George Clooney Admits He Endured Long-Term Pain and Spent Years on Prescription Painkillers After a 12-Hour Surgery

Known for his charm, wit, and enviable Hollywood career, the "Oceans Twelve" actor has revealed how a spinal injury nearly two decades ago upended his life — leaving him to confront years of excruciating pain and grueling recovery.

In 2005, during the filming of "Syriana," George Clooney suffered two small tears in his spine that caused spinal fluid to leak, resulting in severe headaches and nerve pain.

A Life-Altering Injury on Set and a Long Road to Recovery

In an interview with Esquire, it was revealed that doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles performed a twelve-hour surgery on Christmas Eve to repair the damage. Clooney later described the pain as unbearable while adding that it felt like "his whole head, his neck, his back, everything [was] getting squeezed by a pipe wrench."

Recovery was slow and grueling. For five years, Clooney relied on prescription painkillers until a pain-management specialist encouraged him to rethink how he experienced pain itself.

The doctor encouraged him to recalibrate his perception, teaching his brain to adjust to a higher pain threshold rather than relying on medication. The approach was gradual, but it worked — after another five years, Clooney was able to live without the pills.

New Habits, New Life

Now 64, the actor manages occasional flare-ups through daily exercise and a disciplined lifestyle — including his annual ritual of biking up Mount Bisbino near his home in Lake Como, Italy. He said this ritual helps him prove he's "not too old" yet.

Clooney's family life has also taken center stage. He lives in Italy with his wife, human-rights lawyer Amal Clooney, and their eight-year-old twins, Ella Clooney and Alexander Clooney. Once a longtime Los Angeles resident, he now calls Europe home, finding comfort in a slower pace and his family routine.

The actor is candid about how aging has changed his perspective. He's admitted to moments of fear — worrying about forgetting lines or hearing reminders from his children that he's getting older. Still, he says those experiences have made him more grounded and aware of what truly matters.

Honest About the Past

Clooney also acknowledged his past experimentation with drugs and alcohol. Reflecting on his early years in Los Angeles, he admitted that he had used illegal substances and sometimes went on drinking binges.

"It was never a big issue for me at all [...] I wouldn't say it was a problem—I never woke up and drank or anything. But I'd have runs where I'd get pretty toasty every night," he said, noting that his experiences mirrored those of many young people trying to find their way in the 1980s.

Clooney once joked about a time he and a group of friends made pot brownies and watched "The Wizard of Oz" synced with Pink Floyd’s "Dark Side of the Moon." The night left them completely dazed, sitting in silence for hours until sunrise — an experience he later said confirmed that marijuana "wasn’t his drug."

His humor and candor about those years underscore how much he has changed since then.

Roots That Ground Him

Before fame, Clooney worked a string of odd jobs — cutting tobacco, selling insurance, and even sleeping on a closet floor while auditioning for acting roles. Those early struggles, he's said, taught him resilience and self-reliance. Once, when his car broke down in the cold, he famously improvised a fan belt out of his wife's stockings to get them home.

Although Clooney jokes about the passage of time, he admits he's still coming to terms with the aging process. He's grateful for his family, his health, and the hard-earned lessons that came from pain — both physical and emotional.

For the actor who once seemed invincible, the long road from agony to acceptance has become one of his most deeply human stories yet.