George Clooney says Johnny Depp and Mark Wahlberg told Ocean's Eleven producers to 'f**k off'

Looking back at the Ocean's series now, it's hard to imagine why anyone would turn down a role in the star-studded movies.

According to George Clooney though, some people did - and they weren't very polite about it, either.

The actor reflected on the first instalment of the franchise, Ocean's Eleven, as he appeared alongside its director Steven Soderbergh at the 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood.

It's been more than 20 years since Clooney's version of Ocean's Eleven was released in 2001 - a few decades after the original in 1960 - but the series has been going until as recently as 2018, when Sandra Bullock appeared as Debbie Ocean to carry on the family trade.

Soderbergh remembered that Ocean's Eleven came along at the right time, saying: "It felt like the next iteration in my desire to work in the mainstream film business and make movies that could be released in a lot of theaters. I grew up watching movies made by great filmmakers that were commercially successful, distinctive movies. And I wanted to be part of that tradition."

Warner Bros.

Clooney credited Soderbergh with trying to 'to infuse all of this independent film stuff that all of these young filmmakers were learning' into the bigger Hollywood studio system, adding: "It was going to get back to the things that they were doing from like 1964 to 1975."

It also helped that Soderbergh was a hot commodity at the time of the first movie, with Clooney explaining: "Steven had just done Erin Brockovich and Traffic, and he was nominated for directing both films. So, people really wanted to work with Steven."

That being said, not even the prospect of working with Soderbergh was enough to convince some people to get on board.

"Some people did say no to us," Soderbergh said.

Clooney continued: "They did. Some very famous people told us to f**k right off. Mark Wahlberg, Johnny Depp. There were others."

Warner Bros.

The actor went on to claim those stars who said no 'regret it now', and they're apparently not the only ones with some career regrets.

"I regret doing f**king Batman," Clooney admitted.

While 1997's Batman & Robin might not have been Clooney's finest hour, he obviously had a much better time working on the Ocean's Eleven as he went on to star in two sequels, and act as producer on the female-led instalment, Ocean's Eight.

LADbible has contacted representatives for Depp and Wahlberg for comment.