But for his costar in the upcoming thriller The American, there was no such trepidation – on her part, at least.
"He confessed … that he didn't do lots of sex scenes," Violante Placido, who plays prostitute Clara and Clooney's love interest in the film, tells PEOPLE. "I felt like this was in a way something new to him, he wasn't that experienced."
She says the relatively graphic love scene came together well, though, once they agreed to trust each other.
"We had to find a way to make it natural and let your body speak somehow," Placido says. "We were very open to one another to try and make it work. We just said 'let’s trust each other' and we did. I felt like we had to let ourselves go." [People]
