George Clooney’s latest film “The Monuments Men” is now playing. Check out what he had to say about working on his project.

What attracted you to this story?

George Clooney: Well it’s a story I didn’t know and I know a lot about World War 2 history, and I was surprised by the fact that I didn’t. Besides Robert’s book…there really isn’t that much research on it and it was a pretty amazing point in our history. Up until that point, no victor had returned the spoils no one. So that alone was a clearly amazing moment in our history and probably had a lot to do with easing our relations as time went on. It’s an amazing thing.

Speak about working with this great ensemble.

George Clooney: Look I don’t care for them. I could go through the list of how difficult they were as you can imagine. Hugh Bonneville when you wake him up in the middle of the night, he talks just like you and me, Jean Dujardin, apparently – I didn’t know until he got on set – he’s French who knew? So that was a surprise, Bill Murray it’s Bill Murray, the whole gang, Matt Damon what do you do? If you can’t get Brad Pitt get Matt Damon, he’s always second choice.

What do you think of the concept of dying for art?

George Clooney: I don’t believe the idea that anyone would die for a piece of art. I don’t think that that’s true. If you had the statue of David in your house and there’s a fire and it was risking certain death you’d save your family, you’d save your dog, but I’m not sure you would try to save the Mona Lisa. The truth is that’s not what that story was about. What it was about was he was trying to make it so that these people never existed, he wanted to not just to kill them all not just conquer their land but wanted to take away their culture and that is worth dying for, and I think that’s the difference between dying for a piece of art and dying for a culture.

How was working with Matt Damon?

George Clooney: I didn’t enjoy it and I’ll tell you why. Matt is usually drunk so we had somebody on the set all the time to make sure he was sober. He’s the best I’ve done six films with him, so he’s the best.

Is it true you pranked Matt Damon twice?

George Clooney: No, it was just one good time, but it went on for a long long period of time. It was good fun.

What did you like about the story?

George Clooney:  I thought it was fascinating to find a story about not just that Hitler tried to kill everyone but he tried to create it as if they didn’t exist at all, as if they hadn’t existed and tried to steal their culture, and I thought it was a story worth telling and found a way to do.

Do you collect a period of art?

George Clooney: Not particularly. I don’t collect art that much. I have art all over my walls but it’s usually something that’s actually personal to me – a painting that I bought the first time I was in Paris, so they’re’ not necessarily. You would come in a say “oh these are some terrible paintings,” but I would go yeah they’re important to me.

What was it like playing a soldier?

George Clooney: It’s fun. I’ve done that a lot, I’ve done it dozens of times in film.

What do you like playing solders?

George Clooney: Well I liked the part. The fun part about this these guys were far from being soldiers for a long period until they became one.

Can you reflect on Philip Seymour Hoffman?

George Clooney: Phil was a good friend to a lot of us in this community and it’s a community and it makes it very difficult to be here 48 hours in this town after he died. Everybody’s here trying to put on a brave face to get through this because it’s a pretty traumatic time. We’re gonna miss him a lot and it’s senseless in a lot of ways. So it’s hard to do. But yeah we miss him

You are involved in in Africa and do a lot of non profit work. What do you think is the ultimate solution?

George Clooney: I don’t have solutions for anything. I usually just try to make louder people who have good ideas and solutions. I’m not at all a policy maker I’m just an amplifier for good policy makers. That’s all you try to do.

Does it get easier to direct yourself and write as time progresses?

George Clooney: It gets really easy to direct yourself because you know what you want.

Do you hope Cate Blanchett wins the Oscar?

George Clooney: I would love it if she won, but I have a lot of good friends in it so I have to be careful how I answer that.