George Clooney Admits Memorizing His Lines for Broadway’s Good Night, and Good Luck Is ‘a Nightmare’: ‘I’m Scared!’

George Clooney is weeks away from making his Broadway debut in the new stage adaptation of his 2005 movie, Good Night, and Good Luck. But it looks like he’s going to need all the time he can to prep.

During an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday, Feb 18, the Oscar winner said that despite co-writing the film and the play (both with Grant Heslov), memorizing his lines has been “a nightmare.”

“I don’t remember my kids names!” joked Clooney, who shares 7-year-old twins Alexander and Ella with wife Amal. “I’m 63!”

“It’s weird. When I did ER, we’d do 12 pages a day of medical dialogue and you could just come in and whip it out. I was 30 years [old],” Clooney added, before demonstrating his recall of the phrase “supraventricular tachycardia” which he said he’s “never gotten wrong since” doing the 1994 drama. “Now I can’t remember anything.”

The play, like the film, recounts the real-life story of CBS news journalist Edward R. Murrow’s legendary exposé on Senator Joseph McCarthy. On screen, Clooney played news producer Fred Friendly, but on stage, he’ll step into the shoes of Murrow — the role that earned David Strathairn a 2006 Oscar nomination.

This will be Clooney’s first stage work since 1986’s Vicious, a play about the life of Sid Vicious he did in Los Angeles and later, at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre. His work in the play, as a male prostitute drug dealer, earned him his first agent and on-camera work.

But while he was fearless back then, Clooney feels much differently now.

“Honest to God, literally, these are very famous speeches that Murrow wrote and I start to do them and I just sit there going, ‘Uhhh… I don’t remember,’ ” Clooney said. “It’s sheer panic.”

“I’m terrified,” he said, noting how different stage and screen is. “It’s a very different beast. Yeah, I’m scared!”

Good Night, and Good Luck begins performances on Wednesday, March 12 at the Winter Garden Theatre. Opening night is set for Thursday, April 3.

Clooney will be joined in Good Night, and Good Luck by Mac Brandt as Colonel Anderson, Will Dagger as Don Hewitt, Christopher Denham as John Aaron, Glenn Fleshler as Fred Friendly, Ilana Glazer as Shirley Wershba, Clark Gregg as Don Hollenbeck, Paul Gross as William F. Paley, Georgia Heers as Ella, Carter Hudson as Joe Wershba, Fran Kranz as Palmer Williams, Jennifer Morris as Millie Green, Michael Nathanson as Eddie Scott, Andrew Polk as Charlie Mack and Aaron Roman Weiner as Don Surine.

R. Ward Duffy, Joe Forbrich, Imani Rousselle, Greg Stuhr, JD Taylor, and Sophia Tzougros round out the ensemble. 

Tony winner David Cromer will direct Good Night, and Good Luck on stage. Clooney directed the film, earning an Oscar nomination for his work and one for its original screenplay. The film was also nominated for Best Picture.

Coincidentally, Clooney won his Oscar that same night — though not for Good Night, and Good Luck. He took home the prestigious trophy for his supporting acting work in Syriana.

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Elsewhere on The Late Show, Clooney opened up about why now was the right time to bring to Broadway Good Night, and Good Luck, a play Colbert described as being about “a man in journalism standing up against both corporate and political interests.”

“Grant and I… wrote this 20 years ago because I was being called a traitor in the country for being against the war in Iraq,” Clooney said. “Forever, we’ve had this issue where power kind of hates the fourth estate, they hate journalism. And my father’s an anchorman and a newsman and we’ve always believed in the idea that when the other three estates — the judiciary branch, the executive branch [and the legislative branch] — when the all fail you, you need that fourth estate. And this is a moment of us at our best. And I like the idea of seeing ourselves at our best, I think that’s an exciting thing to do.”

Tickets for Good Night, and Good Luck are now on sale.