George Clooney explains why he will never work with 'miserable f***' David O. Russell again

Time has not healed the wounds between George Clooney and David O. Russell.

The Oscar-winning actor, 63, called the filmmaker, 65, 'a miserable f***' in a joint interview with his Wolfs costar Brad Pitt published Tuesday in GQ.

After Pitt, 60, made a reference to time allocation, Clooney expounded on the concept when it comes to working with people he wants to, about 25 years after he and the mercurial filmmaker Russell clashed on the set of the 1999 war film Three Kings.

The Lexington, Kentucky native said, 'The older you get, time allotment is very different. Five months out of your life is a lot.'

Clooney said that he's more discerning about who he works with, even if it means sacrificing a worthwhile endeavor, saying that 'it’s not worth it' at this point in his life 'just to have a good product.'

Said Clooney: 'And so it’s not just like, "Oh, I’m going to go do a really good film, like Three Kings, and I’m going to have a miserable f*** like David O. Russell making my life hell. Making every person in the crew’s life hell."'

Clooney played the starring role of Archie Gates in Three Kings, which arrived in theaters in October of 1999. The motion picture, derived from John Ridley's story, also featured Ice Cube, Mark Wahlberg, Spike Jonze, Nora Dunn and Cliff Curtis.

Clooney detailed his clash with Russell in a 2000 interview with Playboy, calling production on the motion 'truly, without exception, the worst experience of my life.'

In the interview, Clooney said that after witnessing Russell behave verbally abusive to crew members, humiliating them in front of others, he penned a letter to the director imploring him to calm down for the sake of the project.

Clooney said in the interview later in production, Russell that got physical with an extra over a stunt, and he tried to intervene and calm things down.

'I was trying to make things work, so I went over and put my arm around him,' Clooney said in the interview. 'I said, "David, it’s a big day. But you can’t shove, push or humiliate people who aren’t allowed to defend themselves."'

Clooney said Russell turned verbally abusive on him, telling him, 'Why don't you just worry about your f*****-up act?'

Clooney continued: 'He goes, "Hit me, you p***y. Hit me." Then he got me by the throat and I went nuts. Waldo, my buddy, one of the boys, grabbed me by the waist to get me to let go of him. I had him by the throat. I was going to kill him. Kill him. Finally, he apologized, but I walked away.

'By then the Warner Bros. guys were freaking out. David sort of pouted through the rest of the shoot and we finished the movie, but it was truly, without exception, the worst experience of my life.'

Russell denied putting his hands on Clooney in an October 2004 interview, according to The Guardian, saying, 'I never physically attacked him. If I ran into him, I’d say, "Shut the f*** up, you lying-a** b****."' 

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly in 1999, Clooney said that Russell is 'a weirdo, and he's hard to talk to but that's what makes his writing unique and interesting.'

Clooney in 2012 told The Hollywood Reporter that he approached Russell at a Hollywood event, and the two seemed to be on firmer ground.

'I saw David a few weeks ago at a party … and I felt compelled to go over and go, "So, are we done?" And he goes, "Please." And I said, "OK." We made a really, really great film and we had a really tough time together, but it’s a case of us both getting older.

'I really do appreciate the work he continues to do, and I think he appreciates what I’m trying to do.'