George Clooney: I ‘Did Too Many Drugs’ to Be a Politician

George Clooney in Sudan

Thomas Mukoya/Reuters/Landov

Honesty is the best policy – especially for politicians, so sayeth George Clooney.

The actor and activist, who from time to time has been discussed as a possible Democratic candidate, insists his own life may have been a bit too colorful to get him elected.

“I didn’t live my life in the right way for politics, you know,” Clooney, 49, tells Newsweek in this week’s cover story. “I [expletive] too many chicks and did too many drugs, and that’s the truth.”

But, says Clooney, politicians should just be open about their past indiscretions and then get on with governing.

A savvy polticial figure “would start from the beginning by saying, ‘I did it all. I drank the bong water. Now let’s talk about issues,’ ” he says. “That’s gonna be my campaign slogan: ‘I drank the bong water.’ ”

Instead of delving into the world of Washington, D.C., politics, Clooney would rather focus his star power on raising awareness around certain issues – such as the war in Sudan, where he’s spent a lot of time over the last few years.

Using his own resources, Clooney has also turned the cameras around by funding a satellite that monitors military movements in a particularly volatile area of Sudan.

“I’m not tied to the U.N. or the U.S. government, and so I don’t have the same constraints,” says the actor, who next stars as a politician in The Ides of March. “I’m a guy with a camera from 480 miles up. I’m the anti-genocide paparazzi.”

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