Obama Reveals He Almost Passed On Presidency For Chance To Direct ‘Leatherheads’

EDGARTOWN, MA—Reflecting on the path his career had almost taken, former President Barack Obama revealed in an interview Monday that he almost passed on the presidency for a chance to direct Leatherheads. “It feels kind of silly now—I’m obviously pretty satisfied with the decision I made, and I was delighted with what George [Clooney] ended up doing with the film, but I had some great ideas for Leatherheads and it wasn’t without sadness that I turned it down to do the presidency instead,” said Obama, recalling how Universal Pictures approached him back in 2007 just as the Democratic primary was heating up and how long he wrestled with the decision to abandon the run, as well as his Senate seat, to helm the movie. “Put yourself in my shoes: on the one hand, I have this vision to change the American political landscape, and on the other, I have the chance to direct Leatherheads. It was really tough. I mean, when someone drops a script like Leatherheads on your desk and you have the chance to translate [co-screenwriter] Rick Reilly’s vision to the big screen, you’d have to be nuts not to seriously consider it. It was like a door had finally opened and I might actually make something of myself in Hollywood. I’d written a script based on my time as a community organizer—kind of a dark comedy-slash-drama, Serving Sara meets Proof Of Life—and I’d been shopping it around. It came across someone’s desk at Universal and they didn’t want to produce it, which, whatever, but they felt like I might be the right guy to do Leatherheads. I won’t lie, I went to see Leatherheads opening night—it came out in April, when I was pretty far ahead in the delegate count—and I thought, Barack, did you really make the right decision? Should you have conceded to Hillary and followed your dreams? No shade against the film, but, you know, I’d had a pretty clear vision of my own. I sometimes wonder what my life would be like if I hadn’t turned down the opportunity to work with John Krasinski to become the commander in chief of the United States. I guess I’ll never know.” Obama also revealed that he was planning to decline the 2012 Democratic nomination if the studio had accepted his repeated entreaties to direct Playing For Keeps.