Sometimes, nice-guy multimillionaires do finish first.

Yet in the recent issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Hollywood superstar George Clooney said he thought about suicide after a stunt in 2005's Syriana put him in hospital, in great pain from a spinal injury.

Lots of recovery time later, Clooney's name will likely come up when the Oscar nominations are announced on Jan. 24.

The 50-year-old has already received an anointing for his political thriller, The Ides of March. It opened last month to predictions he's in line to pick up a director nod, and maybe nominations for co-writing the screenplay and co-starring as the U.S. presidential candidate hiding a secret.

The Descendants, opening later this month, is another movie likely to put him in the running for best actor.

In the Alexander Payne-directed comedy-drama based on the Kaui Hart Hemmings' 2007 novel, Clooney plays the grieving Matt Hill. He's a Hawaiian real-estate mogul struggling with the reality that his wife Elizabeth has lapsed into a coma after a water-skiing accident.

As he prepares to take her off of life support, he tries to reunite with his daughters, the precocious 10-year-old Scottie (Amara Miller), and the rebellious teen Alex (Shailene Woodley). While he copes, his grieving is interrupted when he discovers his wife might have been having an affair just before she died.

As usual, Payne's latest movie (2004's Sideways was his last effort) is a mix of wry humour and sadness, which Clooney seems to embrace with ease and grace.

The only thing The Ides of March and The Descendants have in common is that the separate projects were each delayed a few years. Clooney held back on filming The Ides of March because the cynical tone didn't seem quite right a few years ago.

And Payne's movie stalled until Clooney would commit. Payne had been out of the Hollywood loop for more than seven years after his Oscar-honoured Sideways and About Schmidt put him on the A-list.

Both films might also share an undercurrent of cynicism, though Clooney insisted the subtext is a coincidence, not a reflection of our times.

"I think you have to remember that films don't lead the way," he said. "People always want to think that films are somehow trying to lead or reflect our society."

In The Descendants, there's no denying that the childless actor is convincing as an out-of-touch father. With equal amounts of bafflement and bemusement, he struggles to re-acquaint himself with his estranged daughters.

A 10-day pre-shoot rehearsal in Hawaii helped forge the bond and develop the father role.

"I had these girls with me," said Clooney during an interview to promote The Descendants. "And it really was like having kids. But I got to give them away at the end of the day."

Typically, Clooney refused to take all the credit. He praised Payne, who also co-wrote the screenplay, and his two co-stars just starting out in the business.

Miller makes her movie debut in The Descendants, but you would never know it. And Woodley, who's best known as Amy Juergens in the series, The Secret Life of an American Teenager, is also receiving Oscar buzz for her acting.

"And I do want to point out that (Woodley) does cry underwater and I've never seen that before," said Clooney. "That's a real talent."

The actor and filmmaker deflected any Oscar talk, downplaying his father performance despite his lack of experience in the field.

"I don't think you have to shoot heroin to play a heroin addict, and most people are not running for president, but I played a candidate (in The Ides of March)."

What about the potential Oscar nods this awards season?

Again, he gets cagey. Maybe it's because the experience isn't new to him. He won the best supporting actor Oscar for his role in Syriana, and got a best-actor nomination for 2007's Michael Clayton and 2009's Up in the Air.

"I've won an award once, so when I die, they can say 'Oscar winner,'" he said. "And it's a great sort of thing to have on the tombstone."

His point is this: "I really appreciate it when people enjoy the work, but I really don't have this dying need to collect things."

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