George Clooney denies reports claiming the actor, 46, will return to ER for a 15th season next fall to reprise his role as Dr. Doug Ross.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight Canada airing Monday, Clooney was asked if he is indeed returning to the NBC show. “No, never — we never even talked about it,” he says in the interview. “No one has ever asked me. It’s the funniest thing. The story came out, and I was like ‘Where did that come from?’ It was everywhere — I mean in one day!”

Clooney added that the reports were news to TV execs, as well. “I ran into [ER Executive Producer] John Wells two days ago on the lot … and said to him, ‘What the hell happened?’ He said, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know where that came from.”

But Clooney isn’t discounting how crucial the role was to his career. “I was 33 when ER hit, so I have a very different outlook on the way things work,” he says. “I don’t think I was supposed to have been famous. I realize how much of this is luck.”

WENN