The Amercian

ABOUT THE CAST

GEORGE CLOONEY (Jack)
George Clooney has won renown as an actor, producer, executive producer, writer and director. The son of an anchorman, Mr. Clooney is a strong First Amendment advocate with a deep commitment to humanitarian causes.

In 2006, he was honored with three Academy Award nominations – Best Director and Best Original Screenplay (with Grant Heslov), for Good Night, and Good Luck; and Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in Syriana.He won the latter Oscar; it was the first time in the awards’ history that an individual had received acting and directing nominations for two different films in the same year. In addition, he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for Syriana, which he co-produced; and was nominated for Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA, and Critics’ Choice awards.

He has since been twice nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award, for his performances in Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton and Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, both of which also earned Mr. Clooney Golden Globe, BAFTA, Critics’ Choice, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.  The latter film also brought him the Best award from the National Board of Review; he was cited as Best Actor by the New York Film Critics Circle for Up in the Air as well as for Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animated feature Fantastic Mr. Fox.

He is partnered with Grant Heslov in the film and television production company Smokehouse Pictures. In addition to The American, Smokehouse’s feature productions have included The Men Who Stare at Goats, which he starred in and which Mr. Heslov directed; and Leatherheads, which Mr. Clooney directed and starred in. The company’s first television series, currently airing its debut season, is Memphis Beat, starring Jason Lee.

The two previously worked together at Section Eight, in which Mr. Clooney was partnered with Steven Soderbergh. Section Eight produced such films as Good Night, and Good Luck; Syriana; Ocean’s Eleven and Ocean’s Twelve; John Maybury’s The Jacket;Steven Soderbergh’s Full Frontal; Anthony and Joe Russo’s Welcome to Collinwood; Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia; and, for Focus Features, Todd Haynes’ Far from Heaven

In Section Eight’s television division, Mr. Clooney was an executive producer on, and directed five of the episodes of, Unscripted, which aired in 2005. He also was an executive producer on, and cameraman for, the 2003 series K Street. Both shows fused reality and fiction.

He made his feature directorial debut in 2002 with the Section Eight production of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, for which he won the Special Achievement in Film Award from the National Board of Review. He followed it up in 2005 with Good Night, and Good Luck, in which he also co-starred. He was recognized for his work on the latter by nearly every major film critics’ organization. Mr. Clooney was honored with the Paul Selvin Award from the Writers Guild of America and the the Freedom Award from the Broadcast Film Critics Association. In addition to the two Academy Award nominations, he was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, three BAFTA Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, an Independent Spirit Award, two Critics’ Choice Awards, a WGA Award, and a Directors Guild of America Award, among others.

He has also earned critical acclaim starring in such films as Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight and David O. Russell’s Three Kings. Among his other films are Steven Soderbergh’s Solaris, The Good German, and Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Twelve, and Ocean’s Thirteen; Mimi Leder’s The Peacemaker;Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin;Michael Hoffman’s One Fine Day; Robert Rodriguez’ From Dusk Till Dawn; andJoel and Ethan Coen’s O Brother, Where Art Thou?, for which he won a Golden Globe Award, Intolerable Cruelty, and Burn After Reading, also for Focus Features. He next stars in Alexander Payne’s The Descendants, with Judy Greer and Shailene Woodley.

Mr. Clooney has starred in several television series but is best known to TV audiences for his five years on the hit NBC drama ER. His portrayal of Dr. Douglas Ross earned him Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, People’s Choice, and Emmy Award nominations.

He was executive producer and co-star of the live television broadcast of Fail Safe, developed through his Maysville Pictures, which won two Emmy Awards and was directed by Stephen Frears. Fail Safe, based on the novel of the same name, also received Golden Globe and DGA Award nominations.

In 2006, Mr. Clooney and his father, Nick, went to Darfur to film the documentary Journey to Darfur. His work on behalf on Darfur relief led to his addressing the United Nations Security Council. He also narrated the Darfur documentary Sand and Sorrow. In 2007, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and Jerry Weintraub co-founded Not On Our Watch, an organization whose mission is to focus global attention and resources to stop and prevent mass atrocities in Darfur.

George Clooney was subsequently honored with the 2007 Peace Summit Award, given at The Eighth World Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates at their annual meeting in Rome. In 2008, he was designated a U.N. Messenger of Peace, one of eight individuals chosen to advocate on behalf of the U.N. and its peacekeeping efforts. In January 2010, he, along with Joel Gallen and Tenth Planet Productions, produced the Hope for Haiti Now telethon, which raised more than $66 million for disaster relief.

VIOLANTE PLACIDO (Clara)
one Violante Placido was nominated for the prestigious David di Donatello Award (which is her native Italy’s Oscars equivalent), in the Best Actress category, for her performance in Giovanni Veronesi’s Che ne sarà di noi.

She has twice been nominated for the Silver Ribbon award by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, for her performances in Lucio Pellegrini’s Ora o mai più and Sergio Rubini’s L’anima gemella, alongside Valentina Cervi. She and Ms. Cervi shared the Wella Prize, for their work in the latter film, at the 2002 Venice International Film Festival; six years later at the Festival, Ms. Placido was awarded the Kinéo Prize for her performance in Claudio Cupellini’s Lezioni di Cioccolato.

The daughter of actor/director Michele Placido (of The Caiman) and actress Simonetta Stefanelli (of The Godfather), Violante Placido’s made her feature starring debut in Enza Negroni’s Jack Frusciante è uscito dal gruppo, adapted from the popular novel of the same name. She has since appeared in over two dozen movies, including Oliver Parker’s Fade to Black, opposite Danny Huston as Orson Welles. In 2009, she starred in the Hindi film Barah Aana, directed by Raja Menon.

In 2005, she released an album of self-penned songs entitled Don’t Be Shy, many of them performed in English, which was followed by a tour across Italy. Ms. Placido is now working on songs for a new album.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

ANTON CORBIJN (Director)
Anton Corbijn, who was born in the Netherlands and has lived in the U.K. for over 29 years, is globally known as an influential portrait photographer, having worked with painters, directors, actors, writers, and musicians over 35 years. He photographs mostly in black/white and his photography can be seen on over 100 record covers, in magazines and books as well as in galleries and museums. Over a dozen volumes of his photography have been published, with titles such as FAMOUZ, 33 Still Lives, WERK, and U2&i. He published a book of the making of his last film Control, In Control, and to coincide with the release of The American he will publish a book entitled Inside The American.  This will consist of photos he took on- and off-set during the filming and preparations for the film in 2009. The publishing house is Schirmer/Mosel Verlag in Munich.

He also works as a graphic designer, designing posters, magazine covers, logos (the logo of his hometown The Hague in Holland is his), and 10 album sleeves for, amongst others, Depeche Mode and The American composer Herbert Grönemeyer. He also works as a stage designer, having done all of Depeche Mode’s world tours since 1993, for which he has won international acclaim.

Mr. Corbijn has directed short films, including Some YoYo Stuff, an interpretation of and with artist Captain Beefheart, alias Don Van Vliet, starring David Lynch. He has directed over 75 music videos. Among the latter have been over a dozen Depeche Mode videos, such as “Enjoy the Silence” and “Personal Jesus;” Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box,” for which he won an MTV Video Music Award; U2's “One” and “Electrical Storm,” starring Samantha Morton; Johnny Cash’s “Dehlia's Gone,” with Kate Moss; Nick Cave’s “Straight to You;” Metallica’s “Hero of the Day;” the Killers' “All These Things That I’ve Done;” Coldplay’s “Talk” and the original “Viva la Vida,” the song being based on Mr. Corbijn's video for Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence” and which he shot in his hometown The Hague; and several for Herbert Grönemeyer, amongst which was "Mensch," the biggest song Mr. Grönemeyer ever released. He was the first director ever to receive a Golden Frog at Lodz’ Camerimage film festival, in 2007, for contribution to music video. A collection of his video work was released by Palm Pictures in 2005 on the DVD The Work of Director Anton Corbijn. 

The American is his second feature film as director, following the 2007 drama Control, which won 5 British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) as well as over a dozen other awards worldwide including the Best New British Feature award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.  Control starred Sam Riley, a new acting discovery, who went on to win several awards for his role as Ian Curtis amongst which was a BIFA, as did Toby Kebbell, who played the manager. Samantha Morton, who starred as Ian’s wife Debbie, was a BIFA nominee and earned a BAFTA Award nomination, as did the film itself.