Today Show Transcript

December 19, 2006 by admin
Filed under News, television

Profile: George Clooney talks about situation in Darfur and how he’s become involved

1132 words
18 December 2006
NBC News: Today
English
(c) Copyright 2006, NBC Universal Inc. All Rights Reserved.

DAVID GREGORY, co-host:

George Clooney is a mega movie star, of course, but he is using his star power these days to bring attention to a humanitarian disaster in a remote part of the Sudan in Africa called Darfur. Ann Curry caught up with him recently.

And, Ann, you were just there a little over a month ago.

ANN CURRY, anchor:

That’s right, David. In fact, Clooney is trying to do something about what the US calls genocide that is happening in Darfur. ON Friday he was at the UN along with fellow actor Don Cheadle and also Olympian Joey Cheek to brief the secretary-general about their recent visits to Egypt and China, trying to influence those governments to help in Darfur. I spoke to Clooney about his work, and asked him why he’s raising the alarm once again about Darfur.

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: In the news cycle it falls off the radar, as all news stories do at some point. And our job is when it really starts to become–to hit the boiling point, to keep it on the radar.

CURRY: Now you’re not just talking about Darfur, you’re trying to diplomatically negotiate with people who might have influence.

Mr. CLOONEY: It’s more advocacy than in any way sort of diplomatically trying to change things. We’re trying desperately to shine a light on people who make policy, and hopefully that light will either make them behave a little better along the way, or at least have some influence on the way they’re seen in the rest of the world.

CURRY: So what did you tell Egypt and China that you might think might help to that end?

Mr. CLOONEY: We have economic and political relations with them. They have economic and political relations with the government at Khartoum. How can we, all of us, sort of force our way to slowly nudge our way into fixing this? It’s not going to be with a sledgehammer.

(To child) Beautiful, beautiful.

They have nothing. They have no voice. So we do have a voice.

CURRY: And you could use that voice for a lot of things.

Mr. CLOONEY: Mm-hmm.

CURRY: Why this?

Mr. CLOONEY: This one affected me personally, and we’re going to look back at it and say what did we do, and where did we stand? And I think–I’m worried about our place in history if we don’t look out for people who can’t look out for themselves.

CURRY: Mm. You’re saying that something about the ugliness of what’s happening in Darfur that resonates with you.

Mr. CLOONEY: Mm-hmm.

CURRY: Why do you think…

Mr. CLOONEY: My father raised me to–with the idea that you have to look out for people who can’t look out for themselves. That’s your job. If you don’t do that, you fail.

CURRY: But what makes you think, with all due respect…

Mr. CLOONEY: Mm-hmm. That I can do it?

CURRY: Yeah.

Mr. CLOONEY: I don’t think that. I can’t. But what am I supposed to do then, not participate? The arguments are always well, what does he know on the subject, or why would he do it? And those are fair arguments, they’d be right. I would suggest that over the last year or so I’ve made myself fairly well educated on the subject, and can speak on it. But I’m not the expert, and I’m not a policy-maker. But I’m in the position to get a camera to show up, and if it’s going to show up, why doesn’t it show up and point in the directions that people need help?

CURRY: Here’s the truth.

Mr. CLOONEY: Mm-hmm.

CURRY: Since September when you spoke the UN Security Council, it’s not gotten better.

Mr. CLOONEY: It’s gotten worse.

CURRY: It’s gotten worse.

Mr. CLOONEY: Mm-hmm.

CURRY: So what makes you think that pointing a camera is doing any good?

Mr. CLOONEY: Because the idea that you don’t point a camera guarantees that it’s going to be a lot worse. One of the main arguments we have with the government of Sudan is that they’ve kicked out all forms of journalism.

CURRY: And just how long are you going to be involved with this, George? This issue of Darfur.

Mr. CLOONEY: I’ll be involved with it until it’s over, until people are–until the civilian population has a safe refuge. That’s our job. We made a promise to those people when we were there. We made promises to a little girl that I have no idea what her name is. You know, I was sick. I had eaten the goat, which I highly recommend when you get to Chad. We were in a refuge camp of about 30,000 people, and I was hiding behind this tiny tree throwing up, and then she came over, and she was literally that big, and she just kept pulling on my finger, saying, you know, `When are you coming back?’ And I, you know, tell her, `Soon, we’ll be back.’ And there was nothing unkind or angry or anything about this little girl, you know, smiling, and she just giggled, and said, `You always say that.’ And I thought, `Well, then we’re going to have to–we’re going to have to keep coming back.’

CURRY: The atrocities in Darfur are continuing unabated. And as we’ve been reporting, they’re now bleeding across the border into neighboring Chad, David.

GREGORY: And George Clooney can do a lot. Like he said, he can have a camera show up. How are these humanitarian groups responding to his involvement?

CURRY: You know, actually, because there are no signs at the moment that peacekeepers are going to be arriving any time soon, the humanitarian organizations are actually welcoming the efforts of people like George Clooney, because they want that kind of attention.

By the way, their work is becoming increasingly perilous in the region. And by the way, yes, I know you also want to ask me if he’s as cute as he seems. Yes, he is. Not as cute as you, though, David, so just letting you know. You can feel comfortable in that.

GREGORY: He’s a very attractive man doing good work. That’s important.

CURRY: He is definitely.

GREGORY: Ann, thank you very much.

Up next, one American’s holiday salute to the nation’s military heroes. But first, this is TODAY on NBC.