George Clooney at the 62nd Venice Film Festival.

George Clooney could so easily have eased himself into the life of a Hollywood playboy. If anyone has it all, it's this handsome and charming 44-year-old from Kentucky.

But instead gorgeous George has let his acting and producing career take a more serious turn, throwing his considerable Hollywood clout behind a pair of provocative political films - with a string of award nominations as his reward.

He co-wrote and directed his labour of love Good Night, And Good Luck, a drama about the bitter conflict between respected broadcaster Edward R Murrow and right-wing firebrand Senator Joe McCarthy in the Cold War 1950s.

He follows this by playing an overweight and depressed CIA agent in political thriller Syriana, which examines corruption in the oil industry and abuses of power in Washington's war on terror.

Neither is popcorn entertainment, but both are winning the star a lot of admiration in liberal America.

"Good Night, And Good Luck is, in many ways, a historical reference that people can draw contemporary parallels to," he says.

"Syriana, on the other hand, is a fictional piece that people can draw parallels to, but whose characters remind us of a lot of things that do exist."

The time felt right to tackle these subjects, George says. "The truth is you can only get a certain amount of time where you can go to Warner Bros. and say, 'Guys, we're going to make a film about oil corruption'.

George Clooney and Matt Damon in 'Syriana'.

"I'm in a position to do things I want to do and you're not going to be in that position for very long."

George has enjoyed that kind of clout in Hollywood since turning himself into an A-list box office star with hits such as Three Kings and the Ocean's Eleven franchise.

But there's also a serious side to George Clooney that has earned him tremendous respect within the industry - not that he has anything against being an entertainer.

"I'm not a snob, I like entertaining films as well," he maintains. "But when you do a film like Good Night, And Good Luck that gets you in a bit of trouble, it's fun to open up a debate.

"The important thing for both of these films is that they're entertaining, they're not civic lessons. But I'm interested in them because they're socially asking questions."

George Clooney and Robert Downey Jr. in 'Good Night And Good Luck'.

The shadow of George's television newscaster father Nick Clooney looms over Good Night, And Good Luck.

"Edward R Murrow was a big part of my growing up. My father was an anchorman doing news his whole life and Murrow was always the high-water mark for broadcast journalists."

George has been blasted by the right-wing media for his political tilt, but says the criticism doesn't worry him: "I'm a big kid, I can take all of that, I don't mind it.

"It's all so much more complex than good and evil. There's nothing cut and dried about these things.

"What's important is to understand the reasons why people do things. We're going to have to have open discussions about it."

George Clooney arriving for the gala Screening of 'Good Night and Good Luck'.

However, he does worry about the decline in newspaper readership."I think there's a great amount of good journalism going on. I also think there's a lot of crap out there and it's a different world now. It's a 24-hour news cycle, it's 150 channels. 90% of the news that Americans get is from television now. People don't read any more."

George says the opposition to Good Night, And Good Luck and Syriana is gentle compared to the hostility he faced before the Iraq War.

"I was being called un-American. People were protesting my movies. All I did was make a few comments in a few interviews that before we sent 150,000 kids to Iraq, maybe we should ask a few questions.

"But back then you were called unpatriotic if you wanted to ask questions."

Things seems to have opened up a lot since then, he says. "People were afraid to say things back then. Stars would come up to me and whisper that they supported me, but people seem to be less afraid now. It's becoming hard to avoid the questions."

Moreover, the idea of making films with a social conscience has always appealed to him.

"I've always been drawn to those movies. I grew up during the civil rights movement, during the Vietnam War movement. I grew up with the protest films. I think they're really incredibly entertaining as well."

George paid quite a physical price for his involvement in the searing Syriana. He damaged his spine in a torture scene when he was taped to a chair and he admits his recovery has been slow. It didn't help that he put on 30lbs to depict a CIA operative going to seed.

"I've had to have two operations. I've done these things called blood patches where they shoot blood into your spine," he says.

"I tore my dura which is a cranial spinal fluid leak. Mostly it just hurts. It's not dangerous but it doesn't feel good. It makes your head hurt."

George Clooney and William Hurt in 'Syriana'.

And putting on a lot of extra weight made him depressed, he adds."I thought it was a good space to stay in while I was doing this film because the character feels like he has been deserted and betrayed."

It may have been a tough year physically for George but it has been a great time artistically. His star has never been higher with a slew of Oscar and Bafta nominations and a Golden Globe for his performance in Syriana.

On the personal front, George remains tight-lipped, although this year he's been linked to Charlie's Angels beauty Lucy Liu, and most recently Desperate Housewife Teri Hatcher. Once married to Talia Balsam, he's also dated a string of beauties from Renee Zellweger to presenter Lisa Snowdon.

George Clooney in 'Syriana'.

"I don't like to share my personal life," he says. "It wouldn't be personal if I shared it."

Both Michelle Pfeiffer and Nicole Kidman lost their bets that George would be married again with children by 40. But he seems as content as ever being single, sharing his secluded hillside home in Los Angeles with his pet pig Max.

While admitting he has no trouble attracting the interest of women, the actor admits he's a bit old-fashioned when it comes to romance.

"I don't like to feel I'm being hunted down," he says. "I find myself embarrassed if I'm with people and suddenly women appear who want to meet me."

What his two latest films prove is that George can straddle both the world of commercial entertainment and serious film-making with aplomb.

Next he stars as an American journalist in post-war Berlin in murder mystery The Good German before playing the title character in the legal drama Michael Clayton.

"I'm a hybrid, I succeed in both worlds," he says. "I hope that selling out on Ocean's Eleven is not such a bad deal. The trade-off is I get to make something uncommercial."

:: Good Night, And Good Luck opens on Friday February 17. Syriana opens
on Friday March 3.