Adam Sandler and fellow actor and long-time friend Adam Kelly are co-starring in Jay Kelly, and George Clooney has revealed how insignificantly different he is from the person he portrays.
His latest role is that of Jay Kelly, a huge Hollywood star on the downslope of his career… not that George Clooney can relate to any of that. The 64-year-old admits some fans have asked him where Jay Kelly ends and George Clooney begins. But he insists there are some crucial differences.
“He’s a d**k,” says George, laughing. “He’s like Frankenstein’s monster. You remember how Frankenstein’s monster kills the little girl by throwing her into the water because he’s run out of flowers to throw in and she’s there? “Everybody I go through, I happily destroy their lives along the way!” In the film, out later this month, Jay is bitter, divorced and lonely. His kids hate him and his friends – with the exception of agent Ron, played by George’s real-life friend Adam Sandler – are turning their backs on him.
By contrast, George is happy with his place in the world, both on-screen and off it. He adds: “I don’t really relate to this character because I don’t have anything like the regrets this guy has. “I have a very different life than he does. All the people that I’ve worked with, they still work with me. And you know, my kids like me.”
His face softens as he thinks of the small twins, Ella and Alexander, that he and his wife Amal Clooney had in 2017. “I mean,” he adds, hastily turning any hint of sentimentality into a joke, “they’re eight. They could change. But at this point they still like me.”
Working with award-winning Marriage Story and Barbie director Noah Baumbach, George had a blast, as did Adam, the late director. He jokes with a sidelong grin as his buddy sits next to him and laughs throughout our conversation, “Everything I’ve ever done is an Adam Sandler film.” “I’ve made movies that weren’t even Adam Sandler movies,” he said. Laura Dern is another Jay Kelly fan.
She was there when George first began his acting career as the long-suffering publicist Liz of Jay. They co-wrote Grizzly 2 together, a horror movie about a bear who wanted to exact revenge on a group of poachers, in 1983, more than a decade before he gained fame as Dr. Doug Ross for the Emergency Room.
The movie was largely disliked and didn’t release until 2020 due to various backstage reasons. Now, in mock-triumphant fashion, Laura remarks, “Our proudest moment.” Listen, I’ve been doing this for 40 years, George continues. I don’t recall seeing a movie as the movie you might have seen if I watch it now. As the set experience, in my opinion.
I’ll think about the friendships I made with the crew. Some of the worst movies you’ve ever made frequently feature some of your best friends. George was known as Hollywood’s final devoted bachelor for many years. He argued that his brief union to actress Talia Balsam from 1989 to 1993 had led to his placement.
Kelly Preston and Renee Zellweger, British model Lisa Snowdon, Italian actress Elisabetta Canalis, and French TV personality Celine Balitran were among his subsequent girlfriends, which established him as a global “love’em and leave’em operator. He claimed that he never considered becoming a father and that he had won a $10,000 wager with Nicole Kidman and Michelle Pfeiffer, who both predicted that he would have children by the age of 40.
Then, with British-Lebanese activist and activist Amal Alamuddin, a friend and him visited him at his home in Lake Como, Italy, one summer evening. When George glanced at her, his socks fell off and went into space. The Clooneys and their twins are currently Hollywood’s happiest families.
George, in all his natural ways, lightly adopts the image of a newlywed family man. He recently said to me, and I made a clear choice. Now, Amal would be asked, “Did she pick right?” But I made the right choice. He claims that Jay Kelly’s decision to make him consider the merits of fame for a while. He says, “Fame is a funny thing.” You have the chance to complete the projects you want to finish.
“But you run into it like a bug into the light and are immediately zapped when you arrive there.” You do want it, after all, but holy s*** there are many more pieces that play.
George always makes a point when he explains that he didn’t get a Hollywood silver spoon in his mouth at birth. Although his father, Nick, was well-known as a local television host and host in his hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, and his beloved aunt Rosemary was well-known as a singer in the 1950s, he didn’t become famous until he was in his 30s.
He had a real sense of perspective up until then as he worked a variety of different jobs to make ends meet. He claims that he once watched Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous when I was a young man and used to work as a young man.
And I would watch it when some well-known actor would complain about their life, and I would say, “F*** you, I’m cutting tobacco.” I don’t find any excuses for complaining about being famous, or what I should do about it.
That brass ring was caught by me. I had a lot of success in both my career and my life, and having the ability to make movies like this has been very fortunate. And I’m grateful to have been given the opportunity to play Jay Kelly. I’m 64 years old, so these things don’t happen very often.
There are things you can’t do, and there are limitations to fame, “yes.” However, you are aware that cigarette smoking is much worse.
