George Clooney electrified a London crowd on Friday with comedic jabs at President Trump and Brad Pitt, but also revealed the recent mistreatment he received from his son. Clooney, whose latest film “Jay Kelly” was released in theaters earlier this month, was speaking with Scottish broadcaster Edith Bowman at the British Film Institute’s Grand Theater on the south bank of the Thames.
Looking back on his first film with the Coen brothers, “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?”, he joked, “They always want to make me just a knucklehead in every movie.” He recalled how nervous he was when he filmed his first scene where he gets beat up like crazy by John Goodman. “Joel came in and said, ‘Yeah, that’s great. But you’re not stupid. You’re the smartest person in any room you walk into.’ Of course, as an actor, I should have thought that. I should have understood that stupid people don’t think they’re stupid. They think they’re smart. You know, we have a president to prove it.”
Talking about “Good Night and Good Luck,” which he directed, co-wrote, and starred in, he explained that he was inspired to make the film because the Iraq War was “an extremely shameful moment in our nation’s history where all three branches of government – the judiciary, the executive branch, and the legislative branch – failed to do their jobs.”
Reminding the audience that he is “the son of a newspaper reporter,” he continued, “The fourth nation, journalism, has a responsibility to question authority, and it must do so, but when we don’t, when we fail, we end up in the Iraq war, the war of our choice.”
He also addressed the criticism he received for criticizing the war. “And this is also funny. By the way, they protested me. Only about five of us came out at that point. People forget that. The government put me on a deck of cards and called it a traitor deck. They picketed my movies, put me on TV shows, and all this other shit. And now those same people are all talking about how bad that war was, so I’m like, ‘Fuck it.’
He added: “So I wrote ‘Good Night, Good Luck’ because I wanted to talk about journalism, when the Fourth Estate stands up to populists, when it stands up to bad ideas at inopportune times, and when it’s difficult, and when it matters.”
Although he did not play the lead role of Edward R. Murrow in the film, he did play the role in the Broadway stage version earlier this year. “It was fun to do, and there was a different urgency to doing this play this spring. It felt like we were talking about something right now…The idea of telling the truth and speaking truth to power is more important than ever. Truth is more negotiable than ever.”
“There is a passage in this that Murrow said, which I did not write: ‘Never confuse dissent with dishonesty. Always remember that accusation is not evidence, and conviction depends on evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear of one another. If we dig deep into our history and doctrine, and remember that we are not the descendants of terrible men, and we are not descendants of unjust men, we will not be driven into an age of injustice by fear of writing, speaking, or associating with people whose ideas are unpopular at this time.”
“It was important to say those words,” he said, to warm applause from the London crowd.
At the end of the play, he said, “Marrow looks at the audience and says, ‘What are you ready to do?'” and some in the New York audience shouted back, “Resist!” He added: “What’s interesting is that each of us, each of our voices, matters, and silence is not an option.”
When asked about the difficulties of being a movie star, he said he had to be careful with his words. “Every interview or conversation opportunity could lead to the end of your career. You know, I’m not on Twitter or Instagram or any of that shit because…I’m drinking. You know, my Mother Teresa joke at 3 a.m. might not be working so well when I wake up the next day.”
He added that his children keep him grounded. “My son dresses up as Batman for Halloween. He doesn’t know that I’m Batman. And I say, ‘See, I was Batman,’ and he’s like, ‘Well, no.'” He has no idea how right he is. ”
Clooney has repeatedly referenced his age at 64, joking that “we’re all in wheelchairs” in the upcoming Ocean’s 14, starring Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts, before adding: “It’s like we can’t do the things we used to be able to do anymore (…) It’s going to be like The Golden Girls.” (…) So we’re looking forward to it, but we don’t know yet when we’ll start it. It’s also about moving the schedule forward, and since Brad has a hit movie, we have to take all the budget and give it to him. He’s hard to live with, guys. ”
