George Clooney still feels like he was ‘punching above his weight’ by marrying Amal

George Clooney has been promoting his latest directorial effort, The Boys on the Boat, in recent weeks. I’ve yet to see a major interview with him though? Nothing in GQ or Esquire or some “career retrospective” in one of the trade papers (update: lmao, Deadline just released a lengthy interview with him, so scratch that!). It probably doesn’t help that TBITB is yet another poorly reviewed effort from Clooney – he’s on a not-hot streak of “bad Rotten Tomatoes scores” and this film is no different. Which is probably why George spent most of this promotional tour giving junket interviews and talking about his wife and his marriage.

George Clooney is well aware that he wasn’t up to Amal Clooney’s lofty standards when the two got married – and joked about it during his latest interview with Page Six.

“Yes, and I still do [think that],” the actor replied, when asked if he felt like he were “punching above” his weight with Amal.

The “Ocean’s Eleven” star, who we spoke to at a special screening of “The Boys in the Boat” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, went on to say that he believes that’s a common understanding.

“Everyone would say the same thing,” he said with a laugh.

[From Page Six]

Amal and George will celebrate a decade of marriage next year. They got married relatively fast, given his history – they met in the summer of 2013, and he proposed in April 2014, then they married in Venice that fall. The twins were born in June 2017. I would agree that George married up, although I would also say that Amal is a saint for putting up with George’s bullsh-t sometimes. George goes back and forth between doing the “old ball and chain” type comments and talking about how he married up. Speaking of:

Amal Clooney is many wonderful things — but a chef she is not. Her husband, George Clooney, recently joked that her skills in the kitchen are bad enough to kill their whole family.

“My wife, who is a brilliant lawyer — she’s one of the great advocates of the world; she takes on ISIS and all these things — but I better be doing the cooking, or we will all die,” he told “Extra.” When asked what he and the human rights attorney have on the menu for the coming holidays, George revealed he’d be whipping up “a little Christmas turkey this year,” similar to the one he made on Thanksgiving.

[From Page Six]

Maybe Amal is fine with this too, maybe she knows she’s not much of a cook, but sometimes George will say this kind of sh-t about her and I’m mad on her behalf.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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16 Responses to “George Clooney still feels like he was ‘punching above his weight’ by marrying Amal”

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  1. JaneS says:

    I’m tired of George Clooney.

    Amal is a lawyer. And he cracks jokes about her cooking skills.
    How many successful male lawyers are also expected to be good cooks?

    Clooney needs to retire his “joker” schtick.

    • Barbie1 says:

      So sick of him. He loves to stick his nose in other peoples affairs. He had to make comments about Tom Cruise yelling at his crew about them not taking covid seriously. Alec Baldwins shooting accident. Saying something like how he would never do such a thing in both instances. Now talking about Mathew Perry not being happy on the Friends set. Mind your own business.

    • tanya says:

      Eh, Amal wouldn’t be the first smart, accomplished woman to play up a “flaw” in order to seem more relatable.

  2. Brassy Rebel says:

    I saw an interview with her on Sunday. He definitely married up. And marriage to her has softened his misogyny considerably. I doubt that she minds the cooking jokes. When you’re busy fixing the world, you shouldn’t be expected to cook, and he sort of implies this. Generally, it’s not a good idea to marry a man expecting him to change, but since his marriage, Clooney definitely has changed for the better.

  3. Plums says:

    I didn’t realize his movie had a rotten score- my family tries to go out to see a movie every Christmas Day, so a few days ago I was checking to see what would be out that we all wouldn’t mind seeing, and it was still fresh then.

    I like George, but he’s been a bit out of touch with the zeitgeist for a few years now. I like that he wants to make traditional, original dramas for the theaters, but the projects he’s been drawn to and the stories he wants to tell feel like they would have been more popular a couple decades ago.

  4. Stef says:

    He did marry up, considering the women he dated before Amal. She’s by far the most accomplished and intelligent woman he could have married.

    You can’t be great at everything and there are many women who aren’t domestic goddesses but excel in so many other areas. Luckily, he’s got all that tequila money to hire a chef.

    I somehow doubt he’s a good cook, he seems like the type to not want to get his hands dirty.

  5. Amy Bee says:

    Maybe Amal puts up with those comments in exchange for the lavish lifestyle she now has.

    • Eleonor says:

      I think Amal is way more accomplished than him, and she could have easily married someone even richer.

  6. Sasha says:

    I think he married up in every way but she obviously wanted the glamour and celebrity of his world. I think they both did well!

  7. Ameerah M says:

    This is apropo of nothing but looking at that older pic of Amal and the more recent one – I am SO glad someone got a hold of her and told her to stop wearing bright pink lipsticks and rosy toned makeup. So many people think she’s had work done (and maybe she’s had a bit of botox who knows). But as someone who does makeup the biggest change in her appearance is the TONE of makeup she is wearing. Warm bronze-y tones suit her SO much more. Even the highlights in her hair are better. Knocked a good 10 years off of her appearance.

  8. Lily says:

    Not sure why so many comments are so negative about George. They are obviously happy and he very much respects his wife’s accomplishments. He’s been consistent about that. A cooking joke is a silly thing to be mad about.

    • Kristin says:

      I know, right? I don’t understand the negativity here. I like George and Amal and really love them together. My husband would also say that I’m a brilliant lawyer, but can barely turn on a computer without blowing it up (he’s in IT) and he’s not only right, I’d make the same joke about myself. We have a healthy sense of humor and can joke about each other without it being some deep-seated misogyny on his part. I think they’re similar.

  9. Banana Phone says:

    The thing is, microaggressions are real. George & Amal aren’t your neighbors. They have a huge reach and impact. Publicly making vague “I’m so humble, I can even compliment my wife” statements in the same breath as “she’s so bad at this traditionally female role that it’s hilarious” does way more to normalize misogyny than your coworker, your husband, whatever not-famous/influential guy making a similar joke. Normalizing really is the best word for it, and people like George count on us having this “oh it’s just silly stuff, it’s ok because he loves her and doesn’t mean anything by it”. I have no idea if he loves her, but it’s a lot that a man of his power & publicity repeatedly makes these kinds of remarks. It would be less concerning if that entire line of thinking wasn’t inextricably tied to full-bore misogyny. We don’t have Roe v Wade anymore. These patterns are connected, and he is not saying this shit in a vacuum. Misogyny is EVERYWHERE and we have to fight so fucking hard just to stop actively losing ground, let alone get people to do better. It would literally be easier for him to just… not. It takes less effort to not make any of those comments after making the good ones. Yet he continually does it anyway. Beyond the surface issues with it, it begs the question, what does he say behind closed doors? His history also speaks to the bigger picture here, as well as orange flags about his individual life. This isn’t coming from a guy with a great history with women, and some might say “I mean I guess, but he wasn’t that bad, right?”. Maybe not, I don’t know, but being friends with Bill Murray, Clinton, Brad Pitt, Jimmy Kimmel, etc reinforces that he’s probably not a super good dude. Those little snipes are also a classic abuser move – make sweeping, vague, highly public compliments about your partner but there’s always at least one little throwaway comment to “balance” things out and keep her in her place. They want to be seen as a Wife Guy, without doing any of the work at best, and without anyone realizing they’re abusive behind the curtain at worst. So while yeah, sure, not the biggest threat to womankind & gender equality ever, these little droplets feed directly into the tributary of the egregious sexism & loss of civil rights we are very actively experiencing. Honestly, fuck that guy.