George Clooney and frequent co-star Julia Roberts appeared together on the latest edition of Bruce Bozzi’s “Table for Two” podcast.

During the course of the conversation, Clooney looked back on how becoming the breakout star of medical drama “ER” — then one of television’s hottest series — propelled him from TV to the big screen.

Becoming a movie star, however, was not assured, and Clooney recalled the level of skepticism that greeted a TV actor embarking on a prospective film career.

READ MORE:
George Clooney Is Still ‘Really Good Friends’ With His ‘ER’ Castmates, Says Show Changed His Career

“Every article was like, ‘He’s not gonna make it.’ Every article, really every single piece — every question was like, ‘He doesn’t have it,’” said Clooney.

“In fact, there were directors that quit — Sydney Pollack quit. He was going to direct ‘Out of Sight’ and he quit because he said, ‘He’s not a movie star’ about me when I got the job. And that happened with a couple of directors.”

However, Clooney added, Pollack — director of such cinema classics as “Tootsie” and “Out of Africa” — later had a change of heart after Clooney actually did become a movie star.

READ MORE:
Julia Roberts Struggled To Film One ‘Ticket To Paradise’ Scene With George Clooney, Director Reveals

“Funny thing is, I worked with Sydney later on ‘Michael Clayton’, and I walked over and I said, ‘Hey man!’ And he goes, ‘Listen, you know — all right, take it easy. I was wrong.’ I loved him, I really loved him and I didn’t even hold it against him at the time, but the narrative was really different and it was a hard thing to cross over,” Clooney recalled.