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Actor George Clooney, left, talks with director Joel Coen on the red carpet before a special 15th anniversary screening of, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?", during the New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2015, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP) Image Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

George Clooney joined the Coen brothers and stars Tim Blake Nelson and John Turturro at a 15th anniversary screening of O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Clooney, who’d left a successful television drama at the time, spoke at the New York Film Festival of the opportunity the movie presented.

“I was an actor coming off E.R. so I couldn’t believe my luck,” Clooney said on Tuesday.

Ethan Coen and his brother Joel wrote the screenplay, based on The Odyssey by Homer, and directed it. He says they didn’t know why a depression-era movie about three escaped convicts appealed to them, but it did.

The film was successful and critically acclaimed, but the soundtrack was a smash hit. It sold eight million albums, and earned the Grammy for Album of the Year.