George Clooney dirtied up for the Spain version of GQ magazine. Dirty but still looking pretty damn good. Shamelessly promoting Leatherheads, George ‘fesses up about the movie.

Here’s some excerpts from the interview:

Q: Your new film, ‘‘Leatherheads,’’ which you directed and star in, is about the early days of professional football. What attracted you to this project?

I like to direct. I consider myself more a director than an actor. And after ‘‘Good Night, and Good Luck’’ I realized that I was really good at juggling a hundred things at once. In fact, I needed to: when the hundred things stop, I get into trouble. After ‘‘Good Night,’’ every offer I got to direct was for an issue film. And I don’t want to be the ‘‘issues’’ guy. I want to be a director with longevity, so I picked ‘‘Leatherheads.’’ It was a complete departure — a romantic comedy with football.

Q: Did you watch a lot of romantic comedies to prepare?

I believe in stealing. I ripped off ‘‘His Girl Friday’’ and ‘‘The Philadelphia Story.’’ I was ripping off everything — I’ll send apology letters to everyone. I’ve sent an apology to Sydney Pollack already — there’s a scene I stole from ‘‘Absence of Malice’’ that is so close we had to change it.

Q: Did you play football as a kid growing up in Kentucky?

No. My school, which was a public school, was too small. You need 11 guys, and I think there were just 11 guys in my entire senior class. I played baseball — specifically, center field, which means that you are the captain of the outfield, which I liked.

You can read the rest of the interview here. And here’s more George and his dirty football: