Oscar-winning actor, director and producer George Clooney may be one of Hollywood's most recognizable stars — but that doesn't mean his kids are impressed with him.
"My son went to Halloween this year dressed as Batman, which is a character I played — famously the worst Batman in the history of the franchise," Clooney says. "And I literally said to him, 'You know, I was Batman,' and he was like, 'Yeah, not really.'"
Clooney found success in Hollywood in his 30s, late enough, he says, that he learned how to live before he learned how to be famous. His character in the new Netflix film, Jay Kelly, wasn't so lucky. Clooney plays a self-absorbed, emotionally stunted movie star stumbling through midlife, unable to connect with the people who need him most.
Director Noah Baumbach wrote the script with Clooney in mind — which made the actor's first read though an interesting one: "I read it and I said 'This guy [Jay Kelly] is kind of a jerk!'" Clooney says. Still, he could relate to Jay's struggles with work and family life. "We're all balancing it. We're never getting it perfect," Clooney says.
Jay Kelly also offers an unvarnished look at what it means to be famous. For Clooney, that vantage came early, as he watched the rise and fall (and rise again) of his aunt, singer Rosemary Clooney.
"It was a really good lesson for me in understanding how little success has to do with you — on both sides of the spectrum," he says. "You're not as brilliant as they say you are when things are going well, and they do say that. And you're not as horrible as they say you are when things aren't going well, and they do say that. So it's a very helpful thing to understand."
Interview highlights
On prioritizing friendship for much of his life
I had no interest in being married and having kids. I had an interest in working. I was very excited with having a career. I couldn't believe I was having one. … I was wanting to have this sort of created family. And I worked very hard at making sure that we all had dinners together and spent time together and checked in with one another. And there wasn't any great master plan really. It was just luck. I got lucky that I met really wonderful people. Grant Heslov, my partner at work, you know, we've been partners for 40 years. He loaned me $98 bucks to get headshots in 1982, and we both stood on the stage together and won the Oscar together as producers of Argo. So we've been through it.
On why he gave $1 million cash to each of his 12 closest friends
My career and my life have been on the shoulders of many of my friends helping me when I couldn't afford it or when I needed a place to stay or when I needed someone to co-sign a loan or any of those things. And so being able to participate and help your friends out who are trying to put their kids through college or who are trying to pay off tax debts and all those kinds of things, it actually is a good thing. ... It doesn't even feel like a gift as much as it feels like a payback for such great generosity when they were young, and when we were all young.
On his 2025 Broadway production of Good Night, and Good Luck, which was a follow-up to his 2005 film about broadcaster Edward R. Murrow
I felt like it was a good time to reinvest and talk again about the importance of news. … The themes were still really urgent and I thought it was important to remind ourselves of how important telling the truth and holding truth to power was. And so we started working on doing the play with the intent that we would try to have it out by the first of the year, having no idea what the election would be, because either way, it seems like truth has become something that's negotiable suddenly.
That's the one thing that wasn't part of the narrative as much in 2005. What's become the narrative now is: Don't believe what you see. You can tell a lie and say it's fact now. And also you can see factual things and say, well, those are fake. And those are dangerous. You see that happening in Darfur right now, even though the people who are committing the crimes are actually posting videos of the crimes. We've seen it obviously in Ukraine, we saw it in Russia. We now see it in the United States constantly. And I feel like it was an important time to talk about the necessity to dig down and constantly bear down on holding people with power responsible — no matter who's in power, by the way.
On his father Nick Clooney's reaction to the play, as a longtime anchorman
He wasn't well enough to come to the play, which was heartbreaking quite honestly, because really it was written for him, it was written for his standard and what he taught me and what he asked of me as a child and as an adult. But we did it live [on TV] so he could see it. And it was an interesting thing because he was there with a bunch of family members and watching it live and at the end he stood up and he saluted the television, which was a pretty beautiful thing for me and for us and for our relationship. He set the standard pretty high for me.
On how he makes the decision about when to speak out on an issue, like calling for Biden to drop out of the presidential race in 2024
In general, it's when I feel like no one else is gonna do it. That's kind of the thing. If someone else has got a certain subject covered, then I don't really need to do it. I don't need to be involved in everything. You can't pick up every fight. You'll lose all of your clout if you fight every fight. You have to pick the ones that you know well, that you're well informed on, and that you have some say and you hope that that has at least some effect. ...
I don't give up my right to my freedom of speech because I have a Screen Actors Guild card. ... I was out protesting and against apartheid in 1982 when no one gave a damn who I was. I grew up in the 1960s, man. And so suddenly, you get well known and it's like, OK, now don't speak. … You get to say what you believe, you get to stand by what you believe, and … [if] there are gonna be people now that won't go see this movie, OK, fair enough. That's the trade-off I make. And I can handle that. I believe in standing up for what you believe in and telling the truth. The minute that I'm asked to just straight-up lie, then I've lost.
Ann Marie Baldonado and Nico Wisler produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.
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