Steven Soderbergh’s 2002 film “Solaris,” based on the 1961 novel by Stanislav Lem, was an interesting experiment as sci-fi blockbusters go. Starring George Clooney and made for a not-immodest budget of $47 million, “Solaris” tells the tale of an astronaut Dr. Kelvin (Clooney), who is sent to a distant space station to investigate the curious psychic properties a nearby planet seems to emanate. The space station is nearly uninhabited, as the crew have almost all taken their own lives. Dr. Kelvin soon finds that the nearby planet Solaris has the ability to reach into a person’s mind and physically manifest memories. Kelvin’s dead wife Rheya (Natasha McElhone) appears to him, much to his consternation. Because the real Rheya took her own life, the artificial Rheya begins sharing the same bleak thoughts.
“Solaris” is emotionally intense and filmed in a contemplative, psychedelic fashion. Lem’s novel had previously been adapted to film in 1972 by Andrei Tarkovsky, and his version of “Solaris” remains one of the indelible classics of the genre.
“Solaris” was a tough sell for audiences, despite the involvement of Clooney and the Oscar-winning Soderbergh; Fox had trouble marketing a psychedelic downer sci-fi flick, and a remake of an oblique Russian film they might remember from film school. There was nothing sexy or action-packed to get a mass audience slavering.
Until they realized that “Solaris,” at least in early edits, featured a nude scene. Clooney agreed to show his rear end in the movie, and that was enough for Fox. According to a 2019 interview with Newsday, quoted by Backstage, Fox leaked the fact that Clooney was to expose his butt and the scene became a key part of the film’s press tour.
Clooney’s butt: bigger than space itself
Ironically, the nude scene was ultimately cut, but that didn’t stop Fox from marketing the nudity. It seems that the original cut of the film Soderbergh submitted to the MPAA (now the MPA) for rating came back with an R certificate, partially for the nude scene. Soderbergh recut the film to get a PG-13 rating, but by then, Fox had let the cat out of the bag, as it were. Clooney was happy to have made an emotionally difficult, weirdly cerebral sci-fi movie, but also knew that reporters would ultimately just ask him if he works out. The actor said:
“Fox leaked the story about the MPAA rating on ‘Solaris,’ how we got an R because I showed my (behind), but I think they’re having trouble selling this film. They don’t know what to do with it. […] I find it funny because we’re trying to talk about things on a much grander scale, with a story that contains questions about the cosmos and it’ll come down to a 30-second sound bite where I say, ‘Yeah, I worked out.'”
“Solaris” was ultimately only warmly received by critics (it has a 66% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and tanked at the box office, only making $30 million. It’s not well-remembered in 2024. If Clooney’s butt was a marketing ploy, it wasn’t widespread or successful.
This wasn’t the first time in recent memory, either, when an actor’s body was raised during press tours. One might recall when Chris Van Vliet tactlessly asked Anne Hathaway about her weight in “The Dark Knight Rises,” or when Aishwarya Rai lambasted a reporter for asking about nude scenes. Clooney seems game enough to answer questions about his butt, but as seen above, he clearly didn’t want to.