Clooney says he once considered suicide

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LOS ANGELES, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Hollywood actor George Clooney says he was in such pain after a 2005 spinal injury he thought "I can't exist like this" and briefly considered ending his life.

Clooney was hurt while making the movie "Syriana," for which he earned the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. The Hollywood Reporter said the actor has since undergone surgery and is feeling much better, although he sometimes suffers headaches.

"I was at a point where I thought: 'I can't exist like this. I can't actually live,'" Clooney told Rolling Stone magazine about how he felt shortly after he sustained his injury.

"I was lying in a hospital bed with an IV in my arm, unable to move, having these headaches where it feels like you're having a stroke, and for a short three-week period, I started to think, 'I may have to do something drastic about this,'" he recalled.

"You start to think in terms of, you don't want to leave a mess, so go in the garage, go in the car, start the engine. It seems like the nicest way to do it but I never thought I'd get there. See, I was in a place where I was trying to figure out how to survive."

Clooney's latest film "The Descendants" is to open Wednesday.