George Clooney on “Jay Kelly,” fame and family

Venice can feel like a movie set, particularly when riding on a boat down the Grand Canal with George Clooney.

Waving to fans, he’s asked if that ever gets normal. “No,” he replied.

Clooney has practice navigating this kind of attention. He’s made about 50 films, picking up a couple of Academy Awards along the way (as an actor for “Syriana,” and as a producer for “Argo”). And for his latest, “Jay Kelly,” he plays one of the world’s biggest movie stars – a familiar role.

He says it’s true that he said yes to the film within 24 hours. “Well, I read it, and I was like, Well, if I take time to think of it, they might go get Brad. And I can’t have that. I can’t have that, man! When you read something, you know.”

Co-starring Adam Sandler and Laura Dern, the Netflix film – part comedy, part drama – critiques the cult of celebrity, as Clooney’s character embarks on a journey to reconcile his professional success and personal failings. 

I asked, “There’s this kind of mind-bending experience where you’re watching the film and you’re wondering how much is the character and how much is George Clooney. Did you feel that making it?”

“I really didn’t,” Clooney said. “You know, what I know in life is you can live with failure. I tried this, it didn’t work out. What you can’t live with is regret. Jay Kelly is filled with regret. I mean, if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, I have no regrets. I’ve certainly made mistakes. I’ve certainly done some dumb things. But I took a big bite at the apple, and I really took big swings.”

“Were there things that felt autobiographical?”

“I mean, there’s things that we would laugh about, you know, playing a guy who no one says ‘no’ to.”

“And that’s the case for you?”

“Well, I designed it so that that’s not the case.”

How? “I pay people!” he laughed. “No, I designed it by surrounding myself with the same friends that I met when I was 20 years old … I talk to them every day.”

“Do you go out of your way to understand that there is this perceived gap between you and others?”

“Yes,” Clooney said. “I didn’t grow up around fame. I mean, my father was a newscaster in Cincinnati, Ohio. My aunt [Rosemary Clooney] was a famous singer, but I’d met her three times. So, when I met someone famous, I was always like, Oh my God! And so, I always try to remind people that, honest to God, this is the job that I do and that, you know, we’re all fairly normal.”

“Why is that so important to you?” I asked.  

“I think because I was raised not only that you treat everyone equally, but that everyone treats you equally as well.”

Clooney is pretty disarming, as we saw while setting up the interview. Asked if he wanted to check how he looked in the camera, he smiled: “No, I don’t care. I’m too old to give a s*** anymore.”

“You are, for many, kind of the poster man of aging gracefully.”

“That’s why I’m wearing these glasses,” Clooney said, “because for the record, I have a horrible sinus infection. If I take these off …” He demonstrated for us. “You see the problem?”

“How much does aging factor in … Do you see parts changing?”

“I see parts on my body changing,” he replied. “I’m like, that fell off? How’d that fall off?”

“I didn’t mean that.”

“Oh sure, parts have changed significantly.”

He’s 64 now, married to human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin. The two juggle Hollywood glamour with social justice work through their foundation. They have eight-year-old twins, and the actor (once famously single) says family life suits him – another thing that sets him apart from this character. “Fame, [Jay] actually does really well. And I’m kind of the opposite of that in a way.”

What do you mean? “I feel I’m a better parent, I hope, certainly husband. And fame, if there was one of the two, that would be the one I’m least comfortable with.”

“Wow, you seem to be quite comfortable with fame and celebrity,” I said.

“Well, you know, you got to put on your famous outfit when you come here to do a film premiere.”

“But you know everywhere you go, people watch you. Is it performative?”

“Sometimes it’s performative,” Clooney replied. “I mean, listen, you don’t get caught picking your nose, you know? You have to be more aware than other people would be.”

I asked, “You seem to have this desire to keep some things for yourself, but then you can also be very political and really stick yourself out there.”

“Sometimes, yeah,” Clooney said. “I try to do it when I think I have a responsibility to it. My father always told me to challenge people with more power than you, and protect people with less power. One of the things you understand is, you can’t take on every fight. You have to pick things. I worked on trying to help solve some of the problems in Darfur in the early 2000s. Failed. You fail more often than you succeed. But it doesn’t mean you don’t keep trying. We still work there, we’re still involved.”

He also does not regret writing that opinion piece in The New York Times, urging President Biden to drop out. “To not do it would be to say I’m not going to tell the truth,” he said.

While Clooney does not shy from public activism, he gets some help guarding his private life at the family’s place in Italy: “Italian towns adopt you, Like, people come up and say, ‘Which house is George Clooney’s?’ They go, ‘Hey, he doesn’t live here, he doesn’t.’ They protect you.”

Right now, Clooney considers France home. “We live on a 750-acre farm, and our kids run around. We wanted them to have something of a normal existence.”

“And you find that on a 750-acre ranch?”

“Well, you find it on a farm, and you find on a very small school and very sort of farming community. We found a real peace there.”

He prizes that peace. In the film, Jay Kelly is searching for what George Clooney already has: a sense of self and balance. Clooney really does seem to have it all.

I said, “If people say, What was it like being with George Clooney? One of the things I’m going to say is, well, I was sitting here sweating, and somehow he didn’t seem to sweat.”

“I don’t sweat!” Clooney laughed. “It’s a funny thing. I don’t sweat much when I’m on camera, funnily enough. I don’t know why. I put ice cubes under my arms!”

But like the rest of us, he still has to contend with the passing of time. “I want to work, but I don’t want to fill my life with work,” he said. “When I turned 60, Amal and I talked about it, and I said, ‘Look, I can still play basketball with the boys, I can still hang out. But in 25 years I’ll be 85. And that’s a real number.’

“And things change, and it doesn’t matter how many granola bars you eat; it catches you. So, we have to focus on making sure we work. We also have to have focus on spending time with the people we love. More time, because at the end of your life, you don’t go, I wish I’d worked more.“

To watch a trailer for “Jay Kelly” click on the video player below:

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Watch an extended interview with George Clooney (Video)

     
For more info:

• “Jay Kelly” opens in theaters Nov. 14 (in 35mm in some locations), and streams on Netflix beginning Dec. 5

      
Story produced by Mikaela Bufano. Editor: Brian Robbins. 

    
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