thought they were fantastic. We chose to just stick with the six scripts and pay attention to those. I know the movie very well. I knew Mike Nichols very well, who I loved. 

I knew that it was a tricky adaptation to film, because you couldn’t care about all these characters that you are going to kill. So they killed all these characters that you didn’t even know, they just died. It just gave you a feeling like cannon fodder. I love the idea that we could spend time with these characters before they ended up meeting their demise. So I thought this was a perfect medium to do it in and I thought it was a really fun way to tell the story.  We just focused on that pretty much.

You seem to have discovered Christopher Abbott. He was really good here.

Isn’t he great? I remember how I worked with Sam Rockwell the first time. There are some actors who can do despicable things and Jack Nicholson is the king of it, and you still care for him. Chris can do that. He can do both comedy and drama and still be able to care about him.

We’re doing a closed set shot of Chris Abbott walking around completely naked, but I am charging. I could make a little cash if you want to see it. He does walk around naked and he's very proud. I suppose if I was Chris Abbot I'd walk around naked too.

Talk about your decision to change parts when you assigned Kyle Chandler to do your original part, and working as a director.

I switched parts because Colonel Cathcart in this script, in these six episodes is the second largest part. It was too much for me to do that and to try to produce and direct two episodes of this. It's just too much.

So, we luckily got Kyle to say yes and Kyle is just absolutely great in this part. He’s this nutty George C. Scott, kind of Dr. Strangelove crazy maniac in it and I've never seen him do anything like this. It's really fun. I've seen Kyle for years and have been a great admirer of his, but he's really doing something exciting and fun.

I assume you know what Scheisskopf means?

I know. Its shithead. You know that. My name is shithead.

Well, how much of a Scheisskopf are you?

Well, have you seen my mustache?

Since you play one.

I'm not a particularly nice guy in this one. There aren't a whole lot of nice people in this. There's a lot of very flawed individuals and mine is a particularly, unsavory character.

But most of us have some pretty big flaws except for the young guys. The young guys are kind of gray but no, I'm kind of a shithead all the way through it, so it's perfect.

Chris Abbott, the guy who's playing Yossarian, he deserves it. He's young. He can take a good punch or two. I'm pretty awful to him, but he's sleeping with my wife, so I think that's fair. You know it’s all even.

You are filming here in Sardinia, Italy. How did you discover the place, and what does it mean to you?

I used to come to Sardinia for years and years I would come and ride a motorcycle around Sardinia, so I know it very well. We needed a location that was southern Italy with an airbase and we came here, luckily. They have this abandoned air base. You've got the airport right over there. We have all these great old planes flying around and landing and stuff.

But in Sardinia, the food is very different, the language is completely different than Italian. Most of my Italian friends don't understand Sardo at all, but the people are incredible. They're very strong and strong-willed. The food is spectacular. They're very gentle and kind here to us. It's just been a spectacular time.

Did Amal ban you from riding motorcycles after your accident?

No, she hasn’t banned me from anything.  She didn’t even ban me from riding motorcycles.  We were coming back from the hospital and she said so do you think you want to ride again? I was in the van with Grant (Heslov), who was also in the accident with me and we were pretty rattled — I hit the guy at 70 miles an hour.  And if you do it 100 times, 99 times I wouldn’t be sitting here. It was a lot of luck and I used up nine lives in one shot. So I figure I got 40 good years riding and I can let that go, I got twins now and got to be responsible, you know what I mean?  (laughs)

You have been so outspoken so you might have lots of enemies.

In this room? (laughs)

When you go to new places or hotels, do you send somebody first to check that there are no bombs?

No listen, my wife is taking ISIS to court and this is the first trial against ISIS. We have to pay attention to things. Obviously, we have to pay attention to things, and the world is different now. But we also have to live our lives in as normal a way as possible and you have known me for a long time and I do try to not surround myself with the kind of protection that makes you isolated in a way. But we do have to pay attention to certain things and we have to change hotels sometimes and things like that. But that is only just out of precaution.

Christopher Abbott

Can you talk about your character and what it’s like to be here in Sardinia, Italy?

Being here is not too shabby. We could have picked a lot worse. I've done a lot of indie films in upstate New York, which is beautiful but it's nice to be on location somewhere as beautiful as this.

I've only eaten Sardinian food. I've only drank Sardinian wine. Oh God, it's been a lot of fresh fish and typical Sardinian pastas. Everything feels very local here and that’s beautiful. I love being here and of course, I went into the ocean. Yeah, it's probably the most beautiful place I've ever gotten to work.

Yossarian, my character, is the protagonist in the book as well as in the script. Essentially, he's a person going through an existential crisis amidst World War II and it's really just about his thought processes and his down spirals and, and a lot it is him questioning what it means to be alive amidst such chaos.

How are you filming your aerial scenes? Are they simulated?

It’s going to be in real planes and there'll be on gimbals, probably on a stage to get the movement and to get the feeling of what it's like while it's flying at least. Then here on location we've shot some stuff as if the plane has landed, so there’s a lot of us getting out of the plane.

How did you get the role?

It was a pretty standard audition. I met George and Grant and a few other people were there, and we chatted for a bit. Even just from the chat itself it felt like we're on the same page and I did one or two of the long scenes. I felt good. This was one of the best things I've ever read, and I didn't want to walk out of that room feeling like I didn't do as much as I could to try to get it. I didn't want to have any regrets.

Kyle Chandler

George couldn’t take this part because he wanted to concentrate on being a director. So how did you prepare for this particular character? 

I had it about a month and a half beforehand. I started working on the material early, and then I had to put it away because it was a little bit too much. But yeah, of course I read the book. I don't remember reading the book in high school, but I know we had to. I'm sure it came along with the Grapes of Wrath, what have you.

But, the book itself is an interesting read because it’s of a certain time and one of the people who did a review of it said, “It's hard to tell whether it's a comedy, with a vein of drama through it or a drama with a vein of comedy through it.”

The Colonel Cathcart character is a character who I've never played before and the one thing that I felt comfortable with it going into it, not having done something like this and being high profile and working with these people. The fact there was that comedy underlying the absurdity of it all, and that's what I really liked. I liked that fine line that really appealed to me and what it's about. It's reflective of what's going on right now as well.

So how was it filming here in Sardinia?

I love the food here. I love the place. I love the geography. I haven’t traveled more than an hour from where I am yet, but I will. I'd like to get down to the southern part of the island. So, I've got a little scooter. I'm going to do that. The people here are fantastic. Yes, I've been in the ocean, and we've taken the boat out with the Merry Band. We've rented boats and gone out together, went swimming and all that. It's been very enjoyable.

How is George as a director?

I've worked with many directors, and he has his own particular way. He's an actor's director.  He knows exactly what he wants. He has fun doing it and he knows how to bring out the best in people.

Looking at you now while you are in uniform, you remind me of General Douglas MacArthur. Can you comment on that and what being in uniform give you?

When we started to get into the costume, I wanted everything baggy and dirty because this place that we're in, it's a hot place. It's a dirty place. It’s a sweaty place and I wanted my character to be part of the men yet at the same time, he's the leader. I wanted to make sure he fits in. I didn't want him crisp and clean or anything like that. He's a working man, a blue-collar, a Colonel if you will. So that was the idea with that.

As for looking like General Douglas MacArthur, I didn’t even think of that. Maybe that's why they wouldn't give me a corncob pipe. — LA, GMA News