George Clooney Recalls His 'Terrible Audition' for Francis Ford Coppola: 'He Thought I Was Drunk, Which I Was Not' (Exclusive)

George Clooney has learned a lot from his mistakes. 

“You don't learn from succeeding,” the Jay Kelly star tells PEOPLE and other outlets exclusively at the movie’s Tuesday, Nov. 11, Los Angeles premiere. “You learn from failing and then you have to figure it out along the way. It’s helpful.” 

Do specific examples of failure come to mind? “Batman & Robin!” exclaims Clooney, 64, who played DC Comics' Caped Crusader only once, in the 1997 film. He adds wryly, “I learned a lot by that one.”

Then, of course, there are the roles he failed to book. “I had a terrible audition for — and this will make you laugh — Francis Ford Coppola,” the actor reveals. 

Although he did not specify which project of the Oscar-winning filmmaker he was in the running for, Clooney remembers it like it was yesterday. “I thought I was very good in the audition and I called my agent. I said, ‘How'd it go?’ And they said they just got the message back from Francis Ford Coppola and he thought I was drunk, which I was not.”

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Instead, Clooney clarifies, he was “just very relaxed. I was on Percodan.”

But missing out on working with Coppola, 86, remains a regret. “That cuts,” admits Clooney. “That hurt.”

In Jay Kelly (in theaters Thursday), art imitates life with Clooney playing a famous movie star on a soul-searching trip across Europe with his entourage. From writer-director Noah Baumbach and co-writer-star Emily Mortimer, it costars Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Greta Gerwig, Riley Keough and more.

Spoilers follow: A scene later in the movie involved the titular Jay watching old clips of his own screen work. And, in a meta flourish connecting Clooney to his character, Baumbach uses actual footage of the Oscar winner’s previous projects.

“I didn't know they were going to do that,” admits Clooney. “I was really surprised by that and a little disturbed. You have to really fortify yourself for seeing 40 years of aging on screen. It's not so easy with a bad mullet. It's not great.”

Jay Kelly is in theaters now and on Netflix Dec. 5.