The Charlie Rose Show: Part 2 of the Transcript

December 22, 2006 by admin
Filed under television

Here’s the second part of the Transcript of the George’s Appearance on the Charlie Rose Show.

CHARLIE ROSE: “Ocean`s 13.”
GEORGE CLOONEY: Uh-huh.
CHARLIE ROSE: Now, why are you saying “Ocean`s 13,” which is better than “Ocean`s 12?”
(CROSSTALK)
GEORGE CLOONEY: Just because it kills Jerry Weintraub.
CHARLIE ROSE: No, I mean, he could not accept the fact that some people liked “Ocean`s 11″ better than “Ocean`s 12.”
GEORGE CLOONEY: It killed him. He was the producer.
CHARLIE ROSE: I said to him, Jerry, this is not as good. And he looked at me like, what are you talking about? Shows how dumb you are.
GEORGE CLOONEY: I know. He is the consummate producer. But Steven and I would joke about, and we`d go, you know, “Ocean`s 13,” the one we should have made last time.
CHARLIE ROSE: So what did you learn from “12″ that`s in “13?”
GEORGE CLOONEY: I think the difference was that we got — we just got too far away from what it is, to the core of what the guys all need and do. And you know, we got off on too many storylines. And what we needed to do was really keep it sort of central. And this one is easier.
CHARLIE ROSE: Keep what central, the camaraderie?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Yes.
CHARLIE ROSE: The sense of these are friends?
GEORGE CLOONEY: If you get everybody off — you know, what happens is, the second time you do a film, everyone has had some success from it. So — but that was based on a film that was written and you hired everybody and they just came and played the parts.
The second time you are writing with those people in mind and you are trying to — everybody is trying to — you`re trying to serve 12 or 13 or 14 actors, you know, or characters in the film. And then this one was one where we just sat down and said, OK, what we have to do is have a story, and hope everybody — and make sure everybody can fit in. And it`s easier now, because it is about revenge, which is always better.
CHARLIE ROSE: This is what, (inaudible)…
GEORGE CLOONEY: Yeah.
CHARLIE ROSE: Cheadle is back?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Everybody is back.
CHARLIE ROSE: Everybody?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Oh, yeah. We got Matt back. Al Pacino.
CHARLIE ROSE: Pacino plays the bad guy?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Yes. Well, he doesn`t think so. He`s so great.
CHARLIE ROSE: You learn by watching a guy like that?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Sure. I mean, you learn by watching him his entire career. But I tell you, it`s really — it`s really fun to work — it`s intimidating to work with Al Pacino, you know, it is intimidating. And he makes it easy, because he`s sweet and he`s funny and fun.
CHARLIE ROSE: And he loves movies.
GEORGE CLOONEY: He loves acting. You know, I think that`s the secret, is he doesn`t tire of it. I mean, at all. He`s always interested and always investing in it.
CHARLIE ROSE: He`s a great guest too, because he can talk about it with just a passion, passion and understanding.
I`m told that you watch a movie almost every day. Is that true?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Yes. Probably.
CHARLIE ROSE: If you are in a position to do it.
GEORGE CLOONEY: I will watch two or three if I`m in the position to do it, you know.
CHARLIE ROSE: But Scorsese does that too. What is it, I mean, are you learning, or just can`t get enough, you think you might see something that`s instructive?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Well, it was initially because I loved films growing up. And it was a big part of my family, and my father and I, and my sister, and my mother, we would all sit around and watch movies.
And then in recent years, it`s become about filmmaking. Because you can watch it for different reasons. I can go back and watch movies that I love and watch them now for how somebody uses a camera.
CHARLIE ROSE: Exactly.
GEORGE CLOONEY: I have been watching a lot of Howard Hawkes and Preston Sturgis, especially Preston Sturgis films, all of them.
CHARLIE ROSE: And what are you learning?
GEORGE CLOONEY: How to do — how to play comedy in a master shot and not in close-ups, the way we do now. You know, how comedy plays better in a two-shot rather than…
CHARLIE ROSE: Exactly. Exactly.
GEORGE CLOONEY: And how…
CHARLIE ROSE: Because it is action-reaction, action-reaction.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Exactly. And how somehow you have to have the confidence in the two actors and the screenplay enough to let those scenes play, and not to try and edit the jokes in. That is what he did brilliantly. Just brilliantly.
CHARLIE ROSE: Do you buy this idea that some people in Hollywood believe that the `70s was the golden years of filmmaking, with Francis and George and all those people making movies?
GEORGE CLOONEY: We had two golden years. We had 1939, obviously, which is, you know, “Grapes of Wrath” and you know, “Mr. Smith,” and that`s a pretty good year.
CHARLIE ROSE: Pretty good year.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Pretty good year. It goes on. “Gone With the Wind.” I think “The Wizard of Oz.” It isn`t a bad year.
But I think — for Christmas last year, I gave all of my friends DVDs of 100 films from between 1964 and 1976, because I think it is the best — it was going to be `65 to `75, but `64 had “Dr. Strangelove” and `76 had “Network” and “All the President`s Men,” so I expanded it.
I just think it is the most amazing…
CHARLIE ROSE: From `64.
GEORGE CLOONEY: To `76.
CHARLIE ROSE: And it begins with what in `64?
GEORGE CLOONEY: “Dr. Strangelove.”
CHARLIE ROSE: And in `76, you include?
GEORGE CLOONEY: You know, `76, the five films nominated for picture were “Bound for Glory,” “Taxi Driver,” “All the President`s Men,” “Network,” and “Rocky.” So that`s not a bad five.
CHARLIE ROSE: “Parallax View” was in there.
GEORGE CLOONEY: “Parallax View” was a little bit earlier. A great film.
CHARLIE ROSE: You like films about intrigue.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Yes.
CHARLIE ROSE: Conflict, intrigue.
GEORGE CLOONEY: I watch films like — watch how brilliant a film like “Klute” is, and how simple it is, and how very — I just — tiny moments end up — you end up chewing your fingernails off watching.
CHARLIE ROSE: Alan Pakula made both “Klute” and “All the President`s Men.”
GEORGE CLOONEY: Right.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes. When you make — are you building a team of people now that — so you have a kind of — a group around you that…
GEORGE CLOONEY: Well, I have done that for a long time. And I — there`s a group of actors that I love to work with whenever I can. And find them whenever I can and work with them. There is, as a director, there is certainly a crew that I`ve worked with on everything.
CHARLIE ROSE: Same cinematographer?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Different cinematographer, but same editor, same sound guy, same AD, same — basically the same crew. And yes, so, you know, writers, you try to work with again and again, if you feel comfortable with.
CHARLIE ROSE: There is a recent “Vanity Fair” piece about you, you are on the cover. And “Vanity Fair” calls you a throwback to Jimmy Stewart and Gregory Peck.
GEORGE CLOONEY: They are both just now turning in their grave, just like this?
CHARLIE ROSE: They`re saying, what?
GEORGE CLOONEY: What?
CHARLIE ROSE: What is that magazine? (inaudible). Gregory Peck is saying, “Jimmy, did you hear what they said?”
GEORGE CLOONEY: Both of them are yelling at each other. What?
(CROSSTALK)
GEORGE CLOONEY: Awful, isn`t it.
CHARLIE ROSE: But there is something to it, or they wouldn`t say it. There is something to it, I mean, whether you accept it 100 percent. There is, and I want you to tell me if there is, what it might be.
GEORGE CLOONEY: So that`s like, you know, when did you stop beating your wife?
CHARLIE ROSE: All right, but I mean…
GEORGE CLOONEY: Well, you know, the problem is for me…
CHARLIE ROSE: I will make it easy.
GEORGE CLOONEY: OK.
CHARLIE ROSE: You admire them for what reason?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Well, I admire them for different reasons, each of them. They were — Jimmy Stewart, you know, was incapable of telling a lie. You know, Jimmy Stewart was sort of the consummate friend, you know. He is — Tom Hanks is the closest thing we have to Jimmy Stewart now. He is the guy that you just — you trust, you know. He`s “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” he`s “Harvey,” he`s “It`s a Wonderful Life.” He`s this guy that you just, you trust no matter what. And you love that quality of him as an actor.
CHARLIE ROSE: The viewing public has imbued him with a certain integrity.
GEORGE CLOONEY: But he earned it. You know, he was — those guys also earned it. They were — he was a general, you know.
CHARLIE ROSE: He was.
GEORGE CLOONEY: He was up there. But there`s…
CHARLIE ROSE: He was an Air Force general.
GEORGE CLOONEY: But they were — there is something about that era in Hollywood that also we just romanticize. You know, you look at Cary Grant or you look at Clark Gable, or you look at Spencer Tracy, Gregory Peck, sort of one of the last of those — they are just pure class. Gregory, actually I had gotten to be friends with him at the end of his life. And I was with him the day of the elections, the first election, the Gore-Bush election. And we were watching it…
CHARLIE ROSE: He is a big Democrat.
GEORGE CLOONEY: He was a big Democrat. We were watching it, and nothing was resolved, if you remember, it was months later. But he was the one who…
CHARLIE ROSE: George Bush had Jim Baker on his side.
GEORGE CLOONEY: But he was the one who told me to go to — I was going to Italy riding motorcycles. And he said, go to Como, go to Lake Como, which is where I have a house. And I said really? It is a beautiful place there. And I was riding through there, and that`s where I found my house.
CHARLIE ROSE: How did you find it?
GEORGE CLOONEY: By accident, really. I knew — I knew the family that lived at the house. But my motorcycle broke down, and I was spending some time, I spent half a day with them. And the gentleman who owned the house said, do you want to buy it? And I said, I think you — you think I have more money than I have. I don`t think — and then he made me an offer I couldn`t refuse.
CHARLIE ROSE: You said yes.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Yes, right away.
CHARLIE ROSE: And it is a great joy of your life.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Best thing I`ve ever done for myself.
CHARLIE ROSE: Because it gave you a refuge.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Because they — it`s about Italy. It`s not just about the house. It`s about a way of life that is different than ours, you know. The first day I was there, there was construction workers walking home. And they looked like every construction worker you have ever seen. Shirts off, they got their helmets under their arms.
But they are carrying home like a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine, and some flowers. And I thought I had never seen that here. And it`s not a knock on us. It`s just what they do and how they — they celebrate dinner every night.
CHARLIE ROSE: I love to travel in Europe, for that reason. You go from country to country.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Yes.
CHARLIE ROSE: And it`s just a sense of the appreciation of life.
GEORGE CLOONEY: They are an older, older bunch of countries. And they have relaxed a little bit more. We are always sort of in a rush.
CHARLIE ROSE: Let me turn to your family. Your dad is now — did he get involved in Darfur because of you, you took him and he said this is…
GEORGE CLOONEY: Right.
CHARLIE ROSE: … touches my soul and I want to do something.
GEORGE CLOONEY: It was just after the Oscar sort of season. And you have been around, you have seen what it`s like. It really is a campaign. I mean, it really is, you are kissing babies.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes, indeed it is.
GEORGE CLOONEY: That`s all changed.
CHARLIE ROSE: It is not only promoting yourself, it`s cutting the other guy down too.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Well, I like doing that, that`s good fun.
No, it`s so interesting, because, you know, you are also trying to help the film and support the film, but there is this balancing act where you get into that place where it becomes tough to do. Because you are talking about yourself a lot. And you are — you know, you start to feel - - it starts to be a really rotten feeling in a way, just in terms of doing a lot of screenings and standing up and answering questions about, you know, your performance. You start to really sort of feel unclean by it.
And I was reading all those Nicholas Kristof articles…
CHARLIE ROSE: The “New York Times” columnist.
GEORGE CLOONEY: And in fact, we were in south Sudan when he won the Pulitzer Prize for it. Which was pretty great, for writing about this stuff.
But we were — I was reading …
CHARLIE ROSE: We is you and your dad.
GEORGE CLOONEY: My father and I. And I was reading these articles. And I called up my dad right after the Oscars, and I said, you know — I was shooting a movie in New York at the time. And I said, as soon as I`m done here, what say you and I get over there and see if maybe we can get some cameras to follow us? My dad had been a reporter for a lot of years. And he covered the story I think in Honduras once, and he said, you know, couldn`t make the afternoon news with it. And I said, well, if you had Elizabeth Taylor there, you would have. And he said, yes. And I said, well, I will go be Elizabeth Taylor, and you cover the news. You`re the reporter.
So he took some cameras. And I — and a sound guy. And you know, we`re this rag-tag team. I was — I joined the camera union, you know, and I`m a cameraman, and we brought another cameraman. And my dad. And this kid, David Preston (ph), and we are watching the four of us wandering around through Chad.
We ended up in Jimena (ph), Chad, five days after a military coup attempt where they killed 350 people in the streets. Pretty much everywhere we went, we were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But we figured if we got out of there — and we were concerned about it for quite some time — but if we got out of there and could make it back in time for this rally, that we might be able to help bring attention. And that became my father`s real mission, was to make sure we got there in time.
CHARLIE ROSE: Is this the most, for you, important place that you want to apply whatever skills you have to bring attention to something?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Well, first of all, because I think if you are going to do what it is that you can do in a place of celebrity, a word I hate, but if that is what you are going to do, you have to focus in on not a bunch of issues. You`ve got to pick one or two.
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
GEORGE CLOONEY: A couple. You have to be really as best informed as you possibly can be, so that you can`t do damage when people ask you questions about it, because if you can`t answer the questions, they`ll go, oh, you know, he is just a puppet for this.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
GEORGE CLOONEY: So…
CHARLIE ROSE: So you have got to know your stuff.
GEORGE CLOONEY: You got to know your stuff, and especially when you get there, you know. I mean, I speak in front of the National Security Council, you know. It`s intimidating, so you have to really be on your game a little bit.
It`s also because it`s one place I know that we can, if we all put our heads together, can affect change. It`s going to take a lot of work and it`s going to be hard, but it is an ongoing genocide. And all of these other times that we have had this — Rwanda, the Balkans, Cambodia — we always turn our back and say, we didn`t know, how did we know. We couldn`t have known.
But we know now. We are aware of it. So how can you not at least try to do something about it?
CHARLIE ROSE: I mean, it is a little bit — it is not only a little bit, it is everything about asking yourself, those who have some capacity to make a change, in small or larger ways…
GEORGE CLOONEY: Right.
CHARLIE ROSE: … is history going to be kind to sitting back…
GEORGE CLOONEY: Right.
CHARLIE ROSE: … and allowing this to happen.
GEORGE CLOONEY: That is what I was saying. I went to the U.N. and I said, it`s unfortunate for you all at the Security Council, but this will be your legacy. This will be your Rwanda. You know, this will be — it will be — people will say, you did this during this period of time.
And that rests on your shoulders. And so the hope is that somewhere in there, without — the trick is diplomacy, it isn`t about the hammering, you know, 15,000 U.N. troops into a place that doesn`t want to have them there, because that`s just causing all kinds of problems.
CHARLIE ROSE: Take a look at this. This is first your father there, and then we will show you Jan Egeland on this taped show that`s for a later broadcast. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE CLOONEY: Right now, we are standing her on the border of Chad and Darfur. A lot of bad things are happening over here right now.
My father and I thought we would come over and take a look for ourselves.
We started in south Sudan. It took two days to get to the border of Darfur. We heard there were a lot of refugees pouring south. We found a village called Jacques (ph), with over 1,000 displaced families.
This isn`t a refugee camp. There are no tents to shelter them. Most just sleep under trees. No food. No water.
These people had jobs and property before the Arab Janjaweed militia burned their villages, raped their women, and killed their children.
Since the government of Sudan won`t let anyone into Darfur, including U.N. officials, we traveled north to Chad — not great timing on our part, since Chad was in the midst of a coup. We landed in Jimena (ph), where nine days earlier, armed rebels stormed the city. Having failed, they moved east towards Abeche (ph). So did we.
On the border of Darfur is a refugee camp called Orikosoni (ph). Twenty-nine thousand survivors of the massacre in Sudan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The problem with the government, he wants to kill everybody just Sudan to become Arab people, Arab country, not for the black people, just for the Arab people. So that is the objective of their Sudan government.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you want to happen to fix this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Now there is United Nations. There are many, many international NGOs. So I beg them, I beg them to get up, to try as soon as possible to solve this problem, because Sudan government, not the Sudan — just want to kill all the black people in Africa.
NICK CLOONEY, GEORGE CLOONEY`S FATHER: Those of us of a certain age, like me, may have thought they had seen the end of such things as displaced persons and refugee camps 50 years ago, places where the cruelest death of all may be the death of hope.
But hope is stubborn. Even in a place like this. There are scores of Orikosonis (ph) on both sides of the border. Two million people away from their own homes. Time is running out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLIE ROSE: There is your dad. Just one question about him. Are the two of you closer than you`ve ever been? I mean, and is it great because you can do things now that you might not have been when you were a struggling actor, et cetera, et cetera?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Yes, you know, it is an interesting thing. We have always — we didn`t have that bad time, my mother and my father. We didn`t have those downtimes that kids usually do. My sister, we all get along really well.
But I have always had, you know, this great amount of respect for him. And there came a point in our lives, in fairly recent time, where I was able to contribute something to what it is he is interested in doing. And if that means just bringing focus to an issue or whatever it is — and I get some cover in a way, because I can go in with a real journalist. So you can`t go, oh, this is just a celebrity. You go, I`m coming in with a guy who`s been shot at…
CHARLIE ROSE: Who`s been doing this a while.
GEORGE CLOONEY: … who knows what he is doing. And has great passion for this still. And I can do whatever I can to help him.
CHARLIE ROSE: Does any — I`m trying to ask this in an interesting way, because I think about it myself. Does any of this relationship with him make you think God, wouldn`t it be great if I had a son?
GEORGE CLOONEY: If he was like me, no. No, no, no. No, it just makes me wish I had a father.
CHARLIE ROSE: No, come on, I want you to be — you can`t be who you are and not have thought about it, at least.
GEORGE CLOONEY: You know, it`s funny. I have — I have.
(CROSSTALK)
GEORGE CLOONEY: I have — I have — all of my friends, this good, tight-knit group of friends who have been great friends of mine for 25 years, and they all have kids, and they`re always — you know, it`s not like my house is this bachelor pad I think everybody thinks of. You know, there`s always children…
CHARLIE ROSE: Always kids, nieces and nephews.
GEORGE CLOONEY: They are always running around screaming. And I get a pretty good fill of kids, you know.
CHARLIE ROSE: Oh, this is a copout. This is a copout.
GEORGE CLOONEY: No, I — I like it. You know, my buddy, one of my buddies, Ben and I, we are always going, we always go, you know, and those kids just went home, and we`re like, have a drink. Glad to send them on their way.
CHARLIE ROSE: Exactly, all right. But I mean, have you basically said this is not going to happen?
GEORGE CLOONEY: I don`t think you can say anything. I mean, can you? I can`t ever say…
CHARLIE ROSE: No, not until they die.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Right. But you know, it`s certainly not something that I`m looking to do. Looking out to do.
CHARLIE ROSE: There is no sense that if I don`t do this, I mean, A, no one should do it unless they want to be — no one.
GEORGE CLOONEY: I think…
CHARLIE ROSE: But there are people who do it, who come to me and say, Warren Beatty is the perfect example…
GEORGE CLOONEY: Oh, you should do it.
CHARLIE ROSE: You should do it.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Right.
CHARLIE ROSE: You know, do this. You will find joy that you have never had.
GEORGE CLOONEY: I would imagine that that`s probably true. I don`t doubt that. But I also think it`s the most important thing you could ever do in your life. And it`s the most responsible thing you could ever do. So I don`t think I could…
CHARLIE ROSE: And do it when you didn`t want to do because you thought you should would be the most irresponsible thing to do.
GEORGE CLOONEY: It would be terrible.
CHARLIE ROSE: Because there are, A, too many ways you can affect the lives of people…
GEORGE CLOONEY: Right. I could screw up too many people`s lives. And why not, when there are so many people here whose lives I can screw up.
CHARLIE ROSE: But bear with me on this one.
GEORGE CLOONEY: OK.
CHARLIE ROSE: It`s all because, you know, your life is so good and so full and you have all of these challenges to do well, and do good, and the rest of it, that there is no place today?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Maybe.
CHARLIE ROSE: But no mother either would be…
GEORGE CLOONEY: Well, you know, there is that. Which is, you know, I — I think that, you know, sort of selfishly, there is a period of time in your life when you really get to be really creative, and really moving, and firing on all the cylinders you want to fire on.
And if that becomes your focus, which it is for me, the other issues don`t take precedence, period, right now. I know that can be thought of as selfish — and maybe that is. And maybe that`s exactly what it is, is selfish. But I have great interests in accomplishing certain things in my life. And that isn`t — you know, that isn`t the overriding issue with me.
CHARLIE ROSE: If it happens, it happens.
GEORGE CLOONEY: I`m going to adopt a couple of 24-year-olds.
CHARLIE ROSE: I wouldn`t touch that.
GEORGE CLOONEY: No, I know.
CHARLIE ROSE: Ever.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Leave that alone. Wealthy 24-year-olds.
CHARLIE ROSE: When you think about all that has happened to you, what role did your dad`s sister play, Rosemary?
GEORGE CLOONEY: A huge part of our lives. You know, a huge part. She was this beacon in our growing up, you know. We lived in Kentucky. And my dad was in Cincinnati, my mom and dad were in Cincinnati working.
CHARLIE ROSE: He was an anchorman.
GEORGE CLOONEY: He was an anchorman. And my mom had a talk show for…
CHARLIE ROSE: He would prefer we say he was a reporter.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Well, it depended on, you know. At the time, anchorman wasn`t such a bad thing, because you actually did your own reporting then, and you wrote your own news and all that stuff, that they don`t let you do now.
But he was, you know — she was a big part of our lives, you know. She was the star. A big old — and she was this incredible talent. And she lived in Hollywood in a Hollywood mansion. And it was always sort of, such a romantic idea of Hollywood.
And then when I first moved out to Los Angeles to be an actor, I drove out in a `76 Monte Carlo, about two cylinders. And I lived in the back in the guest room there for a year, I guess. And you know, you got a real view of how difficult things had been for her. It had been very difficult for her. She had a very tough time of it.
So I got the view of how great it could be. I also got a great cautionary tale of how — how you could screw it up just incrementally. And how it sort of gets worse.
CHARLIE ROSE: And how fame can be cruel too.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Especially, I think, to a singer.
CHARLIE ROSE: If you become addicted to it.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Yes, but I think if you look at Rosemary, you think about, when she was 21 years old, she was as big as you could get, you know, as big a star as you could get. And everything she said, everybody thought she was a genius. Everything she sang, she was the best.
And then she went through a period that it didn`t work. Mostly because rock `n` roll came around. And when the top 10 singers were women in 1949, the top 10 singers were men by 1955. And women were gone from the music industry. So she didn`t really know where, you know, she was on the road the whole time, working. She didn`t know she was done. And she came back and everybody said, what happened to you?
And so she went through a long period of time of angry, of bitterness. Went through a drug period. You know, that Dr. Feelgood put her on and all those things. And it took her a long time to get over that.
CHARLIE ROSE: Same Dr. Feelgood that was the doctor for Kennedy?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Probably. I think the same one.
CHARLIE ROSE: Mack somebody.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Yeah. The one that gives you, you know, speed or whatever it is.
CHARLIE ROSE: Whatever it was, the concoction.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Whatever gets you through, which was usually Percodan, and something like that. She was a — she had bad prescription drug problems for a while, and drinking issues. And all of the things that sort of haunt people…
CHARLIE ROSE: Where was she when you got to California?
GEORGE CLOONEY: She was — she had already come back, you know. Bing had done a tour years earlier and brought her back. And she had had a nervous breakdown, ended up — she wrote a book about it. And she came back. She started just as a — doing the opening act for Bing, and then worked with Tony Bennett and was on the road for a while.
And then with Concord Jazz, started singing albums again. And got the best musicians around. And all of a sudden, she had a complete renaissance, you know, she had a complete career change, and became considered one of the really great jazz singers. And it was a really fun time to go see her, sing like at Raymond Starr`s (ph) or something like that.
CHARLIE ROSE: And just sit there and listen to a great talent, take a song and just make it hers.
no: Because you know, she couldn`t hit the notes anymore. She couldn`t hold the notes anymore. And you couldn`t take your eye off her. You would watch her sing, and it was just the greatest thing in the world to see.
CHARLIE ROSE: Do you sing?
GEORGE CLOONEY: No. I sing often when people don`t want me to. I actually…
CHARLIE ROSE: As punishment?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Well, it was a funny thing, when we did “O Brother Where Art Thou,” you know, T-bone Burnett was producing the album…
CHARLIE ROSE: The great T-bone Burnett.
GEORGE CLOONEY: And it was one of the great albums of all time, you know. For a year, almost two years was the No. 1 album. And I guess he just sort of assumed that I could sing, because I was Rosemary`s nephew. And I guess I sort of assumed I could sing too.
CHARLIE ROSE: Because you were Rosemary`s nephew.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Because I was Rosemary`s nephew. And there is this song, “Man of Constant Sorrow,” which is sort of the lead song to this thing. And they set up a recording studio. And I went in there, and they were all sitting in the booth, and I`m singing. And nobody will look me in the eyes. You know, they`re all kind of looking down like this. And I`m like, huh?
CHARLIE ROSE: That was good, huh?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Hey! And then they tried to find some way around it. Eventually, they just had to say, look, and I go, I get it, I understand. Humiliated.
CHARLIE ROSE: So what did they do?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Well, they brought in this kid, this guy Dan Tyminski, and he came in and sang it beautifully.
And the funny thing is all the guys who sang on the album made a fortune off of the album.
CHARLIE ROSE: They did.
GEORGE CLOONEY: It was a great — you know, a much better move than acting.
CHARLIE ROSE: He`s a brilliant producer.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Yes, he is.
CHARLIE ROSE: He`s from Fort Worth. I used to know his mother.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Oh, you did?
CHARLIE ROSE: Wonderful…
GEORGE CLOONEY: Six foot seven or something.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes, exactly.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Giant.
CHARLIE ROSE: Politics 2006 and `8. You were pleased by the midterm elections?
GEORGE CLOONEY: I am. I`m concerned about what we — we being Democrats — what we will do with this. I would imagine since the Senate always has a filibuster that it will be a very tough thing, because you don`t have 60 votes. So you have got to look at the House and hope that they can be a check and balance on some of these things, NSA spying program and things like that, just to have a voice in there, I hope.
CHARLIE ROSE: What would you like to see the Congress do? Minimum wage?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Well, I think that minimum wage is the first thing they are going to take on. I think that they end up strangely on the side of the president on immigration.
CHARLIE ROSE: They do.
GEORGE CLOONEY: They will probably get something done there.
CHARLIE ROSE: A lot of people are for it, but not Lou Dobbs.
GEORGE CLOONEY: No, he`s not. I know, he`s really not.
CHARLIE ROSE: Are you surprised by the phenomenon of Lou Dobbs?
GEORGE CLOONEY: Yes, I didn`t really know it was — I didn`t know…
CHARLIE ROSE: That it was a phenomenon?
GEORGE CLOONEY: I didn`t know that. I think that, you know, I think that you can play on people`s passions or interests at times, and it will help, you know, for a period of time making people successful.
I don`t know him. I`ve watched the show a few times. I`m surprised by the amount of anger at people wanting to — with no amnesty program, kick out, you know, nine million immigrants who do a lot of work that…
CHARLIE ROSE: It`s interesting, difficult challenging problem. On the one hand, people are losing jobs. And because we live in a global economy, with outsourcing and all those things, unlikely to stop.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Yes, I think so.
CHARLIE ROSE: And yet, at the — so you have the human dimension. Yet at the same time, it is the new reality.
GEORGE CLOONEY: I think it`s, you know, I think as is the case with almost everything we are learning, you know, in this sort of world economy, that nothing has these giant definitive black and white answers that everything is going to end up being mixtures of these things.
CHARLIE ROSE: Speaking of that, with no play on color. Obama, do you like him?
GEORGE CLOONEY: I think he is the best candidate I have ever seen. I really do. He is the best I have ever seen.
I hope he runs. You know, I have only been around a couple of rock star politicians in my life that — I have been around where you go, this guy is a president. Clinton is like that, Reagan was like that.
This guy walks in a room — and every politician in that room — and I have been in rooms with him with other politicians. Every politician in that room stops, you know, and they never stop. I have been there when other politicians walk in, and they kind of keep talking. And Barack walks in there, kind of look back at him.
He is — it is a quality you can`t even explain. Yes, he`s of course he understands how to cross the aisle, which is important. He stands for things that I happen to believe in. I also think he is a — he possesses the one quality that you cannot teach and you can`t learn, which is he is a leader. He walks into a room and you want to follow him somewhere. Anywhere. And I don`t — I`ve only seen that a couple times in my life.
CHARLIE ROSE: You will do anything you can to get him to run and to get the nomination and to win the election?
GEORGE CLOONEY: If he is going to run, I — you know, listen I`m a Democrat, I will support whoever has the ticket. But I`m fascinated with him and would love to help.
I worry about what actors can do, because a lot of — I couldn`t support my father in the 2004 campaign, because it was Hollywood versus the heartland. And Kerry wanted us to get on the train and ride after he had gotten the nomination, and I said, I hurt you guys, you know. You have to understand that right now they have a real — the ability to use us as a target.
Hopefully, that is changing a little bit. And with any luck, I will be able to certainly do fund-raising for whoever is the Democratic candidate.
But you know, along the way, I also, you know, I would like to participate, but only in the terms of — only if I don`t hurt whoever the candidate is.
CHARLIE ROSE: Great to you have here.
GEORGE CLOONEY: It is really good to be here.
CHARLIE ROSE: Pleasure.
George Clooney for the hour. Thank you for joining us. We`ll see you next time.