Amid sex, race upheaval, Clooney stays optimistic
Actor/director reminds us that issues in his film Suburbicon aren’t new
George Clooney is ready for my question, and he doesn’t flinch from it or dodge it the way many of his fellow Hollywood denizens might.
It’s right off the top of the interview, after we exchange pleasantries about his recent induction into the happy cult of parenthood (he and his wife Amal have 4-month-old twins, Ella and Alexander).
“It’s crazy, man,” he says of becoming a father at the age of 56. “These kids are nuts, but I can take it.”
Here’s the hard query for actor/director Clooney: The sex scandals currently roiling Hollywood and other male-dominated industries, from movie producer Harvey Weinstein to acclaimed chef John Besh, are grabbing headlines and social media clicks, but is there any hope that positive change might come out of it?
“Good question — I hope so,” Clooney replies, on the line from L.A., where he’s doing promotion for Suburbicon, his socially aware new drama, in theatres Friday. “The two things that will come out of this, I think, the good news out of all this idiocy, is that women will feel that it’s easier to come forward, perhaps, and perhaps men will feel like it’s much more dangerous for them to be predators along the way . . . Listen, it’s not just Hollywood, as you know.”
“It’s pretty much every major industry. We’ve seen these things happen before. We saw it when Fox News went through its whole thing and you didn’t really see behaviours change too much.
“So I hope that because this is such a big story and continues to grow, I hope it affects male behaviour and I hope it makes women feel safer to come out earlier.”
Clooney is being asked variations of this question a lot these days, as are many men, but he’s particularly visible as one of Hollywood’s bestknown stars and as an activist for many social causes.
The latter include his humanitarian efforts, backed by the UN and other agencies, to relieve hunger, war and suffering worldwide.
He’s also a good friend to former U.S. president Barack Obama, the two of them keeping in frequent contact through texting, wherever they roam.
Speaking of roaming, Clooney does just that as he discusses Suburbicon, the sixth feature he’s directed, while also weighing in on racism, his failed prediction that Donald Trump wouldn’t become U.S. president and what he’s learned as a director that he didn’t know as an actor:
Why didn’t you put “Based on a true story” at the front of Suburbicon, since half of it deals with a real case of community racism in Levittown, Pa.?
If we did that, a lot of people would be saying, “You’re just trying to capitalize on a true story.” And there’s so much of the movie that isn’t based on a true story, so much of it is just a murder thriller.
I also figured that people like you and people who did their homework (would know about Levittown) and I think that’s probably a better way of getting it out than trying to stamp it at the beginning of the movie.
You and your co-writer/coproducer Grant Heslov brought the racism angle into an existing script by the Coen Bros. Why did you want to do that for this particular movie, instead of making a separate film about what happened in Levittown in the 1950s?
The race angle itself was sort of a stand-in for a lot of things at the time.
I had seen this minidocumentary called Crisis at Levittown and I saw this really interesting thing, which is this African-American family moves in and all these white men feel like their lives are being ruined because this Black family’s come in, and they built a fence around their home; they were scapegoating mi- norities and blaming them for everything.
I’ve been hearing a lot of talk in politics at that point about building fences and scapegoating minorities, and I thought it’s always good to remind ourselves that this is not new, this kind of dialogue . . . and also the idea that someone’s afraid that they’re losing their place in society, when of course they have nothing to do with the minorities or immigrants or anything.
I thought it was always interesting to talk about and I thought it’s better to put it in entertainment than to try to do a piece about Levittown itself. Alot of what you’re talking about is occurring daily in the U.S., under the administration of Donald Trump — and I guess you hate being reminded that you predicted in Cannes last year that he’d never be elected president?
No, I don’t mind people reminding me. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I would argue that probably 90 per cent of people, including Trump, would have made that same argument.
Does it depress you how much America has regressed since Trump took over from Barack Obama?
Well you can make the argument that because of president Barack Obama we saw suddenly people standing up against things only because a Black president had suggested them.
Obamacare was originally called Romneycare, but suddenly a Black president wants to do it and it’s taking away (people’s) rights, taking away everything else.
I’m always surprised at our ability to scapegoat people that are a huge part of our society. I’m always surprised by that. But I’m also always optimistic that somehow we’ll get through it.
Do you still consider yourself an optimist?
I have to be. Listen, I spend a lot of time in South Sudan and Darfur, and we fail there non-stop.
And if you’re not an optimist about it, as bad as it gets there, then there’s no business being involved; you have to constantly go in thinking well, maybe not this time, but maybe next time, you have to just keep thinking — if you’re not an optimist about it, then just quit.
Getting back to movies, what’s the one thing you’ve learned as a director that you didn’t know as an actor?
I think mostly what you’re learning about is what you’re trying to do is tell an entire story. When you’re an actor, you’re really only trying to serve your character, right? And I’ll tell you what’s interesting about it, too.
When you’re an actor, when you’re in a movie, no one is questioning your intelligence. You’re just an actor in a movie, and they like your performance or they don’t.
When you’re a director, writer, all they’re questioning is your intelligence. They’re asking, “What are you trying to say? What’s your meaning?”
The responsibility is much bigger, but that’s part of the fun of it, to take on the responsibility. Peter Howell is the Star’s movie critic. His column usually runs Fridays.