Heslov finds niche behind the camera

HOLLYWOOD - It started with an unlikely pairing of two unknowns. Back in the ’80s, a couple of struggling actors named Grant Heslov and George Clooney were in an acting class. Clooney asked Heslov, then a student at the University of Southern California, if he wanted to do a scene from Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs.’’ Heslov agreed, playing the nerdy Eugene to Clooney’s older sibling Stanley. Their chemistry worked, and shortly after, when Clooney was invited to audition for ABC, he brought Heslov along to repeat the scene.

“George ended up getting a talent deal out of it, and of course, I got nothing,’’ Heslov says with a chuckle. “But that was the beginning of our friendship.’’

It’s a friendship that has spanned more than two decades. It was Heslov who lent Clooney $100 to get his first head shots, and he’s been there for the entire ride, watching his pal go from workaday actor to A-list superstar.

These days, Heslov, a lean, soft-spoken former character actor, is still sharing the stage with Clooney. The two are partners in a production company called Smokehouse. Heslov received Oscar nominations for co-writing and producing Clooney’s directorial effort “Good Night, and Good Luck’’ and has now stepped into the director’s chair himself with “The Men Who Stare at Goats,’’ which stars Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, and Clooney.

Peter Straughan’s script, based on journalist Jon Ronson’s nonfiction book, first landed on Heslov’s desk, initially as a submission for Clooney to direct.

Clooney passed, but Heslov was intrigued. And while the movie has received mixed reviews, Heslov had a singular vision for what he wanted to accomplish during his recent stint behind the camera.

“There was a lot of pressure on him,’’ Clooney says. “There was never a day that was easy.’’

Heslov’s rise in Hollywood has been less than meteoric. Raised in a wealthy Los Angeles-area suburb, a Jewish son of a dentist, he always wanted to act and for years made a living as a character actor, playing Dwayne Johnson’s sidekick in “The Scorpion King,’’ Arnold Schwarzenegger’s computer geek pal in “True Lies,’’ and a paparazzo in “The Birdcage.’’

But while at an audition at Warner Bros., he sat in the waiting room with four older guys who were auditioning for one three-line role for a forgettable TV show. “These were the guys who were on ‘All in the Family’ and ‘Maude’ and ‘M*A*S*H,’ and I thought I don’t want to be that guy. I didn’t want to be 50 or 60 and auditioning for a three-line role.’’

“It’s the lack of control over your own destiny’’ that motivated him, Heslov says. “That’s when I started to focus on the other side.’’

He ultimately made “Waiting for Woody,’’ a short film about the anxieties of an actor auditioning for Woody Allen, inspired by his own experience. It caught the attention of agents, but Heslov admits he wasn’t sure about how to proceed with his career.

“Grant’s issue was he was much more interested in the bigger field, and more security,’’ Clooney recalls.

Clooney invited him to work in the TV department at Section 8, the company Clooney then shared with director Steven Soderbergh. When Soderbergh decided he no longer wanted a production company, Heslov and Clooney became partners. Their aesthetic has tended to more sophisticated films such as “Goats.’’

“We’re definitely attracted to stories that are based on truth, though they’re varying degrees of truth,’’ Heslov says.