59-year-old actor George Clooney has returned to good health, but the actor recently revealed that he was hospitalized with severe abdominal pain during his dramatic transformation in which he lost nearly 28 pounds. Officially diagnosed as pancreatitis, the hospitalization occurred just four days before he was due to start filming The Midnight Sky.

In the film, which shot in Iceland, follows a lone scientist, played by Clooney, trying to contact a crew of astronauts returning home to a mysterious global catastrophe. Clooney also directed the film. George Clooney told the UK publication Mirror that, "It took a few weeks to get better and as a director, it's not so easy because you need energy." He continued, "we were out on this glacier in Finland, which made it a lot harder work. But it certainly helped with the character." On his preparation for the role, Clooney said, "I think I was trying too hard to lose the weight quickly and probably wasn't taking care of myself."

Clooney, who also directed the film, recently described to ET how the film made him think about the legacy he's leaving for his children, 3-year-old twins Ella and Alexander who he shares with his wife, Amal Clooney. The story is a narrative on a 'diseased planet', according to a review from the Hollywood Reporter, and a prayer for the creation of life elsewhere in the universe.

Clooney said, about the film and how it made him think about his family, "When you are having children, it makes you think infinitely even more about what we are leaving them, what legacy we are leaving them, if we are going to deny science, if we are going to have a world of divisiveness and anger and hatred, not just in this country, but all around the world, and what those elements can lead to if they are allowed to fester. I certainly am aware of it when I am telling the story... It gets sort of put on steroids when you have kids."

Clooney grew a rather large and unkempt looking beard for the role, in addition to his dramatically slimmed frame. The whole thing apparently didn't meet with his wife's approval, however, as Amal, 42, apparently let him know how happy both she and the couple's daughter were when he shaved it off. His son apparently quite liked it though, as Clooney reminisced that, "he'd hide things in it, which I wouldn't know about until I got to work and I'd be like, 'Oh, there's a popsicle stuck in my beard.'"

The Midnight Sky will be available to stream on Netflix starting on December 23rd and will also be available in select theaters, opening this Friday. The film hasn't impressed critics, with only a 57% score in 58 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score of 51 on 21 reviews ahead of its debut. In addition to Clooney, the film stars David Oyelowo, Demian Bichir, Ethan Peck, Felicity Jones, Kyle Chandler, Miriam Shor, Sophie Rundle, Tiffany Boone and Tim Russ.