George Clooney was hospitalised after losing weight too fast for The Midnight Sky

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.