COVER STORY
Lucky
escape
Paramedics
tend to
Clooney
in the
moments
after his
motorbike
accidentAfter #MeToo,
being a jerk at work
is now not OK
year after Nixon was re-elected — as
similar to our own divided times.
(Interestingly, for a staunch liberal, he
admits to being good friends with(^) people who voted for Donald Trump,
putting it down to knowing “a lot of
people in finance”.) “Yes, 1973 was a
really volatile time,” he says. “But the
reality was that all took up about 1 per
cent of your day — in the other 99 per
cent you were paying the bills and tak-
ing care of your family. That gets exag-
gerated now due to the internet... It
has been two different tribes in the
States for the last few years and they
hate each other. And I’ve been angry
too. But we still pay the bills and go to
work — we just have to figure out how
to get along.”
Which brings us to Harvey Wein-
stein. When the producer, who
Clooney knew and worked with, was
accused of sexual assault and rape in
2017 Clooney reflected that a society
that elects a president who admits to
grabbing women’s crotches is one that
will be able to keep Weinstein’s crimes
secret. The scandal started the #MeToo
movement — four years ago. How much
has changed?
“It’s changed in this way,” he says,
after a quick ramble to gather thoughts.
“On top of the terrible things Weinstein
did, being a jerk at work is now not
OK.” He mentions the film producer
Scott Rudin. “Just because you’re a
boss, it doesn’t mean you get to shit on
people. I’ve been the boss and the guy
being shat on. You can’t get away with
being a dick any more — you’d get ratted
out. Now there’s sometimes an over-
correction, where everyone points fin-
gers, but that will settle. It always does.
And I can’t imagine some producer
having a casting session alone in his
hotel room with a young girl any more.
It’s moving in the right direction.”
What still needs to happen? “We’ll
know when we see how wrong some-
thing else goes,” he says, sighing. “I’m
sure there’s more and someone will tell
us, then we’ll have to pay attention to it.”
For Clooney’s 60th birthday Amal
organised a party for close friends. It
was during a lockdown break in Cali-
fornia and the actor found it emotional
being in a room with so many others.
How does he feel about this milestone
age? “Turning 60 is a bummer,” he
reasons. “But it’s that or dead.”
So while Clooney is calm, he’s also
aware of time. After his party he took
stock of his life. “I said to Amal, knock
on wood, I’m healthy,” he says. “I still
play basketball with the younger gang.
I feel good. But in 20 years I’m 80 —
and 80 is a real number. I said the next
20 years are halcyon and we need to
celebrate that, we should focus on the
work we do being just the stuff we have
to, that we feel in our chest.”
As such, his next job is a romantic
comedy with Julia Roberts on a tropical
island. Such hard choices aside,
Clooney says he won’t produce as many
projects as he did. Of course selling
your tequila company for a sum akin to
the Gambia’s GDP simplifies decision-
making, but he comes back to that bike
accident. It was a moment that could
have changed everything at a time he
wants nothing to change. “We have
young kids,” he says softly. “I want to
be able to live all of this.” c
The Tender Bar is out in cinemas on
Dec 17 and on Amazon from Jan 7
The sequels diluted the brand, but this
star-studded heist remake
remains an era-defining
piece of Hollywood
cool. Clooney,
Pitt, Roberts,
Damon — the
big hitters of the
1990s launched
the new century
with pizzazz.
Clooney’s best-known Coen film
is O Brother, Where Art Thou? —
but his best role is in the
uproarious Burn After Reading; a
blast of camp noir in which the
actor has an elaborate
sex contraption in^
his basement.
OCEAN’S ELEVEN (2001) BURN AFTER READING UP IN THE AIR (2009) MICHAEL CLAYTON (2007)
(2008) Clooney, despite living a
far glitzier life than most of
us, is at his best playing
the everyman. Jason
Reitman’s gorgeous
film about air travel
and ambition has
him at his saddest,
realising that
his life is
empty.
Once again Clooney plays the
normal guy, in this superb
corporate law thriller,
co-starring Tilda Swinton
and Tom Wilkinson,
where he mixes the
suave with the sinister
to career-best,
Oscar-
nominated
effect.
MARIO CHIRONI/AP
41
ALAMY/WARNER B
ROS/FOX
SEARCHLIGHT
(^32)
6 28 November 2021