Chapter 1: What is the new film 'Jay Kelly' about?
This is Fresh Air, I'm Tanya Mosley, and today my guest is George Clooney, Academy Award winner, director, producer, and one of Hollywood's most recognizable leading men. His latest film, Jay Kelly, directed by Noah Baumbach, follows a world-famous actor who discovers that being a movie star is a lot easier than being an actual human being.
The character, Jay Kelly, has the fame part down, the father-partner-friend part, not so much. When a mentor dies, Jay's perfectly curated image unravels. He decides to follow his daughter across Europe, a trip that forces him to face his regrets and some of his blind spots, including the frosty relationship with his children.
Clooney stars alongside Adam Sandler, who plays his manager, Laura Dern as his publicist, and Billy Crudup as his old friend who never made it as an actor.
George Clooney's body of work spans decades, from his breakout role as Dr. Doug Ross on the NBC medical drama ER, earning nominations for three Golden Globes and two Emmys, to two Academy Awards, Best Supporting Actor for Syriana in 2005 and Best Picture as co-producer for Argo in 2012.
Earlier this year, Clooney made his Broadway debut as he reprised the story of Good Night and Good Luck on stage, which was a theatrical adaptation of the film. George Clooney, welcome back to the show.
Thank you, Tanya. It's been a while.
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Chapter 2: How does George Clooney relate to his character's family struggles?
I'm glad to be back.
I know, and it's our first time talking. You know, this new film where you play this world-famous actor who is coming to grips with the fact that he has missed out on the things that actually matter, there is this pivotal scene that really plants that seed early in the film that I want to play. It's you, your character Jay, and...
in his palatial home by the pool with his 18-year-old daughter, Daisy, who is played by Grace Edwards, shortly before she goes on a trip to Europe with her friends. And Daisy speaks first. Let's listen.
Hi, I'm going to go meet Moses in Rio.
I love you. Hey, aren't we having dinner tonight? Mario's doing the tamales.
Did we say that?
All right. Go on.
Be with your friends. There'll be other dinners. I wrapped this last one. I start the Lewis Brothers movie right here on the lots. I'll be around for the summer.
I'm going to Europe with Rio and Moses and some friends. I told you that.
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Chapter 3: What lessons did Clooney learn from his aunt's experience with fame?
They don't really want to hang out with you anymore. It's really bittersweet. But there's more to this dynamic because Jay has missed out on building that bond with his daughter.
Chapter 4: What insights does Clooney share about balancing fame and family?
And it's because of his career. This movie is really asking us, when do you realize you've made the wrong trade-offs? And I'm really curious about what piqued your interest in exploring that question.
You know, it's a funny thing because I never really think I never thought of it when I read the script as a story about an actor or a movie star. It always read to me as something that sort of most people deal with in life. If you certainly have kids, which is that balance between between work and your family. And, you know, I look back at things when I was growing up and.
There was always my father missed some ball games that I did and some big events in high school in my life. My parents both did. And, you know, you could be bitter about it or you could, as you get older, look back and realize, well, he was working. He was putting food on the table. And so there's always this balance that we're always trying to get right.
Clearly, you actually have to work and clearly you need to make a living and there are opportunities that you have to follow. And always you look back and think, well, I think I maybe missed something there. And so we're all doing it. We're all balancing it. We're never getting it perfect.
And this guy clearly didn't get any of it right since he only focused on work and didn't focus at all on his family.
Yeah. There is this line that is kind of heartbreaking, at least for me as a working mom. It's where Billy Crudup's character says to you, we are only good parents when we make ourselves irrelevant.
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Chapter 5: How did Clooney's Broadway debut influence his career perspective?
And there are so many lines like that. But how do you think about that as a parent, as someone who's had such a successful career?
Well, it's a funny thing. The last thing they're aware of is my success, you know, at all. 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. And I literally said to him, you know, I was Batman. And he was like, yeah, not really. And he had no idea how right he really was.
You know, I think that if you're successful, you do make yourself irrelevant, and that's probably the way it's supposed to be, right?
Yeah. Around how old were you when you, as a working actor, understood that you were quote-unquote famous? And I ask that because this film really also grapples with some of the perils of fame.
Well, I was working—I moved to L.A. in 1981, I guess— And I really didn't even get a job for the first three years. So that's a few, it's a hundred auditions that you don't get, a lot of no's. And then I started getting small parts, guest shots on a TV show or a really low budget film. in Budapest that no one ever saw and, you know, things like that where I was always bouncing around.
And for about 10 years, I kind of did that and some success. You know, sometimes you get too much credit when they say you were struggling for 15 years, because the truth is, if you're working at all in my industry, you're beating the odds. There's, I don't know, a hundred and some thousand members of my union and probably I think about 5% make about $5,000 a year or more.
It's not a very lucrative, you know, it's a lot of luck takes place. And I'd done a few shows that, I did a show called Roseanne when it first came out. It was a huge hit, but I was like the 10th banana on that show. And then I did the pilot and then ultimately the show when I was 33 years old for ER. And I'd been banging around long enough.
I'd done seven other television series and 13 television pilots. And I'd knocked around. And then this show hit. And that had nothing to do with my brilliance as an actor. It had to do with the fact that we had a great time slot, which was Thursday night at 10 o'clock on NBC, which for 16 years only had two shows, L.A. Law and... Hill Street Blues.
And so for us to get that time slot was a big deal. And then the show was a transformative show. And suddenly I had a career overnight. And then literally within a month, we were on the cover of magazines and people suddenly knew your name, which is a very different thing than recognizing you. You know, you can recognize me from the But once they know your name, that was a difference.
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Chapter 6: How does Clooney reflect on the impact of fame on personal relationships?
And that was probably 30 years ago. But it was very helpful to, you know, have people that instead of like laughing about the fact that I'd had, instead of two and came home and got home without getting, you know, without getting in trouble for it, instead of thinking that was funny, they were like, dude, that's not cool and you shouldn't do that again.
And I appreciated that and I took that to heart, you know. But I have friends that, you know, my friends have always been very straightforward with me. I'll do a project that, you know, that I'll think works and they'll say, yeah, I don't know about that one. So I don't mind that. It's important to have that in your life.
Yeah. How did you come to understand that that was what you needed, that that was actually important for you? And I guess it also says a lot about the company that you keep.
Well, I will say this. I didn't do it because there was some great plan. I did it because I had no interest in being married and having kids, and I had an interest in working. I was very excited with having a career. I couldn't believe I was having one.
And I had all of these friends who had been my friends when, you know, when you're a young actor and probably young anything, you know, that's when you tend to make all your friends either out of college or just after and you make a lot of good friends. And then as time goes on and you get a job and you get married, you tend to lose a lot of them because life gets in the way.
Well, I didn't lose them. I worked very hard at making sure we had them because probably selfishly, since I wasn't getting married and wasn't having kids, I was wanting to have this family, this sort of created family. And I worked very hard at making sure that we all, you know, had dinners together and spent time together and checked in with one another.
And we've all managed to stay close and be friends.
There's this story that came out a few years ago that you gave your friends, people in your inner circle, money, like a million dollars, and you made kind of a performance out of it. Did that really happen?
It's funny. It was a few months before I went out on a date with Amal. And I didn't, you know, like I said, I didn't have kids. I wasn't married. I had really no prospects of that idea. I wasn't really thinking about it. And I'd met with my accountant to do my will, you And while I was doing my will, I said, so what happens when I get hit by a bus?
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Chapter 7: What motivated Clooney to write his op-ed about Biden?
And I said, well, why are we waiting until I'm like, you know, old or they're old? And why don't we just get on with it now? And so I got $12 million in cash, which was, you know, a big chunk of the money I had. I had it in cash. I paid all the taxes on it. So nobody had to pay any taxes there.
Chapter 8: How does Clooney view the role of celebrities in political discourse?
And I put them in these Tumi suitcases, and I told everybody that they had to come over to dinner. It was a very special night, and then I had a big map that I put up, and those Tumi bags were sitting in front of them at this dinner table, and I just said, so I don't get a job if I don't get to sleep on Tom's couch in Hollywood, and I don't get this unless I was in Westwood, and I...
Giovanni, we met in Venice and I put pens in all these maps, all these spots in the maps of where we were and what we did. And I said, and how do you thank the people that gave you a career and allowed you to have a career and have stood by you for so long. And I said, you know, so and then I said, open the bags. I said and I said, screw it. I said, just give him a million bucks.
So it was a fun thing to do. And I was very happy to do it. And then, of course, I met them all. We got married. And you think, well, I just gave away a big.
Right. To start our lives. What a dream, though, George.
Well, I mean, if you're going to spend that much money, you might as well make it a nice production.
You know, Noah Baumbach said that he thought about you immediately when he was co-writing this. But one of the things that kind of seems clear is while he thought about you, you're kind of the opposite of this character, J. Kelly.
Well, yeah. I mean, when he said he thought about me and I read it and I said, well, this guy's kind of a jerk. I was like, wait, hang on a minute. No, I, you know, I'm sure he thought about who could play it as much as he thought about who the character is. You know, and you look at it and I understand his...
thought when you're going to write and direct this story, he wrote it with Emily Mortimer, is that the lead character should be someone that the audience has some familiarity with or thinks they know. I think that's an advantage. And also it's an age thing, right? You got to be in your 60s. And so I think there are only a few of us that sort of fit into that category.
And I'm sure he probably thought about... uh some of the others and they you know um but he certainly i was certainly felt lucky that he came to me i can't tell you what uh what uh an honor it was to be sent the script and to read it and think well this is a part that i would love to play you know it's a it's very rare i know it doesn't it sounds unusual because i think everybody thinks
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