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'Standing on the side of History' Interview with The Australian Feb 2012

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'Standing on the side of History' Interview with The Australian Feb 2012 Empty 'Standing on the side of History' Interview with The Australian Feb 2012

Post by lelacorb Tue 21 Feb 2012, 07:30

THE ARTS
Standing on the side of history
BY: TIM TEEMAN From: The Australian February 20, 2012 12:00AM
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Restless spirit ... American actor, director, producer and screenwriter George Clooney on the red carpet at the BAFTA awards in London last week. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
PERHAPS in a discreet restaurant booth with a Scotch, or playing blackjack in a casino with his buddies but, really -- George Clooney, here? It is strange to find the patron saint of silver foxes in his blandly decorated production company office, with drab carpet and chequered light squares on the ceiling, overlooking a petrol station in Studio City, Los Angeles. No statuesque girlfriend. No Scotch. No tux.

Clooney, nominated for an Oscar for his performance as a crisis-beset father in The Descendants, is wearing a grey T-shirt (revealing tanned, toned arms) and is as handsome as every picture suggests: the puppy eyes, the droll charm, the only visible imperfection a scar on his right arm after elbow surgery following a motorbike accident.

He is also intelligent, modest and startlingly candid for someone who doesn't like interviews

("I don't need to be more famous"), talking about ageing, almost dying, his sexuality, issues with alcohol, and why it would be a "disaster" if Barack Obama does not win a second presidential term.

In our meeting room at Smokehouse Pictures, his production company with longtime collaborator Grant Heslov, are pictures of France and Italy in World War II, with dates and notes written on cards. He is "up to my ass" researching The Monuments Men, his next film, in which he portrays the leader of a real group of art historians sent to recover Michelangelos, da Vincis and Rembrandts looted by the Nazis.


How badly does he want the Oscar? "I think every actor would like to win; I don't know an actor who wouldn't," he smiles. "I won't be coy and say no." But he would be happy if it went to fellow nominees Brad Pitt ("my friend, who's given two great performances this year"), Gary Oldman ("some wild performances"), Demian Bichir ("it would be a career-changer") and Jean Dujardin ("wonderful"), his main Best Actor rival. Clooney got the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a drama, Dujardin the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a comedy or musical, as well as the SAG award and BAFTA.

Clooney, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Syriana in 2006, reveals he is planning "a gradual rather than complete retirement" from acting. "I've been doing it a long time . . . I'm not tired, but I want to do only great scripts or work with directors I am dying to work with. You'd think that when you get the pick of the litter, the litter would be great. But it's very thin. It's hard to find class-A scripts. That's why we (Clooney and Heslov) write them. At least we can work on subject matter we're interested in."

He says he is "a restless spirit, not for more money or accolades, but because there is only a certain amount of time (10 years, he thinks) where you get the keys to the f . . king kingdom".

Clooney has "done more than I ever thought I was going to do". He was raised by mother Nina and father Nick, a journalist, to believe he had "social responsibilities" to fulfil. Having toiled in minor TV roles before finding fame in ER in the mid-90s, Clooney is self-aware -- and has been poor -- enough not to grouch about fame.

"I remember cutting tobacco in Kentucky, hearing a star complaining about their life and I was like, 'f . . k you', but I will say there is no place to go that is private now. Spencer Tracy would be punching the shit out of the guys with video cameras. There is a f. . king camera wherever you go. No one is designed to be watched all the time."

He says he is "resigned" to it. Does it depress him? "Yes, but no one wants to hear. But it would be a lie, disingenuous, not to say one day I would like to take a walk, or read a book, in Central Park."

He started to turn grey after high school, "but at least my hair stuck around". He's never dyed it, "and I don't wear makeup on films, unless I have a zit to cover up, especially now because digital shows the makeup".

The Descendants, in which his character tends to a critically ill wife who has cheated on him, is his "midlife movie", he accepts.

"Getting older on screen is not for pussies or the faint of heart. People go on about your grey hair, your eyes starting to sag." Has he ever had plastic surgery? "No, nothing." Would he? "Never. We're guys, we have the insane great luck of being able to go bald, fat, wrinkled and grey and no one says, 'You can't do that, you can't be a leading man.'

"Why would any male actor cut around their eyes? Why would you ever f . . k with your face?" Clooney works out and plays sport. "You have to try to look the best for your age, not younger. It never works. You will always lose."

Like his character in The Descendants, "I'm the kind of guy who could just sit in a room, watch TV and let days go by". He has daughters in the film; does Clooney want children? "I don't know; I don't think about that kind of thing. What you do in films is separate to your life."

A lifelong Democrat, Clooney has his focus trained on the Republican primaries.

"They have moved so far to the Right on immigration and gays. Their idea that the richest Americans shouldn't pay 4 per cent more tax . . . "

He sighs. Would he be happy to pay? "Yes, of course I would. Most people would. How can they argue against it?"

He thinks Romney will be the Republican candidate, "with Ron Paul going all the way till he's

115. Romney's problem is conservatives don't trust him; they won't vote for Obama -- they just won't vote."

Will Obama win a second term? "I think it would be a disaster for the country if he didn't, because we are succeeding in terms of the economy and jobs." How actively will Clooney campaign? "I'm well aware that an actor standing up on behalf of the President does not help; it may even do damage. They always ask me to do fundraisers, and I will, but that's missing the point."

Clooney points to job creation, healthcare reform and the repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell" (the discriminatory gays-in-the-military policy) as Obama successes. "There are gay marriages happening where it is legal," he adds. Does he think gay marriage should be legalised federally, not only state to state? "Of course, and it will be, and a generation on everyone will ask, 'What was that about?' "

Clooney is about to star as one of the lawyers fighting for equality in an LA performance of 8, Dustin Lance Black's play about the court case against Proposition 8 in California, which made same-sex marriage illegal. "Gay equality is the final leg of the civil rights movement. Every time we stand against equality we stand on the wrong side of history. We're not going to be lectured on the sanctity of marriage by someone (Newt Gingrich) who left one wife with cancer and another one with MS. It's important to believe in marriage and sanctity, but everyone should have the right to it."

There are rumours about Clooney being gay, which Pitt stoked when he said he and Angelina Jolie wouldn't get married until it was legal for Clooney. Clooney recently professed himself impressed by Michael Fassbender's penis. "Honest to God, who cares?" he says of the hearsay.

Would Clooney have come out by now if he were gay? I ask. "That's a good question," he says. "I probably wouldn't have done 10 or 15 years ago -- it would have been hard to continue doing the kinds of films I wanted to do. It would be easier now at 50, not doing romantic leading roles.

"I'd like to think I would come out; I'd like to think I'd be man enough. I've stood up for a lot of things that got me in trouble over the years."

He is referring to his humanitarian work in Darfur: "Once you're there, it's impossible to walk away. The trickiest thing is public fatigue. You have to let it die down even when there are terrible things going on -- then hit it again. People get numb to the message."

His father is his "touchstone". When he was accused of being unAmerican, objecting to the Iraq war, he asked his father whether he was in trouble. "Do you have money?" his father asked. Yes, said Clooney. "Are you working?" Yeah, said Clooney. Clooney Sr: "So shut up, go out and talk about what you believe in."

But Clooney won't ever run for public office. "It doesn't look like fun. Barack Obama is having a difficult time doing basic governing given how polarised things are . . . I talk in congress about Sudan. I have rebel leaders on my cellphone. I can go to the UN and not worry about who I am pissing off."

He sounds like a workaholic. "Yes, I spent a lot of time unemployed and can't forget that. I still think of myself as an actor who has to prove himself, who is constantly aware of the fact it will go away. You can't enjoy it unless you have that perspective."

He's bought "outright with cash" houses in LA and Lake Como, Italy, which he can sell if times get lean. "I've never had a trainer, I don't have a chef, I like to do work around the house if I can. I can fix my motorcycle. When this is all gone I can still take care of myself." So how does he deal with universal adulation? "By feeling like I am undeserving, that you can't believe your luck when they're nice to you."

Clooney has a raw awareness of his own mortality: while shooting Syriana he injured the base of his neck, leaving him -- he recently said -- in so much pain he contemplated suicide. "I was in real trouble," he tells me. "It felt like I was having a stroke. For the first time I contemplated my mortality and whether I had accomplished all I wanted. I felt I was going to die or have to die; I felt I couldn't live with so much pain."

He had three operations. "I took painkillers, but the more you take, the more you need -- it's an escalating thing and I'm too much of a control freak to allow that." He went to "a pain-management guy" who helped change his "pain threshold", encouraging him to think, "If I had been born this way, I wouldn't know it as painful. If it gets super-bad I take a migraine drug that knocks me out for the day. I take it once every two or three months. I still deal with pain. I know when I wake up it will always feel like a hangover, but I can't mourn what I used to be."

Clooney smiles. "I fear death like most people, but I'm a realist: I thought, 'Well, you can die young or live long enough to watch your friends die'. It doesn't end well whatever." He laughs. "Having understood that -- and that is the driving force of my life -- it made me go, 'You must attack life and not get dragged into things that mean nothing'.

"If you knew you had a week left, what's more important -- award statuettes or the films you leave behind? Is what people pigeonhole you as important? If you sit in Hollywood and get caught up in it, or Google yourself, you live in hell."

Speculation continually bubbles around his love life. He was married to actress Talia Balsam, and he draws a veil over his subsequent relationships (including with Elisabetta Canalis and, presently, former wrestler Stacy Keibler) "because what matters are the few things I can keep to myself". Is being in love important? "Oh of course, not just who you happen to be with but also in your friendships and family." Will he ever remarry? He laughs. "I don't know and I'm never going to answer that question."

What about his wilder periods? "There were times, sure. I was single in 1994 when ER got picked up. We went from obscurity to the cover of Newsweek in two weeks. There was a lot of getting into trouble. I drank pretty seriously. There were rollercoaster rides of drinking." And drugs? "Yes, in the early 80s, recreational like everyone else. It wasn't an issue. Booze was for a bit. I didn't wake up and drink, but I hit it pretty good at night sometimes and had to pay attention."

He never needed help, "but I never wanted drinking to become habitual. I haven't had a drink since New Year's. In January or around my birthday I go for a couple of months without a drink just to make sure it's not something I 'do'." He has had therapy, once as marriage guidance with Balsam, "then I stuck with this guy for a while as someone to talk to.

"It was useful. If I didn't have the friends I have now, I would have a therapist."

Clooney is languid but driven. "I enjoy myself. If you had my career and life, I would be really pissed off with you if you weren't enjoying yourself." As for the future: "Every time you see a retired person they seem to play golf and die. I have no interest in that shit. This is fun, but I'm terrified of the moment when you're the guy who goes to the studio and says, 'Hey, I've got this idea', and they're like, 'Thanks for stopping by', and you walk out and they roll their eyes. The easiest way to become irrelevant is to stop. You have to reinvent yourself."

What are his faults? "I don't think patience is a virtue, especially when you're doing humanitarian work. I always say, 'Why can't this happen now?' I can get angry, but you mellow as you get older. I love what I do, I push the envelope, aware that luck has gotten me to this spot." I think he has finished, but after a pause he adds -- "and understanding that luck changes."

The Times
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lelacorb
lelacorb
Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to Clooney I go!

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Post by Katiedot Tue 21 Feb 2012, 09:32

Hm, again he's talking about his retirement from acting.

Yes, I spent a lot of time unemployed and can't forget that. I still think of myself as an actor who has to prove himself
Interesting. I wonder when he'll learn to accept success?
Katiedot
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Post by it's me Tue 21 Feb 2012, 10:10

never
I guess

and it is not so bad
IMO



great interview
thanks
it's me
it's me
George Clooney fan forever!

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Post by it's me Tue 21 Feb 2012, 10:11

ah
btw
wash your mouth with soap
darling
it's me
it's me
George Clooney fan forever!

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Post by Katiedot Tue 21 Feb 2012, 12:46

It is strange to find the patron saint of silver foxes in his blandly decorated production company office, with drab carpet and chequered light squares on the ceiling, overlooking a petrol station in Studio City, Los Angeles
I guess they weren't enamoured of his new(ish) offices, huh?
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