How Clooney avoided a life at the grocery checkout and The Clooney conundrum: handsome hero of Hollywood
Apr 9th, 2008 | By admin | Category: General ArticlesHow Clooney avoided a life at the grocery checkout
By GEORGE HADLEY-GARCIA
Genre-hopping
Clooney also likes, for variety’s sake and probably with an eye to extending his career longevity, to try his hand at different genres. He admits, “I never wanted people to say there’s a George Clooney kind of picture. That would be pretty limiting. Plus, to me, it would mean I wasn’t really capable of doing more than one type of picture, that I wasn’t an actor of much depth. . . . I like to think I’ve grown and can do drama, comedy, all sorts of pictures and characters, with surprises ahead for myself and for the audience.”
In 2006, the actor won an Academy Award for his supporting role in “Syriana,” and was also nominated in the directorial category for a film in which he also starred, “Good Night, and Good Luck,” based on the historical characters of broadcaster Edward R. Murrow and political witch-hunter Joseph McCarthy, the Republican senator from Wisconsin in the 1950s.
Now, Clooney stars as the title character in “Michael Clayton,” another heavy drama, and one that earned an Academy Award for British supporting actress Tilda Swinton in February.
The actor praises his costar: “If you’ve seen Tilda in a myriad other movies before this, you know how richly she deserves every award under the sun. She is a chameleon. She can enact anything, and not just from one nationality to another. She can vamp, she can play virtually a male, be androgynous or feminine, she can be heartbreakingly vulnerable, she can play evil — I mean, she does it all. I am in awe of her.”
Michael Clayton is a fixer at a law firm, to which he is loyal despite feeling burned-out, having by now engaged in several less-than-noble coverups and public relations exercises to benefit far-from-noble people and corporations. Swinton’s character, Karen, works at an agro-chemical company and has desperate need of Clayton’s professional services. Clayton, from a family of cops, is questioning his identity and what he does for a living. The film’s theme is that professional success, if it involves shady doings, doesn’t necessarily translate to lasting happiness.
What drew Clooney to Clayton the character and the movie?
“Tony Gilroy (who also directed) had done a wonderful script, and I thought the story and setting were very contemporary, very relevant. So much of what is wrong and worsening about our society has to do with corporations, and yet we sometimes forget that corporations are made up of people, many of whom are not what I’d define as individuals if their entire reason for being is following the company line, right or wrong. That’s similar to the nationalistic position of my country, right or wrong. And look where that led Germany, to name one country. . . . And Michael is coming to realize that it isn’t worth it, that what he does is not what he should be doing.
“I like it when a character has been doing — and we mostly all do some of this — what he has to do to get ahead in a very competitive modern business world. But then there comes a time . . . when he takes stock — of himself, his life, . . . and whether he can live with himself and his choices once he’s older and looks back. I like turning-point themes, if they’re well done. This film is very well done.”
It’s also interesting that Clooney’s latest film, “Leatherheads” (which just opened in the United States), is a complete contrast in genre and tone — and unlike “Michael Clayton,” it’s directed by George Clooney. The football-themed picture, set in the 1920s, is advertised with the tag line, “If love is a game, who’ll make the first pass?” It costars Renee Zellweger and is a “comedy drama romance.”
Last Friday, the film made Clooney the center of Hollywood controversy, when showbiz publication Variety revealed that he had given up his voting rights with the Writers Guild of America after his involvement in the film’s screenplay was called into question. Clooney maintains that he heavily rewrote the film, which had languished in production for 17 years.
When asked why he chose to work on “Leatherheads,” Clooney pauses, before replying, “Several things, really. Renee is a joy, as a person and a costar.”
Ever the ladies’ man
This brings us to the fact that of the many females with whom Clooney has been romantically linked, none of the longer relationships — not that any of them have been very long, including his distant, not-to-be-discussed marriage — have been with famous women.
“Do you know what a media circus it becomes when it’s two celebrities involved, rather than one?” he exclaims before pausing again to let it sink in, possibly thinking of what life is like for a pairing such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. (Indeed, just last week, Clooney revealed that a comment he’d made to paparazzi a week earlier about being the godfather of Pitt and Jolie’s child was just a joke.)
Of course, Clooney is no stranger to Cupid’s follies in his films. “I like romance. I like it a lot, in real life and on the screen. And also, I think when it’s a period picture, the romance is more believable. I think a movie set today, it’s not quite as romantic. I think another era, like the ’20s, say, is more credible for romance. Unless you have a very . . . particular contemporary script. But in any case, I liked the era of early football. It was so — to us — kind of naive, and the uniforms and the helmets were kind of goofy. I like working in that time frame. Also, I think Renee really fits that time. We’re both pretty fond of retro styles and golden-age movies and period stuff.”
Which type of film does Clooney prefer? Is it even fair to ask?
“Well, I like both, and I don’t spend a whole lot of time comparing,” he says. “But when you’re doing a ‘Michael Clayton’ or ‘Syriana,’ you have to make sure that you’re delivering an entertaining product while you’re also making your points credibly, and keeping the integrity of the characters and the situation, without way overdoing it — getting too heavy-handed about it.”
Although George is articulate and analytical about his work and the movie business, he’s known to be closed-mouthed about his private life. He shares one of the reasons he chose to have a home in Italy (it’s “beautiful and romantic, and I find the people quite friendly”); but he won’t elaborate on his motorcycle accident last September, (”those things happen”). He’s been happy enough to reveal — reportedly against his publicist’s advice — that he was mugged at gunpoint by children on a goodwill trip to Sudan; but he keeps tight-lipped on whether he is more serious about current girlfriend Sarah Larson than previous ones (the marriage question usually pops up when Clooney makes the gossip columns). Now well into his 40s, does he want to start a family?
“What I admire is long-lasting and genuine relationships, like my parents’,” he says. “In such a situation, two people should be married and do make wonderful parents.”
Does he feel that marriage is more difficult in today’s less romantic, more harsh world?
“You tell me,” he answers without answering.
As for the topic of being an international sex symbol, forget it: “That is one really tired subject,” he sighs.
Pigging out on outlandish pets
Clooney is more forthcoming about his late and genuinely lamented pot-bellied pig Max, with whom he lived for many years. Asked whether he will be replacing Max, he responds, “It’s not a matter of substitution. Max was unique, really a best friend to me. That was a relationship which lasted until the end, and I honestly believe pigs are very intelligent, special creatures. Max certainly was. I’ll always remember him with a smile.”
He adds that pigs are catching on as favored pets with several actors, including Hayden Christensen. “He has two pot-bellied pigs. If I remember right, their names are Buddy and Petunia.
“Some pigs like other pigs and need their company. I imagine Petunia and Buddy and Hayden are all quite compatible. But Max was a people person — I mean, a people pig. As far as he was concerned, it was him and me. He would share me with a friend if he had to, but — and this is absolutely true — he did get jealous. Max liked it best when he had me just to himself. Some cats and dogs are that way too, you know.”
Might Clooney ever act in and/or direct a movie about a pot-bellied pig? He chuckles fondly. “That is a great idea. If,” he emphasizes, “the script is good and it’s not just for the sake of presenting a lame, stereotypical story about a pig. It would have to have integrity, or I wouldn’t be. . . . I’d be interested, but I wouldn’t feel right if it didn’t tell the audience something new and special about the animal and at the same time entertain them.”
Paper or plastic? For the foreseeable future, George Clooney won’t even have to choose between actor or director.
“Michael Clayton” opens 12 April, and is reviewed in The Japan Times tomorrow.
Source and Thanks to Lilalucy for posting this in the CNCP Forum
The Clooney conundrum: handsome hero of Hollywood
Liberal campaigner, ladies’ man, and yet still one of the boys. As the actor leaves a trail of swooning women across London, John Walsh asks: how does he do it?
First Bruni, now Clooney. Only a week after France’s first lady packed her Christian Dior frocks and flew back to Paris, another sharply dressed foreign glamourpuss descended on London this week, sampled the local cuisine, posed for photographs in front of baying paparazzi, talked politics for hours with Gordon Brown and was snapped with Mrs Brown on the doorstep of No 10.
He is one of the most bankable film stars in the world (Oceans 13 netted him £7m) but his finest role is playing Mr Perfect. He does it well, if not quite to perfection. Ludicrously handsome at 46, with huge, liquid brown eyes, salt-and- pepper hair and pristine teeth, he’s commonly accepted as the man most women, of any age, would most like to part from his designer trousers.
He has, it’s said, charm to burn, deploying a form of self-deprecating, mildly saucy banter that leaves women prostrate with lust.
His status, somewhere between a screen god and a tribal chief, means he is often photographed surrounded by a harem. On Monday this week, at a Harper’s Bazaar dinner at L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon in London, he was snapped in the company of Elle Macpherson, Thandie Newton, Jemima Khan, Natascha McElhone, Helena Bonham Carter and his old squeeze Mariella Frostrup.
The following night, at the premiere of his new, self-directed film, Leatherheads, in which he co-stars with another former squeeze, Renee Zellweger, he posed with the 10 women auditioning, on the reality TV show I’d Do Anything. If any of the auditionees were reluctant to be in the frame with George, it wasn’t obvious. “He’s so good looking, up close,” enthused a woman who attended the Harper’s dinner, “his head is so perfectly formed, his skin so perfectly buffed and polished, his clothes worn with such confidence. I tried to have a conversation with him, but I suddenly realised I was with George Clooney, and a wave of adrenalin shot through my body and I felt completely paralysed”.
It’s a popular response, though sometimes less breathlessly expressed. At the photo-op in Downing Street, according to reports, Sarah Brown expressed a desire that Mr Clooney should play her husband in a movie, should the occasion arise. “She’s not the only woman,” remarked the Daily Mirror, “who’d like to swap her hubby for Gorgeous George.” On the red carpet in Leicester Square, listening to the girlish cheers and squeaks, Zellweger was asked if she minded being eclipsed by her leading man. No, she said. “That’s just the Clooney effect.”
What’s the secret of the Clooney effect? Is it simply good looks and attentive charm that give him such droit de seigneur over the world’s female population? Then what is it about him that attracts millions of straight male admirers? It must be said that he plays a convincing mensch: a liker of male company in the bar or the pizza parlour.
His box office bursting, though critically savaged, movies Oceans 11 and its sequels, are predicated on the idea of male friendship, of loyalty and cameraderie under threat. Many filmgoers emerge from them convinced that the Clooney’s private life is a ceaseless round of madcap revels in the company of Brad and Matt and Benicio; Clooney does indeed socialise with A-listers, but insists that his real friends are nine non-famous chaps he linked up with 25 years ago.
Then there’s his beloved pet, the late Max, a 300lb pot-bellied Vietnamese pig given to him by Kelly Preston. Clooney often rhapsodised over his porcine buddy, who lived with him for 18 years, sometimes slept on his bed, and whose demise on 1 December, 2006, grieved him, he said, more than the loss of any ex-girlfriend. Who could resist such a cute animal lover? Which woman would not half-enjoy the disconcerting experience of envying a pot-bellied pig?
And, of course, the relationship was handy for deterring people from asking Clooney who had most claim on his heart.
Since his four-year marriage to Talia Balsam broke up in 1993, he has insisted he will never marry again. He is a serial monogamist (currently with Sarah Larson, a former Las Vegas cocktail waitress) whose coded message to women is: you can’t be the first, girls, and you won’t ever be Mrs Clooney. But you might, just possibly, be the next.
The most important factor, perhaps, in the constituents that make up Mr Perfect, is virtue. Clooney is extraordinarily good at making virtue sexy and vice heroic. His breakout TV role was that of Dr Doug Ross on ER. Ross was a paediatrician (good) and a womaniser (bad) who, in between saving stricken children (good), seduced several women (bad-ish) while holding a candle for his lost love, Nurse Carol Hathaway (good).
In his films, by contrast, he has played many gangsters and robbers: in From Dusk Till Dawn, Out of Sight, O Brother Where Art Thou? Welcome to Collinwood and the three Oceans movies. (He auditioned for the part of the psychopathic Mr Blonde in Reservoir Dogs, but was turned down.)
It could be argued that his career has been built on the dislocation between his heroic good looks and the inconvenient fact that his on-screen character robs banks and shoot people. Perhaps because of that, he has embarked, in recent years, on a series of film projects that deal with political issues – and have real-life villainy extremely clearly in view.
His directorial debut, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind in 2001, was the jaunty, comic-book story of Chuck Barris, a game-show host (like Clooney’s father, Nick) who doubles as a CIA assassin. The CIA, unsure how fictional it was, called it “outrageous” and “ridiculous” and denied that anyone called Chuck Barris had ever worked for them. In Good Night and Good Luck in 2004, he again delved into his father’s career, this time as a broadcast journalist in the 1950s, and pitched the lean-jawed Ed Murrow, host of CBS’s See It Now against the loathsome, Communist-hunting Senator Joseph McCarthy.
More a morality play than an effective drama, it offered a blunt lesson about the media’s responsibility in taking on the government. Syriana in 2005 explored the global reach of the oil industry and the corruption attending on the granting of drilling rights. Some critics complained about its anti-American tendency; one wrote “Osama bin Laden could not have scripted this film with more conviction”.
One could try to write off Clooney’s late involvement in political issues as an attempt to seem an homme serieux, rather than just a pointlessly handsome millionaire playboy. But most critics praised Syriana, and the conviction of Clooney’s performance brought him his first (and so far only) Oscar, for best supporting actor. When he visited Gordon Brown on Tuesday, as a “messenger of peace” for the United Nations, it was obvious that he was not a Geri Halliwell-style “ambassador” of polite concern.
He has been addressing the Darfur conflict since the summer of 2006, when he visited the region with his father to make a film, Sand and Sorrow, about the refugees’ plight. He and his fellow actor Don Cheadle were awarded the Summit Peace Award by a gathering of Nobel peace laureates last December for their efforts. “Don and I stand here before you as failures,” said Clooney in his acceptance speech. “The simple truth is that when it comes to the atrocities in Darfur … those people are not better off now than they were years ago.”
In Downing Street, he talked to Mr Brown about the practical need for helicopters to airlift people to safety, and suggested London as a place where rebel leaders could meet. The PM, bowing to the charisma of the man who his wife would like to impersonate him in a film, told the press he was “grateful” for Clooney’s “leadership”.
“The thing about Clooney,” says another of his army of women fans, “is that he’s a proper person. He used to be a journalist, like his dad, and he knows what’s going on in the outside world. And we know he can write and direct, we know he’s the real McCoy. He’s a serious person”.
Ecce homo. He’s handsome, he’s charming, he’s got skin like this and eyes like that, he makes women faint, but he’s also the embodiment of male cameraderie, he loves pets, he drinks, he doesn’t want to go into politics (”Run for office?” he once asked. “No. I’ve slept with too many women, I’ve done too many drugs, and I’ve been to too many parties”) but he hates repression, oil-hungry fat cats and the CIA. He has portrayed a saintly pediatrician, and a charming vault-robber with equal success, he was once married but now only wants girlfriends, he’s a messenger of peace who cares about refugees and tries to persuade world leaders to make a difference to Darfur. It’s quite a good-guy rap-sheet.
One looks in vain for a chink in his armour. Here’s one. Leatherheads, his new movie, has tanked. It cost Universal $58m, but, despise an aggressive advertising campaign, took only $13.5m on its opening weekend and came second in the charts behind a gambling movie called 21.
Universal bosses are concerned that Leatherheads won’t turn a profit. It’s a definite blip. But it’s unlikely to halt the onward rush of George Clooney’s conquest of the world’s hearts.
This week, his name is on the lips of many British women, and all over the covers of serious magazines. Major interviews with him can be found in both Esquire and The New Yorker. In the latter, Ian Parker attempts to nail his quality: “Clooney is America’s national flirt, a pitchman on talk shows and red carpets who, against the background hum of the world’s lust and envy, is lightly ironic, clever and self-deprecating, with furrowed brow and bobbing head, and a gyration in the lower jaw suggesting something being moved around under the tongue.”
A masticatory tic of the lower jaw, eh? No wonder he got on well with Gordon Brown
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