George Clooney used to be one of the most sought after romantic comedy stars.
But in recent years he has largely stepped away from the once-popular genre, and in a new interview he revealed his reasoning for quietly saying goodbye to rom-coms.
Clooney, 63, opened up about his changing career in an interview with 60 Minutes that aired Sunday night that focused on his Broadway debut in Good Night, And Good Luck, a play adapted from the Oscar-nominated 2005 film that he directed, co-wrote and co-starred in.
According to the A-list star, he has simply aged into a new phase of his career that doesn’t align with most youth-focused rom-coms.
‘Look, I’m 63 years old, I’m not trying to compete with 25-year-old leading men,’ he admitted.
‘That’s not my job,’ he continued, before declaring, ‘I’m not doing romantic films anymore.’
George Clooney used to be one of the most sought after romantic comedy stars, but he has largely stepped away from the genre in recent years; pictured Sunday on 60 Minutes
Clooney, 63, opened up about his changing career and his move away from rom-coms in an interview with 60 Minutes that aired Sunday; pictured with Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt in Ocean’s 11
Part of what has made Clooney so popular — which often translates to box-office success — is that he’s charming enough to make non-romantic comedies feel as if they are rom-coms.
Although his blockbuster heist comedy thriller Ocean’s 11 isn’t a traditional romantic comedy, the tension and humor that he brought to it with his costar Julia Roberts made every scene that they shared feel like a rom-com.
The two were also featured in the first sequel, Ocean’s 12, but Roberts skipped Ocean’s 13 after its busy script didn’t give her character a significant arc.
One of Clooney’s most acclaimed films in the genre was an earlier collaboration with his Ocean’s series director Steven Soderbergh on Out Of Sight.
Even though that film had elements of a crime comedy and a thriller, his burgeoning on-screen romance with Jennifer Lopez comfortably sits with the best romantic comedies.
Clooney also worked with the Coen brothers on the screwball comedy Intolerable Cruelty with costar Catherine Zeta-Jones, but Clooney’s Cary Grant–like charm and screen presence means that even some of his more traditional romantic dramas get just enough comedy to feel like rom-coms.
His last official rom-com to date was the 2022 box-office success Ticket To Paradise, which grossed nearly $169 million against a $60 million budget.
He and Julia Roberts reunited for the film, in which they play divorced parents who team up to put a stop to their daughter’s destination wedding in Bali.
‘Look, I’m 63 years old, I’m not trying to compete with 25-year-old leading men,’ he admitted. ‘That’s not my job. I’m not doing romantic films anymore’; pictured on 60 Minutes
Part of what has made Clooney so popular — which often translates to box-office success — is that he’s charming enough to make non-romantic comedies feel as if they are rom-coms; seen with Roberts in Ocean’s 12
He appeared with Jennifer Lopez in Out Of Sight and with Catherine Zeta-Jones in Intolerable Cruelty (pictured), but surprisingly few of Clooney’s most romantic films have been traditional rom-coms
His last official rom-com to date was the 2022 box-office success Ticket To Paradise, but critics weren’t fans, and he doesn’t seem to have any interest in more tries; seen with Roberts in the film
Clooney also notes in his 60 Minutes interview that his life has changed in other ways, as he’s now a married man with children; pictured with wife Amal Clooney in September in Venice
While viewers appreciated Ticket To Paradise, it earned mixed reviews and a 53 percent rotten score from the most prestigious reviewers surveyed by Rotten Tomatoes.
Clooney also notes in his 60 Minutes interview that his life has changed in other ways, as he’s now a married man with children, rather than one of Hollywood’s most eligible bachelors, as he was at the height of his commercial potential.
In 2014, Clooney married the international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney (née Alamuddin), and they went on to welcome fraternal twins — son Alexander and daughter Ella, seven — in 2017.
Another factor, which Clooney didn’t mention, is that romantic comedies don’t have the same kind of pull they used to at the box office, and studios in turn make fewer and fewer of them, with the remaining rom-coms often being released directly to streaming, where they are quickly forgotten.
Part of that may be due to older viewers who got used to staying in and watching films on streaming at the height of the coronavirus pandemic who now aren’t very interested in going back to theters.
Some of those viewers also now see the theatrical experience as exclusively for big-budget event films, whereas some viewers see rom-coms as being lower-key affairs.
Some Generation Z viewers have also expressed discomfort with some of the raunchy sex comedy variants of rom-coms, further shrinking their audience.
Clooney seemed excited to be on Broadway for the first time, and he said he wasn’t sure that he had the gravitas to do so earlier in his career, so he may have just replaced one kind of project for another at this later stage.
Clooney, 63, opened up about his changing career in an interview focused on his Broadway debut in Good Night, And Good Luck, a play adapted from the Oscar-nominated 2005 film that he directed, co-wrote and co-starred in; seen in a trailer for the play
He was pictured in NYC last month as the production announced the play’s cast
In the new play, the actor and filmmaker will be starring as the legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow.
In his 2005 film, David Strathairn had played the lead role, while Clooney took a supporting role as CBS President Fred Friendly, in addition to working behind the camera.
The movie, which was shot in black-and-white, focused on Murrow’s reports on Senator Joseph McCarthy’s unfounded claims of communist infiltration in the US government, leading to a fiery confrontation between the two men on Murrow’s CBS broadcast ahead of the senator’s humiliation at the Army–McCarthy hearings and subsequent censure from the Senate.
The all-star cast also included Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Daniels, Patricia Clarkson, Frank Langella and Twin Peaks star Ray Wise.
Clooney’s film was a hit at the box office, grossing $54.6 million against a $7 million budget, and it earned six Oscar nominations, though it went home empty-handed.
In addition to taking over the lead role in Good Night, And Good Luck as his Broadway debut, Clooney has a high-profile film in the works.
He’s set to star in the ensemble feature dramedy Jay Kelly, marking his first appearance in a film directed by Barbie co-writer Noah Baumbach.
Clooney will be part of a massive case of A-listers, including Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Jim Broadbent, Baumbach’s wife Greta Gerwig and Emily Mortimer, who co-wrote the screenplay with Baumbach.
Few details have been revealed about the film, which will be released by Netflix, though it is reportedly a coming-of-age film.
Netflix hasn’t revealed the release strategy for later this year, but the streamer has previously given Baumbach’s films a limited theatrical release prior to their debut on the service.
Prior to his work with Gerwig on Barbie, Baumbach wrote and directed the Don DeLillo adaptation White Noise, the Oscar winner Marriage Story and The Meyerowitz Stories for Netflix.
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