Hollywood actor George Clooney has confirmed that he was hospitalised with pancreatitis four days before he was due on set to shoot his Netflix sci-fi drama The Midnight Sky.

The two-time Academy Award winner told The Mirror: “I think I was trying too hard to lose the weight quickly and probably wasn’t taking care of myself.”

“It took a few weeks to get better and as a director, it’s not so easy because you need energy," he added. "We were out on this glacier in Finland, which made it a lot harder work. But it certainly helped with the character.”

Clooney both stars in and directs the movie, which centres around his character - Augustine - as a lone scientist in the Arctic who races to stop astronauts from returning home to a “mysterious global catastrophe.”

Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo and Kyle Chandler also act alongside the Ocean’s 11 star.

Clooney's film is based on Lily Brooks-Dalton's widely acclaimed 2016 novel Good Morning, Midnight.

The Midnight Sky will be released in selected cinemas and on Netflix from December 23.