George Clooney interview in French Premiere mag Oct 2011

Found at Les Frenchies fans, George interview in the French issue of Premiere.

Scans and article to follow when the magazine's released.

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this is old pic ?

yep

Charlie Rose plus Letterman!

wow!!!

Just to tell you : I checked today and it's still the september issue out there (though Gosling has 4 pages - well 2 for pics - for CrazyStupidLove and Drive)

the only good thing is a one page preview for the IOM where they analyse the poster (you know, the main one, with half Ryan/half George) in 4 points :
(I apologize in advance but i'm not a translator, so... and Premiere does not always provide its articles on line - and I don't have a scanner... as useless as I am you'll have to do with just my post)
- the magazine (Time) is bent, so even if you recognize Time, the only thing you can read is ME (which answers the question lower in the front page of the magazine (is he gonna the next president?")
- the half/half is obviously the hidden side of politics / of the election
- and the half/half is for the reversal of Gosling character from beginner to shark (naive blue eyes to george's direct stare)
- finally Time's color is red, and George's wearing a blue tie and white shirt (fitting colors for a presidential election)

I'll see if there's anything more in the october edition...

good, and thanks, will buy today (though I hardly buy premiere anymore, and resumed my subscription... some months it's just worth it)
One of the question I like : "- do you take souvenirs from every movie set ? The clapperboard, and I steal something from costumes. You can always use a suit"
I don't know if he's serious about suits, but the clapperboard I believe. I love director chairs myself, if he doesn't steal them maube he could get me a spare

Translation of the article. Enjoy!

Citizen Clooney.

The Ides of March, his 4th film, is a snorkel dive in the heart of the American electoral machine. A political thriller that confirms turned, if necessary, indecent and charisma that this class off-road also belong to quite a director. Vote Clooney!

"It's amazing how he looks like George Clooney, the actor. For starters, they are the same size." This is the kind of response obtained by an inadvertent journalist at a press conference when asked if he sees a difference between the Clooney actor and the Clooney director. We could expand the list of similarities: the same requirement, even taste and the same talent for film "conscious" firmly rooted in 70 years. After a failed attempt in the retro romantic comedy that had ended in bitter failure at the box office (Leatherheads, 2008), the director Clooney puts the record straight with The Ides of March. Adapted from a play by Beau Willimon, the fourth stage follows a young campaign manager (Ryan Gosling) in the wings of a primary whose outcome will determine the name of the Democratic candidate in the upcoming presidential elections. On the agenda: corruption, betrayal, influence peddling and a nice bundle of dirty linen. In the role of the Governor contesting the Oval Office, Clooney the actor is required so obvious that you may get the ballots out of the room. We stuck him to Los Angeles to open the debate.

Premiere: How is born this project?

George: Well, it took me five years to build The Ides of March with Grant. We wrote the script, but funding has collapse. After the election of Barack Obama, everyone has taken hope and we had to put the film on hold because the timing was not right to be cynical. Then a year passed, and cynicism is suddenly back in fashion.

You interpret a governor who is trying to win a hotly contested primary election to become the Democratic candidate for U.S. presidency. On the surface, it is a true golden boy of politics, beautiful, intelligent, charismatic ...

This character did not exist in Farragut North, the play that inspired The Ides of March. I found it interesting to integrate this politician in the heart of the story. In a sense, it would indeed be the ideal Democratic candidate, while not free of defects. That said, we all know that is not enough to be a good candidate and then succeed in governing the country, especially in a system that sometimes forces you to cohabitation. It is extremely difficult.

How did you work to make it believable and complex at once?

My father campaigned in 2004 to be elected to Congress, experience he does not keep very good memories, as you'd expect. At the time, I worked as a producer on the series K Street, where I met many political consultants. It helped me. I knew that this role would be a challenge - to convince the viewer that this type might actually be a serious candidate for president - and that was precisely what attracted me. Once we started taking pictures for campaign posters you see in the film, I realized how much candidates must invest in the image they are projecting for themselves. It is even worse for an actor! Keep this pose when you look off with the chin proudly raised is not so easy. Embody a political ego requires a much more important than I imagined.

Films have inspired you when you prepare it?

I've always loved Vote McKay, Michael Ritchie, starring Robert Redford, whom I know by heart. He certainly influenced me, along with the President's Men or The Network. Of course I dare not compare my film to these masterpieces, but I think it shares with them a desire not to give viewers all the answers to questions that may arise. He invites them to participate, to think for themselves, what was for me one of the greatest qualities of the cinema of the 70s.

Have you struggled to get The Ides of March?

Grant and I had to bring our own budget. I shot the film in eight weeks for $ 12 million, which is a pittance compared with current standards in Hollywood today. Last November, we went to the AFM, the independent film market held annually in Santa Monica, to sell the project. I found myself in a room trying to explain to buyers around the world why The Ides of March was much more than yet another American political film. My speech was always the same: I took the example of ER, a series that card in every country so that no one understood a single medical terms that employed in length episode. If you have good characters and you manage to make them endearing, the rest becomes secondary.

The Ides of March is your fourth feature film as director. You seem to have matured ...

Exercise is always difficult, so I make sure I did my homework. When I arrive on set, I am always prepared. It was only firing five days a week and never more than 8 or 9 hours. I will soon because I think the best actors working in these conditions. There is no down time, which requires the-team remain permanently on the alert. Late in his career, I asked my Aunt Rosemary, who was a great singer, how it was to be better when she could not even take notes. His answer struck me: "For I no longer need to prove to anyone that I can sing." She also said: "The score is good, I only run it." This is how I felt about this movie because I knew I had an excellent score in the hands and very good actors and a brilliant cinematographer to run it. Over the years, I noticed that the directors I most admire - Steven Soderbergh, Alexander Payne and the Coen Brothers - have in common a set of views for each of their films and stick up 'at the end. This is critical. So I approached The Ides of March that year a very clear idea of ​​what I wanted to do and I tried to do this as simply as possible.

Do you ever seek the advice of the directors with whom you worked?

Of course. I showed the rough cut of Ides of March to Steven Soderbergh, who had given me several ideas. I also planned to Norman Lear and other friends whose opinions are always very useful to me. When JEVAIS see Alexander Payne and I ask him what part of the story deserves to be developed, I know he will immediately say: "If you decide to add this scene, then you must be modified that one. "All directors consult each other.

Are you attentive to all is done now in the cinema?

I just finished the filming of Gravity, a sci-fi 3D directed by Alfonso Cuaron, whose main role is played by Sandra Bullock. Alfonso is one of the people to whom I show my work very early. I also took an editor with me while we turned to Shepperton studios in London for working in parallel on The Ides of March. Once the team out to lunch, I do not even take the time to remove my combination of cosmonaut and I was riding my film. However, I do not see at all make a feature film in 3D. Something tells me that this is not the kind of area where I thrive. My thing, it's still human-scale stories. With any luck, we can continue to tell them in 2D?

How do you see your evolution as a director? Do you feel you are a forged identity after four films?

I think I'm starting to find my rhythm. My first feature film, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2003), was about the chaos in the mind of a man whose life was like a huge TV show. Suddenly, the camera would turn into full-fledged character. When I turned Good Night, Good Luck (2006), the opposite was true: I had the feeling that the camera was completely disappear. I dissected the films of Godard and I even tried to lay hands on the devices he used. I wanted to find this aspect of cinema verite. For Leatherheads (2008), I decided that no plan would be shot in the shoulder, they would do to the crane. As the story unfolded in 1925, the slightest touch of modernity threatened to immediately leave the viewer of the film. In terms of The Ides of March, I also avoided the plans in the shoulder. It was essential that each scene is as cinematic as possible because this kind of film can quickly look like a documentary. But I wanted the viewer to feel the movies.

Can we establish a link between the four movies you've made​​?

I do not know ... The only commonality I could find them is that they do not, precisely, they are all part of different kinds. The filmmakers I most admire - and I admire them for that much - never locked into one particular genre. I have a phobia of repeating myself. We got slaughtered out of Leatherheads, a lot of people did not like, but I'm really proud of the result and we had this desire to turn a screwball comedy when it is an extremely dangerous kind. All is not successful in this film, I know, but if I turned The Ides of March just after Good Night, Good Luck, I would suddenly become the guy who only political films. And it's not me.

What are you most proud of after those nine years behind the camera?

I never really took the time to ask me to think about it. It is not decided in 2 minutes! I am particularly proud to have made ​​Good Night, Good Luck. At the time, many people pointed at me straight and almost accused me of betraying my country. I am pleased to be able make this film without making some sort of personal vendetta, just by talking to assume responsibilities as the fourth estate when the other three have failed. When we can no longer rely on the government, my media must step up. This is what happened during the run-up to the healing in Iraq and, before that, in the era of McCarthyism.

Do you feel a lack if you have not done a long time?

I miss, yes. But we must first find a subject that inspires you. Then, develop the project can take years ... This process is often tedious and sometimes very frustrating. At my age more advanced (rireà, yet I want to achieve more than acting.

Bring your memories after each shoot?

I keep systematic always clap and I leave with something, often cut to the department costume. Who does not need a suit from time to time?

What position do you occupy in Hollywood today?

I know you can not maintain indefinitely the key to the toy box. My philosophy is: as long as they let me do the films I want, I will continue. When it stops, I'll go elsewhere. I am fortunate that this is not the case and I feel the need, the responsibility for that power in the service of films that probably not exist if my name was not involved. Hollywood never ceases to produce blockbusters en3D, and they did not need me for that. However, once you want to do The Ides of March, that's another story ... At first, we went see Warner, who declined to fund the project after reading the script. So we gathered the budget ourselves and Sony has finally decided to distribute in the United States. I experienced the same thing for Michael Clayton and Godd Night, Good Luck. Nobody wanted it. I will fight to the end so that films like this continue to exist. That way, when I take the keys, I can say, "OK, I still managed to make some move between the cracks."

Thanks, Laetval.
He always looks amazing in black and white photos.
Especially when he wears suits.

It's that classic movie matinee image that reminds us of Hollywood legends. I love these photos, especially the one with the Wayfarers. And the cover.

I found myself in a room trying to explain to buyers around the world why The Ides of March was much more than yet another American political film.

- that may be a misconception for many who presume it's simply about politics, but he stated in interviews it's about moral consciousness set in a political backdrop.

That man is "pretty"! Loved the article! Thanks Laetval for the article and translation! You're a gem!