George clooney reveals why felicity jones' pregnancy was incorporated into midnight sky

George Clooney is explaining why he incorporated Felicity Jones' pregnancy into his 2020 film, _Midnight Sky. _ In a new interview with _The Hollywood Reporter,_ the 59-year-old actor

revealed that he originally tried to shoot the sci-fi drama around Jones' pregnancy, though it proved to be unsuccessful. "We're in Iceland on a glacier and I got a call from

Felicity and she says, 'Well, I'm pregnant,' " Clooney recalled. "I knew how to answer that, which is, 'Congratulations.' But if you saw my face, I'm

like, 'Holy s---.' " "We started to try to shoot around it, which is always a mistake, because you can't shoot around it," he added. "People know when

you're hiding things." Clooney — who starred in and directed the movie — eventually realized Jones' pregnancy would provide a richer and more authentic storyline. "So we

just looked at it and said, 'Look, they've been in space for two years, people have sex. It's like going on location.' I just thought, like Fran [McDormand] in _Fargo_,

women every single day are pregnant, going to work and doing their job, and why not in space and why not just deal with it?" he explained. _NEVER MISS A STORY — SIGN UP FOR

_PEOPLE_'S FREE DAILY NEWSLETTER__ TO STAY UP-TO-DATE ON THE BEST OF WHAT PEOPLE HAS TO OFFER, FROM JUICY CELEBRITY NEWS TO COMPELLING HUMAN INTEREST STORIES._ In the film, Jones, 37,

stars as Sully Rembshire, one of the astronauts aboard the Aether that are headed home from a mission to scout Jupiter's habitable moon K-23 for the future of the human race. What they

don't know, is that Earth has become uninhabitable in the time they've been gone. Clooney's character, Augustine Lofthouse, treks across the Arctic to send them a warning to

turn around and return to K-23. _Midnight Sky_ premiered in December, four months after PEOPLE confirmed Jones had given birth to her first child with husband Charles Guard. PEOPLE

exclusively confirmed Jones' pregnancy in December 2019, shortly after she stepped out in New York City for the premiere of her film _The Aeronauts_. Jones and Guard, a film director,

tied the knot in July 2018 after dating for about three years.