George Clooney knew he wanted Christopher Abbott to play the lead in ‘Catch-22’ just "six lines in" to his audition.
The 58-year-old actor stars in, directs and produces the miniseries based on based on the revered satirical novel of the same name by Joseph Heller and when Abbot, 33, was reading for the part of John Yossarian he knew he’d found the right man for the job.
Speaking to BANG Showbiz at the UK premiere of the series at the Vue cinema in Westfield, London, Clooney said: "Well Chris obviously [was memorable] because he’s the lead and we needed somebody who could really be fantastic. We had a lot of really wonderful actors from London, I can tell you now they were all great."
When asked whether he knew straight away he wanted the ‘Girls’ star for the role, he said: "I think about six lines into the audition, you can just tell."
Abbott also revealed that before auditioning for the satirical series – which sees Clooney play Lieutenant Scheisskopf – the Hollywood star greeted him wearing a "leather helmet from the movie Leatherheads" which helped make the ‘Sinner’ actor feel slightly less "terrified".
Abott recalled: "It wasn’t that terrifying because he greeted with me with a leather helmet on from the movie ‘Leatherheads’ and I was terrified before but then once I was in there I wasn’t anymore so that was good, that was smart on his behalf."
George Clooney instantly knew he had to cast Christopher Abbott in Catch-22
