Netflix film has George Clooney acting his age
DIRECTOR/STAROF ‘MIDNIGHTSKY’ ACTS HIS AGE
In“The Midnight Sky ,” the 59-year-oldactor-director plays an astronomer facing terminal canceramida global cataclysm.
HowhasGeorge NEWYORK—
Clooney been handling isolation? Asidefromspendingtime with his wife, Amal Clooney, and their 3-year-old twins, and editing hisnewfilm “The Midnight Sky,” he's relied on, likemany others, a text chain with pals and Zoom. He just got off one with Matt Damon and John Krasinski.
“In some ways, we keep moreintouchnowthanwedid before,” says Clooney, speaking by phone from London.
"The Midnight Sky," which Clooney directedand stars in, is an apocalyptic sci-fi drama with some striking solitude. A thicklybeardedClooney plays an astronomer with terminal cancer living at the Barbeau
Observatory in the Arctic Circle. It's 2049. Whencataclysm covers the globe, he — and a young, unspeaking girl (Caoilinn Springall) — are potentially all that remains, along with the returning crew of a space expedition to a Jupiter moon.
NewintheatersandonNetflix, “TheMidnight Sky,” based on Lily Brooks-Dalton's novel “Good Morning, Midnight,” is Clooney's seventh film as directorandhisbiggest scaled production yet.
TheAssociatedPress talked withthe59-year-oldactor-filmmaker about his new movie and the arc of his career. (Answers have been edited for length.)
AP: You finished shooting “The Midnight Sky” inFebruary, right before the pandemicbegan. Howhasyour year been since?
Clooney: I'm kind of doing what everyone's doing. Washing
dishes and doing laundry and mopping floors. Mostly I just wish Iwas able to seemy mom and dad, and that kind of thing. They're social creatures and it's not asmuch fun when they can't be out with their old friends.
AP: It’sbeenyears sinceyou were the lead ina film. Why?
Clooney: Thingschangefor you as an actor. The roles that are brought to you become very different. I was doing an interview the other day, and they asked if thiswas the way my career is going to be going, playingmore character actor roles. I was like, well, I didn' t want to .( Laughs) ButI'm almost 60 years old. That' s how itworks. I focusonactorswho I admired greatly and how they handled their career. (Paul) Newman, who was a very good friend of mine, by the time he was in his mid-'50s, he's doing “The Verdict,” which is a character-actor piece.
Even though he was a giant movie star, one of greats of all time, hewas developing as he grewolder the character-actor pieces he found interesting, that demanded less of him.
AP: You’ve always seemed especially aware of being part of a Hollywood continuum. Your Los Angeles house belonged to Clark Gable.
Clooney: WhenImoved to Hollywood, I went and lived with my Aunt Rosemary( a top singer in the '50s) for about six months until she kicked me out. Then I was living on the floor of an apartment for a couple years. But the reality was she was part of that continuum. She was married to Jose Ferrer. She'dhave people over to the house. Frank Sinatra, SammyDavis Jr. andDean Martin. And I got to spend time around that kind of world. Before that I drove Rosemary when she was doing a show
called “4 Girls 4.” ItwasMargaret Whiting and Kaye Ballard and Kay Starr. So I had an understanding of the continuum in the entertainment industry. We all stand on the shoulders of the people who did it beautifully before us. I got to be friends with Gregory Peck andwould go over to his house fordinners with (Peck's wife) Veronique. Some of the most memorable nights I ever had was sitting around listening to them talk about“Roman Holiday .” It' s an amazing thing, when stars were giants.
AP: One thing I think people missed in that TomCruise on-set audiowas the fear in his voice for the future of the industry. Are youworried for what Hollywood might look like after the pandemic?
Clooney: Well, no. My concern is only specifically in the theaters themselves because they'regoing tohave to tread water for at least six months before people are in anyway comfortable enough to go in big groups. So you've got to keep them afloat. They are a part of our economy. They're what people do on a Friday night. People have to get out of the house. It's like music venues for concerts. We subsidize oil companies, we can subsidize theaters. Having said that, oncewe get through it, this sounds so much like everything we heard when television and VHS andDVDs came in. I have no fear at all
that the theaterworld is going to be around.
AP: Whatdrewyou to “The Midnight Sky”?
Clooney: What I always saw in this what the idea of what regret can do to you. I always thought what he's really dying of is not cancer but regret. It's killing him. I know peoplewho are older — older thanme, even— wholive with real regret. It's deep in them. ... Everyone has regrets. You hope you don't have the ones that last a lifetime.
AP: Hasworking alongside Am al, while she’ s in the next room waging humanitarian battles, changed your approach tomoviemaking at all?
Clooney: For the last 15-20 years, I've spent about half of my day working on things other than the movie business because I have interests in other issues around the world. But there are some funny moments. I have an office, and she has an office and they're kind of up against each other. The other day, I was doing the Howard Stern Show. We' re talking about, like, a prank pooping in a cat box. And on the other side of the wall, my wife is having a conversation trying to keepMaria Ressa fromgoing to prison in the Philippines. She can hear me and I can hear her. We go to dinner afterward and say: What an insane household we live in.