I had to look through George Clooney’s IMDB page to figure out when he was last in a movie that actually could be considered a “hit.” It’s been a while. Technically, 2016’s Money Monster was made for a small budget (less than $30 million for production) and it made just shy of $100 million worldwide. In 2016, he had a role in the Coen Brothers’ ensemble Hail Caesar, which… didn’t lose money, but it wasn’t a huge hit. 2014’s Tomorrowland barely made its inflated production costs back. Last year, his latest directorial effort, Suburbicon, was released and it was a gigantic bomb. My point? While Clooney still has the movie-star luster, he hasn’t been making many movie-star turns over the past five years or so. I’m sure he’s crying into the hundreds of millions of dollars he’s made selling his tequila label, for sure. But not everything is about money. Of course Clooney would love to be part of some prestigious film or miniseries or anything like that, because it’s about ego more than anything else. So what could be a bigger ego stroke than doing a fancy play on the London stage?
George Clooney us swapping Hollywood glitz for British drama! Despite less-than-Oscar-worthy flicks like ‘Money Monster’ and ‘Tomorrowland’, George fancies himself on par with a classically trained Shakespearean actor and is angling for a gig at London’s prestigious National Theatre.
“This has been a dream of his for years and now he’s finally going to do it,” says a snitch, adding that George is trying hard to sell wife Amal on living full-time across the pond.
“He says their kids will have a far better education in England and it will be easier for her to do her humanitarian work.”
But is George focused on his family…or his dwindling fame? “He knows he’s becoming box office poison and needs to reinvent himself as a serious actor,” confessed the friend. “He thinks the English stage is the place to do it!”
[From Star Magazine, print edition]
The part I don’t believe is the part about him needing to convince Amal – I doubt Amal needs any convincing. Amal wants to live in England. That’s where she can work, that’s where she prefers to socialize, that’s where she’s close to her friends and family. My thought was always that Amal would have to subvert her needs and she would just end up following George to LA, where his bro life can flourish. But now that he’s got all of that tequila money, why not move to England and do a little stage work? My only concern would be for his health – he has a bad back, and there have been times in the past few years where he looks like he’s in agony. Why would he want to go through the exhausting eight-shows-a-week thing at his age?
Also, regarding Amal: George appears on a new episode of David Letterman’s Netflix show and he talks about meeting Amal for the first time when a friend brought her to dinner at his Lake Como mansion. He literally didn’t even leave the house and he met his future wife. We’ve heard that story before, but whatever. The interesting part is that he gives a specific timeline, that he met Amal for the first time in the summer of 2013. Keep in mind, Stacy Keibler took credit for breaking up with Clooney right around the same time that his manager is trying to set him with Amal. Hm.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Why not, he can afford it.
And to think, he destroyed his body for a Oscar. These actors have to stop with that stuff. It ain’t worth it.
George is very involved right now in developing a new project, producing, directing, and acting in a six-episode limited series based on the novel Catch-22 he is doing for Netflix or Hulu. It’s a standalone series, no season two. So I call false story on this.
The good thing is he and Grant aren’t the writers of the screenplay, as is usually the case for his movies. They hired someone for that, which considering their last few attempts at that were lackluster, is a smart thing.
I hate how the theatre is now viewed as a haven for has-beens and reality tv trash. It’s insulting as hell to actors who actually did train for the theatre. Occasionally there will be a film/TV actor, novice stage actor who proves to be a natural, like Anne Heche. But the more usual case is that of Bruce Willis, using ear pieces because he’d never had to learn that many lines.
Not being snarky, but was he ever really a great actor with great draw? I liked him on ER, I kind of enjoyed the movie he did that was in Hawaii, but honestly, Oceans 16 and 37 were very bro ish 2000 ish movies that in my opinion don’t age well. Other movies of his I tried to watch I couldn’t make it through, maybe just not my taste. Wasn’t he just more of a pop cultural phenom than a true actor ?
George has never said he was a great actor. And while a hit on ER and after, trying to capitalize on his popularity and make it in movies, he picked some interesting and great projects that propelled him into movie stardom at a time they said it was hard to do. He wrote and directed a few really good movies like Good Night and Good Luck and/or produced some also, like Argo, which won awards.
All of this positioned him into what is considered an A list movie star, at least for many years, his forties, and a power player because of branching out, not sticking just to acting.
So he will always be considered an A list movie star even if he never acts again or never has a big hit, because he will always have a career in producing. His directing will continue on if he can make some money for a studio even with a minor hit and go back to smaller budgets. He has said his acting will move into character acting, supporting roles, not lead roles as he is now in his mid fifties. And he will always be visible in Hollywood because of his activism.
Do you work for him? You sound pretty darn clear about how he is setting himself up. Interesting. PR perhaps?
PR? Do I work for him? LOL I’ve been on this site for years. It’s called reading his interviews. It’s what he says he is doing and has done. He’s talked about aging as an actor multiple times in the last several years and that it hits a point your leading man days are over.
I only added about his directing that it should be back to smaller indie budgets, since his bigger budget movies as a director haven’t panned out. Studios won’t keep backing him as a director with bigger budget movies without hits.
I think this might be true. I get the feeling he thinks he could do this, but I just think it would be awful.
I can’t believe he’s only in his mid-50s. Looks ten years older.
You’re not used to seeing actors without work done. LOL Although, there are a few genetically blessed.
The darker silver/deep grey hair on George was much more flattering than now, which is mostly all silver/whitish. His skin tone looks more sallow because of it. He should put darker grey back in his hair.
I remember when Richard Gere’s hair went almost white. Not flattering against his skin tone at all and took away how handsome he used to be..
George always looked older than his age but handsome. But he has aged in he last few years. And we rarely see an actor in his mid 50s who hasn’t done things to look younger or fresher. Even Liam Neeson got his eyes done in his early 50s. George’s ex-wife’s present husband, who I adore, John Slattery, also in his 50s, definitely looks older now. He said it was hard hitting 50 and seeing all of the changes in his face, and that he understood how it could be enticing for some to think about surgery or things to look better.
I want someone to cast George Clooney in a gruff, unlikeable, “old guy” role that will bridge the gap between his former hot-young-bachelor days and his current oh-shit-people-actually-age predicament. He’s not a bad actor. He just needs to find his older guy niche. Isn’t that what they say about older actresses anyway? He needs to play someone’s wise old batty aunt or something. I don’t know exactly where I’m going with this but..
Nope, I want him to keep acting in movies and ditch the bitch he married for PR purposes.